PM says back-to-office plan for bureaucrats coming soon as MPs call for flexibility

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday his government’s plan to get public servants to spend more time in the office will come into “sharper view” over the next several weeks.

The issue came up when Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe asked Carney about the prospect of public sector job cuts during the mayor’s monthly breakfast event with the Ottawa Board of Trade and the Ottawa Business Journal.

Carney said his government will be “engaging with the public sector unions on the modalities” of the back-to-office policy, with detailabout the plan to be made public “over the course of the next several weeks.”

Carney provided few clues about his thinking on the issue. He did say the amount of time public servants will be expected to spend in the office will be set at different levels, depending on individual roles and seniority.

A Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat document shared with The Canadian Press suggests the government was at one point looking at sending all executive staff back to the office five days a week by January 2026.

The document also suggests the government was considering sending all non-executive employees back to the office four days a week by July 2026, with all employees to be back on-site full time by January 2027.

Treasury Board has not responded to repeated questions about whether discussions on a return-to-office policy are taking place, or when the policy might take effect.

Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali last week denied having any knowledge of discussions about ordering public servants back to the office full-time in 2027.

“I’m hearing from news outlets, so I’m not aware of that,” Ali said, adding he was looking into the matter but “nothing has changed.”

Remote work rules have been an ongoing issue in the public service since COVID-19 forced most federal workers to work remotely in 2020. After public health restrictions began to ease, the federal government moved in 2023 to have workers return to the office two to three days a week.

The current rule, in place since September 2024, requires public servants to work a minimum of three days a week in-office, with executives in office four days per week.

Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy represents the Carleton riding, which is home to more than 10,000 public servants. He told The Canadian Press last week he hopes there will be “flexibility” as employees return to the office.

“Some jobs depend on location more than others,” he said. “I for one am advocating for flexibility where possible.”

Fanjoy said flexibility on remote work would allow the government to keep and attract “high quality” employees. He also said it would help the government manage its office space and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“I would like to think that a young person starting out a career who just happens to live in a rural part of my riding or elsewhere in the country could have a career in the public service without needing to leave the community that they’re connected to,” Fanjoy said. “There’s no one-size-fits-all.”

Fanjoy argued that, as an MP, he doesn’t go to Parliament Hill every day.

“Sometimes I’m in the riding, sometimes I’m taking a Zoom call from my office at home,” he said. “There are times when it’s important to bring people together, but that doesn’t have to be all the time.

“I don’t see a lot of benefit in forcing someone to be stuck in traffic for forty-five minutes in order to jump on a Zoom call downtown.”

Liberal MP for Hull — Aylmer Greg Fergus told reporters last week he also hopes managers will be flexible if public servants are told to attend the office five days a week.

“I think it’s important to have civil servants come back to the office, but I would hope that managers will be flexible,” he said. “As long as the work is getting done, and we know that the work can get done because we created those opportunities through remote work.

“It’s important to have people come in where it’s necessary and, where it isn’t necessary, I hope they’ll exercise even greater flexibility.”

Sutcliffe said Monday he thinks adding another “day or two” in the office for civil servants is feasible.

The mayor said the city is working on expanding transit options and opening the next phase of the light rail system.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how (return-to-office) plans roll out. I’ve seen some of the reports. We want to see our downtown thriving and prosperous. It’s been a challenging time over the last few years since COVID,” Sutcliffe said.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada said in a media statement Monday that decisions about the return to office should be grounded in “evidence, service outcomes, and operational reality.”

“When the government makes policies about optics instead of outcomes, it risks slowing service delivery, draining talent, and making it harder to recruit the next generation of professionals,” said PIPSC president Sean O’Reilly.

O’Reilly said the government has repeatedly told unions that a return-to-office policy was not being considered, while the recent federal budget made no reference to it.

“We can all agree that no one wants a repeat of past RTO directives, which were announced without consultation and caused widespread disruption, confusion, and unnecessary strain on labour-management relations,” he said.

Addressing the prospect of public service job cuts, Carney said Monday the government’s workforce grew to an unsustainable size over the last decade.

He said much of the reduction in the size of the public service will come through conventional retirement, early retirement and “other adjustments.”

Unions representing public sector workers said last week hundreds of their members have received notice their jobs may be cut.

Departments facing cuts include Natural Resources Canada, the Public Service Commission of Canada, Crown-Indigenous Relations, Northern Affairs Canada and the finance department.

Carney said another priority for the civil service is to expand its use of artificial intelligence for “the less interesting components” of public sector work.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2025.

David Baxter and Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press