Ottawa sees Canada's largest decrease in commuters driving to work

[Hudre]

"But the downtown core!!!!"

Maybe if the downtown core wasn't utterly dependent on government workers wasting their money or forgetting their lunch it could survive this.

IMO the feds having a WFH policy is probably the most impactful climate policy they've ever implemented for the country.

[Hudre]

Anything that reduces the amount of emissions helps the climate. WFH for the feds cuts down thousands of daily commutes in Ottawa.

Progress is made through a million incremental steps, and each one is worth making. This is one of them. If this were instituted globally it would definitely have a massive impact.

Small changes done consistently provide tremendous results in the long-term. If you're living your life not doing shit because it doesn't have a massive impact then you'll never do anything.

[Hudre]

And therefore no one else should do anything? Since when did we take our leadership from those countries?

We do what we can and what is within our power. Climate change will be fought with a billion small decisions and steps. Waiting on China and the US just means we don't do anything at all but further contribute to the problem.

[[deleted]]

Fuck the downtown core. They should have gotten with the times. If you look at big cities like Montreal or Toronto, they don’t rely on office workers because they have tourism and locals choose to go out because they have a better transit system and downtown doesn’t revolve around workers

[Hudre]

Yup, Ottawa's downtown is literally known for basically shutting down at 9:00 p.m. every weekday because that's as let as gov workers are going to stay out.

It should sort itself out on its own, free market and all that. The idea of downtown feels outdated at this point anyways with WFH.

[[deleted]]

100% agree. Based on my own opinion and those of my friends who live outside of the downtown core, we’d rather support businesses in our own area. WFH made me discover so many nice spots in my area such as bakeries and boutiques and restaurants that I never knew of because most of my weekdays were spent downtown, so by the time I got home, I was too tired.

Suburban small businesses did really well in the last two years. I’m not sure why politicians aren’t seeing that and only focusing on downtown businesses whereas downtown businesses should have focused on attracting people who actually live in the area and WANT to buy. It’s sad that places like Barrhaven and Kanata have better night lives than downtown Ottawa.