Ontario public servants will be required to return to the office full time, with employees going in-person five days a week by January, 2026. Premier Doug Ford says he believes employees are more productive when they work in-person.
The Canadian Press
The Ontario government is ordering public servants back to the office five days a week starting in 2026, one of the most aggressive moves by a public-sector employer in Canada to curb remote work since it became commonplace during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Oct. 20 of this year, workers who had previously attended the office for a minimum of three days a week will be required to attend four days. And starting Jan. 5, 2026, workers will be expected to be in the office full-time.
Although there have been efforts to reduce work-from-home days across the country by governments, Ontario is one of the largest public-sector employers to nearly eliminate the practice. Some Ontario public workers will have the ability to negotiate remote work on a case-by-case basis.
The question of how frequently public-sector workers should be entitled to work from home has been a divisive issue between unions and governments. In the spring of 2023, the right to work remotely was a sticking point for the Public Service Alliance of Canada in their negotiations with the federal government. When their demands weren’t met, 155,000 workers from the Treasury Board and the Canada Revenue Agency went on strike.
As of September, 2024, federal public-service workers were required to be in the office three days a week, though there have been some media reports about a lack of compliance.
Provinces and territories such as British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon have flexible work arrangements for public-service employees that allow for remote work. The Alberta government has an interim hybrid work policy that allows employees to work from home two days a week.
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Last summer, the Nova Scotia government ordered 3,500 non-unionized workers back to the office five days a week.
“The return to a five days per week in-workplace standard represents the current workforce landscape in the province and it reinforces our commitment to reflecting the people and businesses we serve across Ontario,” Caroline Mulroney, President of the Treasury Board, said on Thursday in a press release.
More than half of the Ontario Public Service are already required to attend the workplace full-time, given the nature of their work, Ms. Mulroney said.
Andrea Chiappetta, a Treasury Board spokesperson, said those employees include corrections officers, and health and safety inspectors in a variety of sectors including transportation, environment and agriculture.
There are more than 60,000 employees in the Ontario public service.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union said the decision was made without meaningful consultation with workers and “without consideration for the realities frontline public service workers face,” in a statement on its website.
It said it was given an hour’s notice of the mandate via confidential memo, which did not allow for input from affected workers.
The mandate was announced while public-service members are in the midst of a collective-bargaining process, the union said.
“Decisions like this about our members’ working conditions should be made in consultation with those workers, not through public announcements,” said union president JP Hornick in the release.
Speaking at a press conference in Pickering, east of Toronto, Premier Doug Ford said getting public-sector workers back into the office for the entire work week would be a boon for the businesses near their offices, and contribute to workplace camaraderie.
“How do you mentor someone over a phone? You can’t. You’ve got to look at them eye to eye,” he said.
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The move by the Ontario government mirrors five-day-a-week mandates recently imposed by some of the country’s largest corporations, including Rogers Communications Inc. as well as several Canadian banks.
In a news release, another union head, Dave Bulmer said he was “incensed by this morning’s announcement.”
Mr. Bulmer’s union, AMAPCEO, which represents more than 14,000 Ontario civil servants, said in a release that in the past two rounds of bargaining with Ontario, the union fought to preserve the right for employees to request alternative work agreements.
“AMAPCEO is going to continue to fight for flexibility for members who want it and stop the [Treasury Board] from dragging Ontario’s hardworking public service back to the Stone Age,” said Mr. Bulmer.
Ontario’s top bureaucrat, Michelle DiEmanuele, also sent a letter to the public service on Thursday morning advising them of the new mandate.
“I know that many of you will have questions, and your leaders are here to support you through this transition period,” Ms. DiEmanuele said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The initial shift to remote work in 2020 had a profound impact on local businesses that relied on a customer base of office workers to stay afloat.
Foot traffic in downtown cores across the country continues to be about half of what it was before the pandemic began.
In Ottawa last year, there was a public spat between the city’s mayor and the Public Service Alliance of Canada after the union suggested members pack a lunch for their days in office, supporting businesses in their residential neighborhoods instead of shops in the core. The union later backtracked and deleted the post from social media.
With reports from Vanmala Subramaniam and the Canadian Press