Canada's empty downtowns defy post-pandemic return-to-normal — and business owners are feeling the pain

There is much to celebrate, including the World Health Organization declaring that the global health emergency triggered by COVID-19 is over. That’s a lot of missing people, and it’s a wrinkle in a hypothesized, post-pandemic downtown recovery that has caught Chapple by surprise. There was also a second breakfast place downtown, right around the corner from the Hockey Hall of Fame. But count Larry Plummer, who teaches entrepreneurship at Western University’s Ivey School of Business, among the workers-will-come-back crowd. Something new and wonderful is going to come; we just don’t know what that is yet.”Or when it will arrive.