Business groups to federal government: bring employees back to the office now

Perrin Beatty speaks during a Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021.

Members of Canada’s business community are calling on the federal government to bring employees back to the office “as rapidly as possible.”

In an open letter to Treasury Board President Mona Fortier, the heads of 32 business associations—including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Ottawa Board of Trade—say COVID-19 has reached a new phase and they strongly urge the federal government to “lead the way to a return to normal.”

“The federal government is not only a major employer in cities and communities across Canada, but in many places it is the anchor employer,” said the letter, dated Monday.

“As businesses in these communities assess their long-term viability given the pandemic’s damaging effects on downtown centres, restoring normal economic activity requires the federal government to act now.”

The business groups’ efforts come as the federal government takes a department-by-department approach on whether employees should return to in-person work.

In May, the Treasury Board released guidelines on hybrid work arrangements, tasking individual departments with deciding whether to bring workers back to the office. Since then, departments have been testing a variety of approaches.

The business associations raise concerns about the future of Ottawa’s downtown, mentioning that Ottawa-Gatineau’s rate of return to the office is the lowest of any government capital in Canada.

But they also argue that virtual work is leading to a “deteriorating ability of the government to engage effectively with stakeholders.”

“While virtual connectivity has opened up new communication channels, it is not a substitute for the ability to meet, consult and collaborate in person,” they wrote. “Implementing a federal government return to office strategy will facilitate much more efficient and productive engagement both within the government itself and with the general public.”

In a statement responding to the letter, Fortier said the government is “moving from remote-by-necessity to hybrid-by design.”

“In-person experiences are essential to cohesive, collaborative and high-performing organizations,” she said. “Treasury Board is providing guidance to promote a coherent approach across departments.”

“The pandemic brought changes to all aspects of our lives,” she added. “As we return to some semblance of normalcy, the public service is embracing the opportunity to modernize our way of working and best provide services to Canadians.

“Shifting the country’s largest workforce will take time.”

There are many indications that the pre-COVID norm—with tens of thousands of federal government workers commuting into downtown Ottawa every day—isn’t coming back.

Fortier said last spring that “hybrid work is here to stay” and mused about converting downtown office buildings into affordable housing.

In mid-October, an assistant deputy minister for Public Services and Procurement Canada told the Ottawa Real Estate Forum that the government is speeding up plans to unload millions of square feet of downtown office space, the Real Estate News Exchange reported.

Treasury Board has launched a strategic policy review of the public service, targeting $6 billion in savings over five years.

Some public service unions have criticized the government’s plan as confusing and disorganized, with individual departments forging ahead without much coordination between them.

And city of Ottawa officials have raised concerns about what the future of downtown holds without a consistent in-person federal workforce. In particular, the city’s LRT system was built with ridership estimates based on pre-pandemic levels.

However, many federal government workers prefer the flexibility of their hybrid work arrangements and argue it’s not their responsibility to keep downtown Ottawa businesses afloat.