Toronto backtracks on return-to-office plans for city employees as Omicron spreads fears
Toronto’s former chief planner, Don Levy, has warned that the city’s back-to-office plans for its staff will not be as simple as they were before.
Levy, who resigned from the city’s top planning role last week because he was accused of leaking secret plans to the Star, said that he was aware of the city’s plans for staff in the wake of the $6.6-billion funding deal announced in December 2016.
Levy said in a column he wrote about the city’s plans for staff — written during a period when the mayor and staff were debating what to do about the staff issue — that he had been assured by the city he was to be offered a permanent position, even before he was hired.
“This is a very important issue,” Levy is quoted as writing.
“The city has offered me a job. I’ll take my chances with the union. The mayor and staff have not responded to my requests to meet. The mayor has not yet decided what his next steps will be.”
Levy’s column — and the column’s timing and content — was made public to a few media outlets, but not the Star, which has been pressing Toronto for months to resolve the staff issue, which has become a major problem, as both Star and CityNews reported last fall.
Toronto has refused to say when Levy would return to the planning job, though it announced his return to the position of deputy city manager last week, to be replaced by Mark Green, who has been the chief operating officer of Toronto.
“We recognize that Don was let go from the position of the city’s chief planner,” said a spokesperson for Mayor John Tory. “We wish him the very best and hope
