City of Ottawa employees can’t 'work out of Jamaica' under hybrid model: city manager
City of Ottawa employees hoping for a future of permanently working from home: think again.
Municipal workers will be expected to come into the office when their bosses ask them to, city manager Steve Kanellakos said Wednesday.
“I certainly don’t support that there be this permanency of,,,you never have to show up, or you can go down to Jamaica and work out of Jamaica and never have to come back to the office,” he told reporters. “I don’t think that’s the way to run a city.”
About 75 per cent of the city’s 17,000 employees haven’t worked from home during the pandemic because their jobs require them to be out in the field, not in an office.
But for the more than 4,000 people that work out of the city’s three main administrative buildings—City Hall, 100 Constellation Drive and Ben Franklin Place—the city is working toward a hybrid model.
“Hybrid means that you’ll be required to come into the office when your boss needs you to come in … and that you will also be permitted to work from home when required,” Kanellakos said.
Some employees might be required to come in one to two days week depending on their role, he added.
“We’re going to be flexible with our employees to try and determine how many days a week they need to come back.”
Just under half of those employees are already back in some form or are on their way back to starting in January, Kanellakos said.
“We’ll be growing that as we proceed into the new year,” he said. “We’re moving at a really good pace, at a safe pace, to get our employees back in some form in our administrative buildings.”
The federal public service has been slower in developing a plan to bring workers back to the office. Most public servants are still working from home, and there’s no clear timeline on if and when they’ll come back.
Mayor Jim Watson has said he’s working with Mona Fortier, the new president of the Treasury Board, to get federal workers back into offices downtown.
Council could return in January
Although Parliament resumed this week in-person, Wednesday’s council meeting was held as they have been for the past 20 months: Watson sitting in the council chamber and councillors joining on Zoom.
But the mayor said he hopes council can return to in-person sessions early in the new year.
“The latest briefing I received was that the clerk is looking at us coming back sometime in January,” he said.
The return would need to be cleared from the clerk and Ottawa Public Health, he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.