If Toronto wanted to bring its public servants back to the office five days a week, it could run into some problems. Chief among them is a lack of desk space.
Premier Doug Ford announced earlier this month that Ontario’s civil servants will return full-time in 2026, arguing “you can’t mentor someone over the phone” and urging the province’s municipal governments to follow suit.
Brampton quickly did so. Toronto, however, faces a different reality.
Over the past five years, the city has shed nearly half its office footprint, selling or terminating leases for 28 sites through its ModernTO program. Today, the city’s public service operates out of 27 offices, including City Hall and Metro Hall. There are plans to shrink this footprint further to just 15 sites within two years.
With all the changes, the city “would need to conduct a review of all real estate assets across Toronto to develop a plan for additional work capacity” before city workers could be mandated back to the office full-time, a spokesperson said.
Launched in 2019, ModernTO was designed to modernize the city’s workplaces, save money, encourage hybrid work and put surplus land to new use. The city said it has saved $335 million — mostly from 24 lease terminations — while freeing up land for thousands of new homes.
Eight former office sites have been earmarked for residential projects, with three already moving forward at 610 Bay St., 931 Yonge St. and 277 Victoria St. Together, they are expected to deliver more than 1,000 units, with thousands more to come as the five other sites work their way through the development pipeline.
The city spokesperson said the program is not just about trimming costs.
“By repurposing these sites, the city is able to explore how it can make better use of public land to create more livable and vibrant communities and deliver new affordable rental homes in prime downtown and midtown locations,” they said in a statement to TorontoToday.
The 610 Bay St. site will also include a new paramedic hub and organ transplant centre.
But Ford’s push has reignited debate over whether Toronto employees should come back full-time.
Most city staff are already in the office daily: of roughly 44,000 employees, 70 per cent work frontline jobs that can’t be done remotely, like policing, firefighting and park maintenance.
Meanwhile, just over 12,000 city employees are enrolled in a hybrid program requiring two to three office days per week. No one is fully remote, the city said.
Still, some critics contend that hybrid work is undermining the city government’s capacity to get things done.
“There is a lot of productivity that gets lost when people are working from home,” said Kelly Aizicowitz, a board member at advocacy group A Better City Toronto. She argued that the current approach has contributed to a “slowdown … of the actual functioning of the city.”
Aizicowitz also said there’s an economic benefit to getting workers back into the office, as many downtown office holders, such as the big banks, are currently doing.
“To have people back in the downtown core working is going to be good for all of the businesses,” she said.
Downtown office occupancy rates are on average 20 percentage points lower than pre-pandemic levels, according to a recent report from the Strategic Regional Research Alliance. Slow days can see occupancy rates drop to half that of pre-pandemic norms.
CUPE Local 79, which represents most city staff, disagrees.
“Hybrid work has been really successful for City of Toronto workers,” said president Nas Yadollahi. “The work is getting done efficiently and effectively under the current model, so productivity and services haven’t suffered.”
She added that hybrid flexibility has helped the city attract and retain employees. “That’s especially important in what is right now a very competitive labour market.”
The union tried to enshrine hybrid work in the latest collective agreement but did not secure a guarantee. Yadollahi said it remains a bargaining priority.
For now, Mayor Olivia Chow is non-committal. Asked if Toronto would follow Ford’s lead, she said only that the city would “examine” it.
Originally published on Toronto Today: https://www.torontotoday.ca/local/city-hall/toronto-back-to-work-civil-servants-in-office-full-time-real-estate-11149369