Premier Doug Ford’s government is instructing Ontario’s public servants to resume working in the office four days per week beginning this fall, and transitioning to full-time in January, as the province officially ends its pandemic-era policies.
This marks a departure from the policy established in April 2022, when provincial government employees were only obligated to work in the office three days each week.
Ontario Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney announced the change on Aug. 14. She said all employees of the Ontario Public Service and its provincial agencies, boards, and commission will “increase their attendance to four days per week” as of Oct. 20, and will then transition to full-time in-office work on Jan. 5, 2026.
“I believe everyone’s more productive when they’re at work,” he said. “How do you mentor someone over the phone? You can’t. You got to look at them eye to eye or at the watercooler.”
Another benefit, Ford said, is increased revenue for small businesses that rely on foot traffic from office workers.
“There’s hard-working entrepreneurs that their businesses basically just died when they weren’t seeing the flow of traffic,” he said, referring to Toronto businesses located by government buildings that took a hit because of pandemic-era remote work policies.
The president of AMAPCEO, the union for Ontario’s professional employees, pledged to fight the new policy, and accused the province of using the policy to remove employees’ previously negotiated work-from-home rights.
