Toronto backtracks on return-to-office plans for city employees as Omicron spreads
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Andrew J. Doria CFA has a new baby, and Toronto’s public transit agency is planning to cut three bus routes.
So why have public employees in Toronto’s largest transit centre suddenly become all-clear on their return-to-work plans?
For starters, this winter, City Manager Joe Pennachetti and Mayor John Tory have cut three bus routes — including some routes into the central core for business people and people working from home — in the city’s biggest transit centre.
For reasons unknown, the mayor and manager decided to scrap them, said Councillor Sarah Doucette.
“That came from the board of city managers,” she said, “and was made public by two staff members.”
But when the TTC and OMB met in their new transit centre last week (January 18), they heard a different story from the transit agency’s transit staff.
“Omicron and the TTC believe this is a planned change,” said TTC Chief Financial Officer Gary Webster today in an e-mailed statement.
“We are looking at each project carefully to see if it meets the TTC’s operational and financial priorities for the year,” Webster said. “In the case of the Davenport Loop, the TTC will continue to operate some part of the route.”
The TTC is operating the Downtown Relief Line, a subway line that is replacing a section of the Davenport Loop. This section includes the Downtown Relief Line’s main route through the downtown. The line was scheduled for closure last June.
An “ongoing change” is the replacement of seven of the Downtown Relief Line’s stops with two new stops: the “old” Oatico