Everyone in the NCR wants the same basic things: less time stuck in traffic, reliable public services and governments that use public money wisely.
Unfortunately, the federal government’s return-to-office mandate is delivering the opposite.
Ottawa’s transportation strategy estimates that increased office attendance could create at least 65,000 additional trips downtown every week. The response is more transit spending, more parking, more traffic monitoring, changes to construction schedules and advertising campaigns to help everyone cope with the congestion.
Apparently, the one idea that did not make the list was avoiding unnecessary trips in the first place.
This is not about public service workers refusing to work. Our members work every day, in offices, laboratories, airports, border crossings, institutions and from home. Canadians need public service workers focused on delivering public services—not sitting in traffic to satisfy an arbitrary attendance target.
The timing is especially hard to accept. Thousands of workers are facing workforce adjustment and uncertainty about whether their jobs will still exist, while being told to spend more on transit, parking, fuel and childcare just to report to the office more often.
Workers are being asked to pay more to commute while being told they may have less job security when they arrive.
They may also help finance the City’s response through additional transit and parking revenue. Create the problem, charge workers for the solution and call it a strategy—it is certainly one approach.
The City consulted employers, central agencies and downtown business interests, but the report does not identify meaningful consultation with federal public service workers or their unions. Our members are expected to change their schedules, routes and family routines, but apparently not to have much say in the plan.
A healthy downtown should be built around residents, housing, public spaces, tourism, culture and a diverse economy—not dependence on compulsory spending by federal public service workers.
Our members are workers, neighbours and taxpayers. They are not an economic stimulus program.
The federal government should replace its one-size-fits-all mandate with workplace decisions based on operational needs, evidence, value for taxpayers and better public services. Ottawa deserves fewer avoidable traffic jams—not simply a more elaborate plan for sitting in them.
Ruth Lau MacDonald
Regional Executive Vice President NCR