Toronto sets January date for city workers to return to the office, amid rising COVID-19 cases, Omicron uncertainty
With the exception of essential employees, Toronto has set January 16th as the return date for employees to return to the workplace. The city will not be able to meet that date under new Ontario government guidelines and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision comes after the city’s first round of job cuts took place over the weekend, which included hundreds of non-essential staff and hundreds of people returning to their old jobs.
As of Monday afternoon, there were 513 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Toronto, an increase of six over the previous day. That is the second highest number of cases in a single day in the country, behind only New York City’s 762.
On Monday, Premier Ford announced that he will be releasing an emergency plan that will “provide direction and leadership for Ontario’s work on the economic aspects of the unprecedented virus emergency, providing some certainty for businesses and citizens alike.” He will also be meeting the Governor General, David Johnston, later today.
“We are still seeing a lot of new developments as we speak,” said Acting Ontario’s chief medical officer Dr. David Williams, at an afternoon press briefing. “So it’s going to be a little while before we come to any final conclusion on it. There are still people who have no idea what we’re trying to do.”
New York and other large cities have had much longer to deal with the pandemic, while Toronto has a more compact economy that has slowed the spread of the virus.
An email sent to all staff that the first round of layoffs took place, contained the following words:
While the vast majority of our staff are essential and the City is taking every measure to keep the City running, we know this decision will have an impact on thousands of Torontonians and their families.
As we enter an unprecedented time for the City, many of our staff that are essential will still be working from home. As a result, please do not call into work. If you are a City employee, please also avoid entering City property