Census shows thousands in northern Ontario stopped commuting during pandemic

The latest numbers from the 2021 census show the daily commute in northeastern Ontario was disrupted in the region's larger cities, but in the small towns, more people are facing longer drives to work. 

Statistics Canada found that millions of Canadians stopped commuting altogether between the 2016 census and 2021, when many were living through lockdowns and work-from-home arrangements.

In Greater Sudbury, some 13,000 fewer people said they commuted in 2021, compared with five years earlier. It was down 7,000 people in Sault Ste. Marie and 3,000 in North Bay. 

Pre-pandemic, Stuart Gilray rode a bus two and a half hours from his home in Cochrane to the Detour gold mine.

Then he spent two years working from his home and for the past few months has been driving an hour to Timmins each way to a new job at Tisdale Buslines.

"Certainly wish I was doing something more productive with the time yes," the 61-year-old said with a laugh. 

"But it also gives me a chance to prepare for the day and sort of clear my head at the end of the day."

Alyssa Lavoie was answering the COVID hotline at the health unit in Timmins during the pandemic, a 45-minute drive from her home in the small hamlet of Val Gagne, which could easily become an hour in winter weather or summer construction. 

The 24-year-old eventually convinced her bosses to let her work closer to home in Iroquois Falls.

"I was nervous about asking because I didn't want to risk my employment," said Lavoie.

"I was really grateful once they did support it, but it was really frustrating that I had to fight hard for it."

One commuting trend not infected by COVID is that more small northern Ontario towns are becoming bedroom communities, with more and more people facing long drives to work.

In West Nipissing, 13 per cent of the working population in 2021 drove over an hour to their job, up from 10 per cent in 2016 and 20 per cent in French River, about the same as five years ago. 

In Smooth Rock Falls, where 18 per cent drive over an hour to work every day, newly elected mayor Patrick Roberts says the commute has a big impact on the social life of the former mill town, with moms and dads spending extra time behind the wheel. 

In Iroquois Falls, which saw its main industry leave town when the paper mill closed in 2014, 16 per cent drive over an hour to work every day, up from 13 per cent five years ago. 

Truck driver Todd McDonell moved to Iroquois Falls from Timmins five years ago to cut his commute in half.

He now drives 30 minutes each way to the depot in Cochrane, then gets in a transport truck loaded with food and goes to North Bay and back every shift. 

"I wanted to be closer to work because I drive for about 12 hours a night and I was doing about two hours of commuting as well, so they were 14-hour days, they were getting long," said the 39-year-old father of four. 

"I get home a little bit earlier, I get to leave a little bit later. It's getting me four hours at home."

McDonell has noticed that Iroquois Falls is very quiet in the evenings, likely because of all the long commuters, but has also seen a lot of young families moving to town where houses are more affordable than Timmins or other larger centres.

"Over the course of the last couple of years we've noticed how many young couples are moving in," he said. 

Transit ridership was also down in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Timmins in the spring of 2021, which is not surprising considering buses stopped running altogether at times during the last two years. 

The number of people who choose to take a bus or bicycle to work in northern Ontario remained very small compared with those taking a car.  

In Sault Ste. Marie, 690 rode transit to work last year, compared with 1,190 in 2016 and 230 reported riding a bike, down from 265 from the last census.

In Greater Sudbury, Rob Klein is one of the 245 who told Statistics Canada that they bike to work, as well as one of the 2,500 who commute by transit.

The 38-year-old environmental engineer moved to the city in 2019, excited at the prospect of getting rid of a second car.

"Before I moved here, everyone just said 'Oh, you gotta drive everywhere, you can't get anywhere.' And my experience I would say has been the opposite," said Klein, a married father of two.

He says he cycles 25 minutes from his south end home to his office downtown, mostly through the Laurentian University greenspace considering the bike lane gaps on Paris Street.

And in the winter time, Klein walks 20 minutes to a bus stop and then rides 10 minutes to the downtown terminal.

"I'm always talking about how much I love the bus. I love the bus. And everyone just kind of looks at me funny. But I don't know. It's great," he said, adding that he would like to see the new city council invest in more cycling infrastructure and improved transit.