Pedestrians make their way along Sparks Street mall in Ottawa in November, 2021. Prime Minister Mark Carney says the government is in talks with the unions about a plan to get more public servants back into the office.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government’s plan for federal public servants to work from the office more often is weeks away from coming into “sharper view.”
Mr. Carney told the Ottawa Board of Trade on Monday that his government is talking to public-sector unions about the issue, adding that the return of federal employees will depend on such factors as seniority and workplace capacity.
The issue came up during a conversation onstage with Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. It is a topic of heated debate in the National Capital Region, and the mayor has argued that hybrid work is hurting the city’s downtown core.
Public servants and unions, for their part, say working from home is more efficient and saves the government money by reducing the need for office space.
The government’s current hybrid work policy requires employees to work on site at least three days a week. Executives are required to be on site a minimum of four days a week.
The Canadian Press
In recent weeks, public-service unions have asked the government to respond to rumours that on-site requirements will be increased.
Unions are also concerned about the government’s plan, first announced in the Nov. 4 budget, to reduce the size of the public service by about 30,000 people over five years.
Mr. Carney has said the growth of the public service over the past decade is not sustainable and needs to be addressed. Most of that reduction would be through attrition and retirements, he said Monday.
As for a return-to-office mandate, he said the government would be talking to the unions about that.
“We will come to a sharper view on it over the course of the next several weeks. And there will likely be different levels of return, depending on seniority, depending on the role and obviously depending on capacity,” he said.
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He also said the government needs to ensure that public servants have the kind of offices and workspaces that will make their jobs as “interesting and impactful as possible.”
Sean O’Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said in a statement that in-office requirements should be based on evidence.
Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the government’s commitment to engage with unions on the issue “is a farce.” She said in a statement that it follows a pattern of pretending to consult with workers “while they’ve already made up their minds about major policy changes that impact hundreds of thousands of workers.”
Mr. O’Reilly said forcing people to spend more time in the office amounts to theatre. “Where in-person work improves innovation, training, or service delivery, that’s great. But forcing people back just to be seen and to sit in on video calls from another location is not leadership,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s event was organized to discuss how new federal spending will affect the city of Ottawa.
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Mr. Carney said the new Build Canada Homes agency will work with the municipality to fast-track the construction of as many as 3,000 mixed-income and affordable housing units across Ottawa with joint funding of $400-million.
He also announced $1.2-million for city programs aimed at addressing crime and substance use.
The Prime Minister added that Canada will bid to host the 2028 Francophonie Summit in the National Capital Region.
After his onstage conversation with the Prime Minister, Mr. Sutcliffe said he was looking forward to seeing how the federal plan to get employees back to the office more frequently works out.
“If you go back five years, federal employees were downtown every day. They’re coming downtown multiple days a week now. So adding another day or two, if that’s what the federal government decides in the future, I think, is feasible,” he told a news conference.
“We want to see our downtown thriving and prosperous. It’s been a challenging time over the last few years, since COVID.”
Mr. Sutcliffe said he frequently speaks with small-business owners in the downtown and they’ve noticed increased traffic on certain days of the week.
“They’re very happy about that, but other days of the week, it’s quiet, and it’s been a rough time for them. We want a vibrant downtown core.”
The mayor said the city is expanding transit services to facilitate more public servants returning to the office, including an extension of the light rail transit line to the eastern suburb of Orleans in the coming months.