{"id":489996,"date":"2026-02-21T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489996\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:32:10","slug":"chris-selley-nobody-wants-to-work-in-ottawa-ottawa-unions-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489996\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Selley: Nobody wants to work in Ottawa, Ottawa unions say"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years I have argued that 24 Sussex Drive, an unattractive and not-very-historic mansion that has only been home to 10 of our 24 prime ministers, should be knocked down, sold or otherwise removed from the government books. The National Capital Commission\u2019s (NCC) stated budget for renovations is completely absurd: $37 million in 2021 dollars<\/a>, or $44 million adjusted for today. That buys a lot of new house in Ottawa, though Rideau Cottage is clearly good enough for Prime Minister Mark Carney, as it was for Justin Trudeau. (Frankly, I\u2019ve never understood why PMs don\u2019t just live full-time at Harrington Lake, as Kim Campbell did. It\u2019s a half-hour drive from Parliament Hill!)<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m thinking bigger.<\/p>\n

What if we razed downtown Ottawa and returned it to nature, as \u00c9tienne Br\u00fbl\u00e9 found it<\/a>? Or just abandoned it to the elements? Maybe everything west of Elgin, east of Lyon and north of Gloucester? To hear union leaders talk, hardly anyone who works there seems interested in going, ever again. Shopify went to remote work \u201cby default\u201d during the pandemic, apparently permanently<\/a>, and there aren\u2019t a lot of other notable corporate headquarters in the area. Much of the rest is government real estate<\/a> that the public-sector unions believe, on principle, must never be used again.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the NCC, it\u2019s spending at least $5 billion renovating Parliament\u2019s Centre Block<\/a>, and it won\u2019t be done for years. Maybe it\u2019s not too late to get some of our money back and just walk away. Virtual Parliament from now on. Twenty-something staffers can issue politicians their humiliating talking points in their pyjamas, never mind their short pants<\/a>. Think of the savings on MPs\u2019 airfare alone!<\/p>\n

I kid, of course. But the arguments against civil servants returning to work four days a week, something several federal public sector unions are currently fighting and threatening to strike over<\/a>, are no less ridiculous.<\/p>\n

To Nancy Peckford, mayor of North Grenville, Ont. (pop. 18,000, about 60 kilometres from Parliament Hill), the feds\u2019 decision to make federal workers to return to the office for several days a week \u201creveals the clear bias for employing people living in the city.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps someone can make a Charter challenge out of it. After all, we have freedom of mobility within Canada. You can\u2019t even use the notwithstanding clause to override it. So why should someone in Yellowknife have less access to a government job that\u2019s based in Ottawa? Or vice-versa? You and I and the vast majority of other Canadians know why, but do our judges?<\/p>\n

And the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) might very well have a court case in hand \u2014 about the equality of men and women.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing the flexibility to work remotely means that many of our members will be forced to choose: their job or their family. And we know that this decision will ultimately impact women, who still face disproportionate responsibilities when it comes to child care and domestic labour,\u201d CAPE president Nathan Prier told CTV News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of embracing the 21st century model of work, the government is taking the public service back to the 1950s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the notion of dragooning women en masse into the workplace doesn\u2019t quite align with my understanding of postwar Canadian history. \u201cIn the early 1950s, about one-quarter of women aged 25 to 54 participated in the labour market, that is, they had a job or were looking for one,\u201d Statistics Canada reports<\/a>. That number long ago crested 80 per cent.<\/p>\n

Ottawa City Councillor Catherine Kitts, meanwhile, is very concerned<\/a> \u201cwhether our city is physically prepared for a large, simultaneous increase in commuting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe our transportation network can handle it,\u201d she wrote in a newsletter to constituents.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying she\u2019s wrong. But then, Ottawa\u2019s transportation network has never exactly been a jewel in the city\u2019s crown. I come back to the \u201cabandon downtown Ottawa\u201d plan. It would certainly make OC Transpo\u2019s life an awful lot easier. After all, with fewer people riding the system, there would be fewer to point out how crummy it often is.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a key point you could easily miss amidst all these reports: Most federal employees already have to go to the office three days a week. It\u2019s just one extra day!<\/p>\n

Flexible work arrangements are good. Many private-sector companies seem to have been pleasantly surprised at the results over the course of the pandemic. And so there are plenty of other jobs out there for civil servants who consider it an unbearable, life-altering burden to return to the office four days a week, instead of three.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not assume all civil servants think this way. An Angus Reid Institute poll conducted in 2024<\/a>, when the three-day-a-week rule was being rolled out, found more public-sector union members (47 per cent) supported it than opposed it (41 per cent). One can only imagine how appalled their unions were to see it.<\/p>\n

National Post
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