New data shows most people in Toronto are still going into work and deemed essential Stay in the loop Sign up for our free email newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime or contact us for details. While we all continue to hunker down alone in our homes, only leaving for groceries and other necessary trips as ordered by the provincial government, there are those among us who still spend the majority of their time in the outside world for work purposes — a shocking number of us in Toronto, in fact. New estimates put the proportion of residents deemed "essential workers" in the GTA to be nearly two thirds of the population, around 65 per cent or more than two million individuals, according to an analysis by the Star.