While Metro Vancouver is not one of the country’s hotspots for remote working, it isn’t a region where employees are tied to their desks, according to an Aug. 26 Statistics Canada study.
Of Canada’s 15 largest census metropolitan areas (CMA), Vancouver ties Quebec City at No. 6 in terms of employees who worked mostly from home (22.4 per cent) as of May 2024.
COVID-19 has played a significant factor in the rise of remote working throughout Canada.
Census data shows 7.1 per cent of workers were working primarily from home in May 2016.
That surged during the height of the pandemic, reaching 24.3 per cent in May 2021.
The proportion of remote-working Canadians has fallen steadily since then, but still remains more than twice as high as it was before the pandemic.
In May 2024, 18.7 per cent of Canadian employees worked mostly from home, down 1.4 per cent from a year earlier, and 3.7 per cent since May 2022.
The Ottawa-Gatineau CMA, home to most of the country’s federal bureaucrats, blew past all other regions with 34.2 per cent of employees working mostly from home as of this past May.
Toronto ranked No. 3 with 24.7 per cent of employees working mostly from home and Montreal ranked No. 9 with 20.6 per cent.
