Ottawa's Office Space Crunch Isn't Over Yet
According to Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), about 10 per cent of unionized federal public servants remain unable to return to the office four days a week simply because there isn't enough space for them.
How We Got Here
Federal employees have generally been expected to be in the office a minimum of four days a week since July 6. That mandate, known as RTO4, was announced in February and raised the requirement from three days a week, the standard that had been in place since September 2024. Federal executives have faced an even stricter bar, required to be in the office five days a week since this past May.
The Numbers Behind the Shortfall
The federal public service had more than 345,000 employees as of late March, which means roughly 34,000 workers currently can't meet the four-day expectation because of the space crunch. PSPC, which manages office space for about 100 government departments across the country, says it hopes to shrink that 10 per cent shortfall down to 5 per cent by the end of March 2027. PSPC has also set an internal target of getting 90 per cent of its own employees physically in the office four days a week by January 2027.
Why It Matters Here
It's downtown foot traffic, transit demand, and office building occupancy that a huge share of the local economy depends on. Several major departments are still on a slower timeline: Statistics Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the Immigration and Refugee Board are all keeping employees on a three-day-a-week schedule for now.
There's movement coming, though. Statistics Canada expects to have enough office space for its National Capital Region employees to move to four days a week starting in mid-November, and IRCC plans to accommodate all of its National Capital Region staff four days a week starting in mid-October, while employees in other cities stay at three days. Global Affairs Canada's timeline is murkier: about 55 per cent of its National Capital Region employees will keep working in-office three days a week even after the shift.
Unions Push Back
The daily scramble for desk space hasn't gone unnoticed by labour leaders. Sean O'Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, called the daily hunt for an available office "a waste of time," arguing it takes workers away from actually serving Canadians. Sharon DeSousa, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, went further, saying that whether or not space is properly allocated, it doesn't justify forcing the return to office at all.
Sources: Yahoo News Canada (CBC News wire)
