The new year will bring some big changes to the rules on in-office work for many employees across the country — including tens of thousands of provincial government staff in Ontario and Alberta, who will soon be required back in the office full time.
As of Jan. 5, Ontario provincial government employees will be expected to work in the office five days per week.
Alberta’s public service is also returning to full-time, in-office work in February to “strengthen collaboration, accountability and service delivery for Albertans,” a spokesperson for the Alberta government said.
While several provinces, including Manitoba, British Columbia and New Brunswick, retain more flexible hybrid work rules, others are reviewing their policies.
A spokesperson for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador said the province is looking at its remote work policy.
The government of the Northwest Territories is also reviewing its remote work policy, though a spokesperson said there are no plans to require employees to return to the workplace on-site five days a week.
Plan to come in ‘sharper view’
It’s still not clear when federal public servants will have to increase their office presence, or by how much. Prime Minister Mark Carney promised last month that a plan would soon come into “sharper view.”
Carney said his government will be “engaging with the public sector unions on the modalities” of the back-to-office policy, with details about the plan to be made public “over the course of the next several weeks.”
Carney provided few clues about his thinking on the issue. He did say the amount of time public servants will be expected to spend in the office will depend on individual roles and seniority.
The current rule, in place since September 2024, requires federal public servants to work a minimum of three days a week in-office, with executives in the office four days per week.
Treasury Board president Shafqat Ali told The Canadian Press in December that the federal government hasn’t worked out details of its promised return-to-office plan. He said conversations have been taking place within government, but “nothing has been finalized.”
A return to the cubicle
Several banks — including BMO, Scotiabank and RBC — have already told their staff to increase their office presence to four days per week.
Other private-sector companies are also making changes to their policies. Amazon, for example, is requiring its corporate staff to be in the office five days per week as of Jan. 2.
Provincial and federal public sector unions have pushed back against return-to-office mandates.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents about 40,000 public servants, said in a news release in August that the provincial government decided to order all its workers back to the office full time “without consideration for the realities front-line public service workers face.”
In a statement, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Canada’s largest federal union, said Ottawa’s push to get federal workers to spend more time in their offices is “severely out of touch with what’s best for workers and taxpayers.”
“If this government tries to make sweeping changes to remote work in the middle of bargaining, we will oppose them. Nothing is off the table — we will challenge them in court and in our workplaces,” the statement read.
A recent Angus Reid survey suggests the majority of workers would prefer a fully remote or hybrid workplace, but many employers are opting to have employees in the office more often.
Catherine Connelly, a professor and business research chair in the department of human resources and management at McMaster University, said more pushback from unions is to be expected in the coming months.
“A lot of their members really like working from home and they want to keep the remote-work options,” Connelly said.
Some employees find remote work helps them save money and be more productive, Connelly noted. Others, she said, may find that remote work undermines their work-life balance or that they’re not able to make as many connections as they would in the workplace.
Connelly said she’s not sure if the private-sector push to increase office staff presence will continue, as companies realize their most talented employees value flexibility.
Companies might also start fine-tuning their remote work policies by adding more rules for staff who do work from home — like requiring child care for kids under a certain age or mandating that employees be reachable for a certain period of time, she said.
Municipalities have been divided on the issue of remote work, which has had a range of effects on their economies.
In the National Capital Region, where a large number of public servants live, many downtown businesses took a hit when government staff were working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, while many areas outside of the Ottawa core saw growth.
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he thinks adding another “day or two” in the office is feasible. He said the city is working on expanding transit options and opening the next phase of its light-rail system.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how [return-to-office] plans roll out,” Sutcliffe said in December. “We want to see our downtown thriving and prosperous. It’s been a challenging time over the last few years since COVID.”
Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy, who represents an eastern Ontario riding with more than 10,000 public servants, said he hopes there will be “flexibility” as employees return to the office. That would allow the federal government to keep and attract employees, manage its office space and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
“A lot of our trickiest problems in cities are because we require everyone to be in a very small space,” Fanjoy said last month. “Having public servants spread out a little bit, that’s good for all the economies of our local communities.”
