The letter below was shared with me recently and it does such a great job of highlighting the important considerations around the RTO (return to office) policies rumoured recently as they affect federal government employees in Orléans.
I got permission to share the letter in full, which you can read here. I’ve added a few images to the body of the article below to post it here.
Note: If you’d like to pitch a guest post of your own, email [email protected] or let me know on social media.
Honourable Shafqat Ali and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe,
For more than a decade, I have had the privilege of serving Canadians as a public servant, holding a deeply rewarding career that allows me to play a role in advancing research by shaping and implementing programs that foster innovation and discovery. I am also rooted in the community of Orléans, where my husband and I are raising our three children. It is from this dual perspective, both as a federal public servant and as a parent invested in the well-being of my family and neighbourhood, that I write to you today.
Like many other public servants, I have been tuned into the recent news stories hinting at an upcoming adjustment to remote work policies. While I normally adopt a wait and see attitude, the mayor’s breakfast discussion on Monday compelled me to write. From the highlights of that discussion, it’s clear that municipal and federal leadership are profoundly out of touch with the realities faced by workers in Ottawa. To imply that our city’s current physical and social infrastructure could adequately support an increased in-office presence is both unfounded and misaligned with the realities of our city. I would like to highlight just a few of these barriers currently faced by Ottawa residents.
Transportation
Since 2005, OC Transpo has been my main source of transportation downtown. From Orléans, the express bus once took 30 minutes to reach my office, but since the LRT’s introduction, the trip now takes nearly an hour. That’s an extra hour of commute time every day. More importantly, OC Transpo is unreliable and incapable of maintaining local bus routes that are critical for transportation within neighbourhoods like Orléans with urban sprawl. Despite years of promises and billions invested, Ottawa’s LRT remains plagued by systemic issues. What was once touted as a world-class transit system has become a symbol of broken trust as Ottawa residents still face unreliable service, wasted time, and a lack of accountability from those responsible.
Offices
Federal offices are simply not prepared to accommodate an increased in‑office presence. Years of underinvestment in infrastructure, combined with the shift toward hybrid work, have left many workplaces ill‑equipped to support employees returning in greater numbers. Office layouts designed under Workplace 2.0 and GCworkplace emphasize openness and flexibility but fail to provide the privacy, functionality, and resources needed for productive work. Basic supports such as reliable technology, adequate work spaces, and accessible amenities remain inconsistent across departments. The result is a workplace experience that is neither efficient nor rewarding.
Childcare
As of August 2025, over 1,000 children remained on waitlists for Ottawa’s largest school board’s (OCDSB) extended day child care, underscoring a Canada‑wide shortage of early childhood educators. This issue is not isolated to OCDSB and all four school boards will face mounting pressure with federal public servants being asked to increase their office presence. My children have been on these waitlists since the announcement of the three‑day in‑office mandate and I’m still waiting for a spot. While I acknowledge this is a provincial responsibility, the impact on Ottawa’s federal workforce is undeniable. Subsidized childcare in Ottawa continues to fall far short of meeting the needs of families. Demand for affordable spaces has surged, yet the number of available spots remains limited. My toddler is enrolled in private daycare in part because subsidized spaces are unavailable, and although I am fortunate to afford this option, it’s not the case for all. This shortage places a heavy burden on working parents, making it increasingly difficult to balance professional obligations with family needs.
So I ask you the following: How can you tell me that the infrastructure in Ottawa is ready for increased in-office presence when:
- I commute to an office that does not have enough desks to support the size of my workforce;
- where I no longer have a space that is mine, being forced to use online booking tools to reserve a workspace or hot spot around multiple floors to find closed offices to manage discussions with my staff;
- where every second meeting I take is hybrid due to teleworking staff in other areas of Canada;
- where I walk to the LRT to find that it’s been suspended or working on one track, delaying my ride;
- where the speed of the LRT is painstakingly slow due to design flaws and infrastructure limitations that force the trains to operate below their intended speeds;
- where I reach Blair station to find that my bus is somehow late (despite the route starting there) or just doesn’t show up and the number of riders swells by the minute to the edges of the poorly planned concrete stop;
- where even if I decided to eat the $20 a day parking costs, my commute by car would take just as long due to congestion on the 174 and Queensway, limited road capacity, and ongoing construction;
- to arrive home late, jump in my car and pick up my toddler from their daycare who does not have extended hours in the way a centre would;
- all while thanking my parents profusely for collecting my other kids from school because there is no extended day program available to care for them and allow me to pursue my career.
The argument for revitalizing Ottawa’s downtown core has become tired and outdated. It reflects a narrow, one-dimensional view of the city that fails to account for the broader realities of how Ottawa functions today. Remote work has reshaped Ottawa’s economy in ways that extend far beyond the downtown core. With more federal employees working from home, suburban communities have benefited from increased spending at local shops, restaurants, and services. Rather than concentrating dollars exclusively downtown, this shift has helped distribute economic activity more evenly across the city. Yet the federal government’s decision to increase in-office presence and remove offices from Orléans has undermined these gains, reducing local access to services, diverting economic activity away from the community, and reinforcing a downtown-centric mindset that overlooks the advantages of distributed workplaces. Revitalization strategies that rely on forcing workers back into the core ignore these realities. They rest on the outdated assumption that economic vitality must be centralized, instead of recognizing that a stronger, healthier city spreads opportunity across all its neighborhoods.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, public servants rose to the challenge, continuing to serve Canadians seamlessly from our homes throughout an extraordinary period of uncertainty. We proved not only that remote work was possible, but that the quality of service remained outstanding. My team delivered with even greater productivity, maintained strong engagement, and, most importantly, achieved a healthier balance between work and life. Of course there are those who take advantage of the system in a hybrid model, but those individuals would find a way to do so regardless of their in-office presence. Forcing staff into the office more often erodes every gain we made in work-life balance, leads to burnout, stress, and ultimately lower performance. Today’s workforce expects flexibility and imposing rigid office requirements risks driving skilled employees away, making the public service less competitive compared to private-sector employers who embrace hybrid models. Mandating more than three in-office days signals a lack of trust in employees and a failure to grasp how the workforce has evolved. It suggests leadership is clinging to outdated notions of productivity tied to physical presence rather than outcomes.
Just the thought of increasing my downtown presence leaves me exhausted and questioning my career with the public service. As a mother, this city simply does not provide the support I need to manage both my career and my household. OC Transpo drains my time, daycare drains my bank account, and GCWorkplace strips away any possibility of a rewarding in-office experience. The government has yet to offer a single valid reason for why increased in office presence is needed and it is disrespectful to the federal public servants who have dutifully served in whatever capacity was needed over the last 5 years. Still, such concerns carry little weight when policy decisions appear driven more by the interests of downtown franchises like Subway and Starbucks than by the lived realities of families striving to balance work and home. Canada strong … am I right?
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