This time last year, Toronto was hunkered down in what would become one of the toughest lockdowns in North America. After months of virtual market openings, “doing it in person is quite a bit different.” “You’re starting to feel that life coming back into Bay Street,” McKenzie said.
He began his TV appearance on a floor littered with confetti. As he was getting mic’d up for a live television interview, executives from Horizons ETFs held a boisterous in-person market-opening just a few feet away.
Chief Executive Officer John McKenzie recalled a moment earlier this month that hearkened back to pre-pandemic times. says about a fifth of its staff are back in its Canadian offices, up from about 4% in the depths of the pandemic. Toronto Stock Exchange operator TMX Group Ltd. While still a far cry from the rush-hour din seen pre-pandemic, the downtown core is noticeably busier. “If we all stayed home forever and ever and ever, I think we would lose something,” she said.On a recent weekday morning, a steady stream of mask-wearing commuters emerged from the city’s Union Station hub, checking their phones or plugging in ear-buds. But it’s important to revive the water-cooler talk, the in-person training for young employees and the “meetings between the meetings” that drive creativity in the industry, she said.
It may take the industry another year or longer to figure out how to bring people back, and make hybrid work effective, and keep employees happy and productive, she said. In recent weeks, Reynolds said she’s suddenly started hearing from people who are thinking: “I want to go back to the office.