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Regular users of a federal government co-working space north of the Gatineau, Que., core say they’ll miss its benefits when it closes at the end of its lease next month.
The GCcoworking space on boulevard de la Cité near boulevard Maloney opened in 2019 with spots available for booking for about 60 federal public servants.
In the last year there were only three or four spaces left untaken on an average day.
However, the space is set to close on June 12 when its lease expires.
“It’s really a shame.… It’s been a big help,” said Ousseina Alzouma in French on Tuesday.
She said she has three kids and gets to spend more time with them when she is 10 minutes away from work versus the 45 minutes it can take to get to her department’s Ottawa office.
“It’s good for work-life balance,” said Carolyne Philion in French. She said it was worth it to occasionaly wake up at night to book a spot.
Other workers expressed disappointment with the closure to Radio-Canada, but declined an interview out of fears about what it could mean for their career at a time the government is making job cuts.
Job cuts, in-office plans
The plan to cut about 40,000 total jobs from the public service is happening alongside the push to get public servants back to the office four days a week in early July instead of the current three.
There are concerns over where those workers will go. Some departments such as Global Affairs Canada have said that it can’t make four days in the office work because it doesn’t have enough space.
Other co-working spaces may be turned into more traditional offices.
Alex Silas, a national executive vice-president with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the government is caught in an office capacity crunch of its own creation when it could instead allow more remote work.
The federal government co-working space on boulevard de la Cité in Gatineau is closing on June 12, 2026. (Émilien Juteau/Radio-Canada)
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) did not say why the lease on boulevard de la Cité is not being renewed.
A government source told Radio-Canada that building ownership declined to renew the lease.
The property manager did not reply to Radio-Canada’s requests for comment.
PSPC said it’s evaluating its options when asked if it could open another co-working space in Gatineau.
Not counting the space closing next month, there is one other co-working space in downtown Gatineau and four across Ottawa. There are seven more across six provinces.