Ontario ordering public servants back into office full time

By Mike Crawley, CBC News, RCI

Ford also suggested having provincial workers return to the office is better for the economy, pointing out that many small businesses that rely on foot traffic from office workers have suffered due to remote work policies. (File Photo: FordNation/Facebook)

Current mandate of 3 days a week has been provincial government policy since April 2022

Premier Doug Ford’s government is ordering Ontario public servants to work from the office four days a week starting this fall and then full-time in January.

It’s a change from a policy that has been in place since April 2022, when provincial government employees were mandated to be in their offices at least three days per week.

Employees of the Ontario Public Service, provincial agencies, boards and commissions must increase their attendance to four days per week starting Oct. 20 and transition to full-time hours in-office effective Jan. 5, 2026, said Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney in an announcement Thursday.

Ford says he believes government employees are more productive when they are in the office.

How do you mentor someone over a phone? You can’t. You’ve got to look at them eye to eye, Ford said during an unrelated news conference Thursday in Pickering.

Ford also suggested having provincial workers return to the office is better for the economy, pointing out that many small businesses that rely on foot traffic from office workers have suffered due to remote work policies.

There’s hard-working entrepreneurs that their business has basically just died when they weren’t seeing the flow of traffic.

The news follows on the heels of announcements by four of Canada’s big banks — RBC, Scotiabank, BMO and TD — that staff at their Toronto headquarters must spend at least four days a week in the office, effective this fall.

‘Everyone needs to go back to work,’ says Ford

Ford said his government wasn’t influenced by the bank mandates, but said business leaders he’d spoken with agree everyone needs to go back to work.

We look forward to having everyone back; we’re very grateful for the work they do. We have the best public service in Canada and I appreciate the work they do every day, he said.

Ontario’s top bureaucrat, Secretary of Cabinet Michelle DiEmanuele, said in a memo obtained by CBC News that the decision is in line with an increasing number of organizations across the public and private sectors.

The province’s move comes just two weeks after it reached a new collective agreement with AMAPCEO, which represents some 14,000 professional, administrative and supervisory employees in the Ontario Public Service.

The province was hellbent on removing employees’ options for remote work during those negotiations, says AMAPCEO president Dave Bulmer.

RBC, Scotiabank, BMO and TD have ordered staff at their Toronto headquarters to spend at least four days a week working from their offices, starting this fall. Photo: CBC / Evan Mitsui

I am incensed by this morning’s announcement, said Bulmer in a message to union members. “We have shown that we can, and should, be treated as the capable, trustworthy professionals we are — professionals capable of working for Ontario from anywhere.”

Bulmer says there should be no changes for provincial employees who have a formal, signed agreement allowing them to work remotely, and says AMAPCEO members who want to work remotely should make an official request now.

Officials from OPSEU, the union that represents roughly half of the Ontario Public Service workforce, said they will issue a statement in response to the changes later on Thursday.

The provincial government’s single-largest office space in Toronto, the Macdonald Block complex, is undergoing a $1.5 billion renovation and has been shut down for six years.

Staff of several provincial ministries have since been working from rented office space scattered around the city’s downtown.

Federal government employees are currently subject to a three-days-per-week minimum in the workplace, imposed last September. There’s been some evidence since that the policy is not being strictly enforced.

With files from Sarah Petz

This article is republished from RCI.