1 in 10 can't yet meet four-day office mandate ahead of 2027 target
Roughly 10% of federal public servants cannot be accommodated in the office four days a week this fall, even as the government's expanded return-to-office mandate takes full effect across the core public administration.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), the department responsible for federal real estate, says its existing office footprint can currently house about 90% of employees on-site four days a week "through a combination of assigned and unassigned workstations," according to a report from CTV News.
The department is targeting 95% capacity by March 31, 2027, as it continues searching for additional space in the National Capital Region.
The shortfall follows a directive that took effect July 6, requiring most federal public servants to be on-site a minimum of four days per week, up from the three-day hybrid standard introduced in September 2024. Executives across departments have already been required in-office five days a week since May 4.
Space shortages force a phased approach
Michèle LaRose, spokesperson for PSPC, said the department is working directly with individual organizations to close the gap. "As a common service provider, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) will continue to work with organizations to optimize existing office space and provide additional accommodations where needed, as quickly as possible," LaRose said in a statement, according to the CTV News report.
She added that some deputy heads have phased in the four-day requirement for specific employee groups "in buildings or regions where available space is currently insufficient."
Three departments — Global Affairs Canada, Statistics Canada, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — confirmed earlier this year they would delay full implementation because of insufficient office capacity. Global Affairs Canada's situation is compounded by a multi-year renovation project affecting its headquarters and other Ottawa-area buildings, a constraint that mirrors Global Affairs Canada's own renovation-driven space shortage reported in departments across the National Capital Region, according to a previous report.
The Department of National Defence says on-site space "may be limited" at certain locations, with implementation left to individual managers, according to a previous CP24 report. Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada have each identified a small number of sites requiring a phased rollout rather than an immediate switch to four days.
Compliance monitoring, finding more room in Ottawa
The space crunch arrives as departments face growing scrutiny over how they verify compliance with the underlying Treasury Board direction. Several federal organizations, including Natural Resources Canada, have introduced attendance-tracking systems tied to the same directive that governs on-site presence requirements — part of a broader pattern of departments tightening compliance monitoring under the presence directive since the four-day standard took hold.
The mandate has also fuelled a wider debate about consistency in hybrid rules across government. Federal unions have pointed to unions challenging the fairness of remote-work double standards as they argue that flexibility extended to other parts of government should apply equally to the broader public service.
To address the shortfall, PSPC issued an expression of interest to identify available office space in the National Capital Region, targeting downtown Ottawa, Orleans, and Kanata, according to a report from the Ottawa Business Journal.
At the same time, the government is closing its GCcoworking sites in Ottawa and Gatineau at the end of September 2026 to reallocate that space directly to federal departments, CTV News reported. PSPC said the closures — affecting four Ottawa locations and one site in Gatineau, Quebec — are intended to help organizations "meet their operational needs and support the implementation of the Direction on Prescribed Presence in the Workplace," according to the same CTV News report. More than 15,000 public servants across over 50 departments and agencies are registered users of the 12 GCcoworking sites nationally.
