Head of business coalition looking for 'meaningful impact'
The federal government has now fully implemented its return-to-office mandate, requiring public service workers to be in the office at least three days a week, partially to help revitalize the economy in downtown areas.
For Brad Fougere, the executive director of the Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas, mandating federal workers to come to the office three times a week is not enough.
"During the last return-to-office mandate … we didn't necessarily see the meaningful impact that small businesses were hoping to see downtown," Fougere said in a CBC report.
The full implementation of the federal government’s RTO mandate for workers took full effect at the start of this month. Months before that, the number of commuters reached 16.5 million in May 2024, continuing an upward trend that followed notable declines recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, according to a previous Statistics Canada (StatCan) report.
Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford previously called on the federal government to bring federal workers back to the office in Ottawa at least three days a week to help boost economic activity in the city.
Quality of downtown at stak
Previously, James Bailey, professor and Hochberg fellow of leadership development, George Washington University, told Canadian HR Reporter that not returning to the office, for workers, “is going to have a profound impact on the quality and the liveliness and the culture of the downtown areas in major metropolitan cities.”
Nearly six in 10 (59%) of Canadians support federal government workers spending more time in-office, according to a previous report from Angus Reid.
However, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has launched a petition calling for the repeal of a federal mandate requiring public service employees to work in the office three days a week.
