The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the rate of empty office space in Canada is continuing to drop but the recovery is uneven, with newer, high-quality buildings in cities seeing the biggest improvements while older offices still have high vacancy levels. The Globe's Meera Raman writes that office leasing activity grew for the second year in a row in 2025, with annual net absorption, a measure of office leasing activity, totalling 2.2 million square feet of space countrywide, according to data from commercial real estate company CBRE analyzing the fourth quarter of 2025. Toronto accounted for a large part of the net absorption driven mostly by large downtown leases. "At a time when there is high economic uncertainty for Canada with respect to tariffs having office tenancies grow is a really positive sign for the office market," CBRE Canada's Marc Meehan told The Globe. But "that recovery is very imbalanced," he said, with other smaller markets, such as Ottawa, not seeing as much improvement. Growing expectations about return-to-office mandates are also building momentum in downtown offices. Toronto-Dominion Bank and Rogers required employees to return to the office four to five days a week in 2025.