People from the suburbs are planning to boycott Toronto while working in city

New return-to-office mandates handed down by the provincial government are making waves this week, particularly among the tens of thousands of staffers affected — some of whom are now vowing to boycott Toronto's businesses in protest of having to physically return to their downtown workplaces.

Earlier this month, Premier Doug Ford informed Ontario's public service workers that they will have to resume five-day in-person work weeks starting January 5, 2026, signalling an end to the hybrid, COVID-era work model that required only three days on the ground.

While the leader pointed to the big banks and other firms that have already reintroduced mandatory in-person work — and despite this all being a fairly gradual process that was a long time coming — many are still up in arms.

One employee of an unnamed company took to Toronto Reddit to assert they will "not buy anything" in the city while they're being forced to attend work IRL, asking others to join in their demonstration of dissent.

"Our company's return to office policy starts next week and I am really not looking forward to it," they wrote in the wee hours of Friday morning.

"This return to office stuff is all about real estate, and everyone is mandating it now because they can do so in a slow job market. My answer to this is to spend absolutely no money in any business downtown and be there for as little time as possible. I hope you can join me in protesting this B.S."

The post accrued 1,100 upvotes and more than 500 comments in less than 12 hours — but not everyone voiced support.

While some detailed plans to bring their own lunches, drink the office coffee rather than purchasing one from elsewhere, and even deliberately be less productive while at work to try and convince higher-ups that staff should be working from home instead, others found the whole discussion extremely petty and the boycott misdirected.

Comment
byu/TheOriginalRealMVP from discussion
intoronto

"How is this a protest, exactly? It does absolutely nothing to affect your employer who is the one mandating your return to the office, and harms local businesses who did nothing to you," one commenter said.

"Yes, it's bulls***. Fairly well-paid office workers shouldn't have to commute to work. The working poor who work those jobs at the places you want to avoid, who make way less than you, have no choice but to travel to work every day," another added, sarcastically.

One aptly bemoaned suburbanites who "treat downtown and the neighbourhoods they commute through like nuisances they have to put up with."

"Don't want to commute? Don't choose a job that requires it. I'd love to have quieter streets and lower rent (demand-based). If you're going to travel to/through other neighbourhoods, be respectful," they continued, to which some reiterated that they don't want to travel through these neighbourhoods, but are now being forced to.

"We all were in that remote job, which doesn't exist anymore," one worker objected. "Did you accept a position to work at a downtown office when you first got a job?" another retorted.

Comment
byu/TheOriginalRealMVP from discussion
intoronto

Indeed, to the original poster's point, the millions of square feet of vacant office space that Toronto has amassed since the pandemic have been cause for concern, with the City looking at potential adaptive reuse in recent years, including converting empty towers to housing.

But, stakeholders have noted that such a move isn't as easy as the public thinks.

"The loss of office space is typically a permanent outcome that cannot be reversed later if market conditions change," a page on Toronto's ongoing Office Space Needs Study reads.

"Considering Toronto's important economic role as Canada's largest concentration of office employment and corporate headquarters, any resulting policy decision should be informed by comprehensive analysis."