Montreal business community slowly returning to offices, but only partially

More than two and a half years after COVID-19 forced employees to work from home, Montreal’s downtown business community is slowly returning to the offices of old, but not on a full-time basis.

That is the latest information coming out of a business forum held by the Montreal Chamber of Commerce (CCM) on reviving downtown Montreal, Friday.

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Quebec Economy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon and Mayor Valérie Plante were on hand to discuss steps towards the metropolis’s business revitalization post pandemic.

“We have to go further. We have to work on getting people to not only come into the downtown but to shop and to eat here,” Plante said.

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According to a CCM study, a strong majority of workers – 87 per cent – say they are returning to the office at least one day a week. A slightly lower number of employees surveyed – 60 per cent – say they are currently venturing into the downtown work space three to four times a week.

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“We have to find the balance,” CCM president Michel Leblanc said.

“Downtown will exist. Downtown will be there because you have that concentration of business decision makers and service,” Leblanc said.

“The sooner we get to that understanding the more it will be fluid. The dynamic will reach its equilibrium.”

The current office building occupancy rate is at a worrisome 17 per cent – a number that is likely to climb to 20 per cent according to Chartered real estate broker Jean Laurin.

“It’s taken us three years of pandemic. So during that time habits are being developed by employees, you get accustomed to certain things. To break those customs and go back to (how things were) three years ago its not an easy task,” Laurin said.

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Some companies have reduced their footprint, or plan to do so, as less space is needed for the lower number of employees working in-office full time.

However, four out of five workers see the benefit of coming into the office, according to the survey.

Fluid public transportation and accessibility were key points mentioned in helping ease the return to the workplace.

“If we’re still questioning if the downtown is still necessary the answer is, yes,” Leblanc said.

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