Ottawa residents are expressing concerns about further congestion, increased child-care costs and losing the convenience of working from home as
rumours of a looming full-time return-to-office mandate
for federal public servants swirled through the downtown core Monday.
La Presse reported
Monday morning it had seen an internal Treasury Board document detailing the government’s plans to require all public servants to report to the office five days a week as of Jan. 1, 2027. According to that report, executives would be back full-time as early as next year and other public servants would move to four days per week in July.
While the Treasury Board has not confirmed that workers will be returning to the office full time, commuters in the National Capital Region fear what such a change in policy could mean for them.
Amelie Hyson, who works for a company contracted by the public service, said she works from the office three days a week and has already been told by her employers that she’ll be coming in more often as soon as January.
Living in Orléans, her commute downtown takes one hour and 20 minutes each way. With more public servants potentially travelling in and out of the downtown core, she said she worries this commute could become even longer.
While also caring for her five-year-old son, more days in the office would mean more child-care expenses.
“It costs more money now that I’m in the office more,” she said.
“It’s an extra $200 or $300 a month,” she said on her way into the Lyon LRT station before beginning her commute home.
Jovon Noel, who is contracted with the public service and already works five days a week in office, said he understands both sides: while he can see why people enjoy the convenience of working from home, he also likes participating in a more lively office environment.
“I can see why they want to … kind of restart the economy downtown,” he said. “But then I can see why people want to stay back home because their work is still getting done at home.”
With an influx of people taking transit in and out of downtown, Noel said he hopes a full-time return-to-office mandate would push OC Transpo to improve its service and increase frequency on the LRT and bus lines.
Increased strain on OC Transpo is also a concern for Ottawa resident Kwasi Ofori, who commutes in and out of downtown for school and for work on a daily basis.
“It means more people on the train, more people on the buses in crowded spaces, too,” he said. “You have students and workers, and it’s rush hour all at the same time with a massive demand on transportation, so it could be stressful.”
More workers in downtown Ottawa could also put more vehicles on the road, especially during rush-hour times. It’s a concern for Irish Ylanan, who drives around the city for her job as a nurse and would have to factor in extra time to get where she needs to go.
“I know there will be more traffic if people are working (downtown),” she said, expressing worry that traffic may go back to pre-pandemic levels.
Many Ottawa residents expressed that they felt many workplaces had finally struck a balance with a hybrid model that worked for many employees, with a balance of more home and family on work-from-home days, with in-person collaboration sprinkled in throughout the week.
Such is the case for Stephanie Marleau, who works at a private bank in downtown Ottawa, and says she enjoys getting the best of both worlds.
“I think it’s better for (employees) to choose how they want to work, and it’s also good to go to the office, because you can get to know your colleagues,” she said. “I support that kind of balance.”
The federal government wouldn’t be the first to mandate its employees back to the office full-time. In August, the Ontario government ordered provincial public servants back to the office five days a week as of January. The City of Ottawa
followed suit shortly after
.
