The following op-ed was submitted by:
Dave Bulmer
President/CEO
AMAPCEO – Ontario’s Professional Employees
Change is inevitable. The sooner we embrace it; the sooner we make progress. Unfortunately, that truth seems lost on the Ontario government, which appears convinced that public servants and their workplaces can, like Marty McFly, hop in a DeLorean and go “back to the future.”
But there is no going back. Not after the pandemic accelerated a fundamental shift toward a hybrid workplace that balances work time between the traditional office and the home office. Not in a world reshaped by rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI). And not in a labour market where flexibility has become a cornerstone of productivity, recruitment, and retention.
Yet in August 2025, Premier Doug Ford attempted his best Doc Brown impression by ordering civil servants and broader public-sector workers back to the office five days per week. That level of in-office attendance hadn’t been required since 2019, and the professional public service would never have dismantled hybrid work on its own, given its demonstrated benefits for employees, employers, and taxpayers alike.
Putting aside the government’s own less-than-stellar attendance record at Queen’s Park with just 51 sitting days (in-office), this abrupt reversal does nothing to advance the province’s interests. If anything, it undermines an evolving workforce and a workplace model that has proven both effective and efficient.
Chaos at the Office Door
The contradiction of this return-to-office mandate would be comedic if it weren’t so disruptive. After six years of downsizing office footprints to support a long-term transition to hybrid work, many public-sector buildings cannot accommodate a full weekly return of 60,000 workers. Employees are showing up to flooding, broken equipment, missing furniture, and, astonishingly, nowhere to sit. With no desk, many are being forced instead into makeshift setups in hallways, boardrooms, shared cubicles, or even windowsills.
This was predictable. The bureaucracy responsibly released space based on long-term hybrid planning. The Ontario government then ordered a sudden, unplanned reversal without a strategy, resulting in overcrowded offices and wasted resources.
A Ripple Effect Across Society
The consequences of this decision extend far beyond government buildings.
Toronto already leads Canada in commute times. Forcing tens of thousands of workers to increase their commutes from three to five days a week will only worsen congestion by putting more cars on the road and more bodies into an already-stressed transit system still recovering from the pandemic.
Parents are also left scrambling. Ontario’s childcare sector, weakened during COVID-19, has not fully rebounded. With long waitlists and the province well off track on affordable childcare goals, the sudden loss of flexibility for childcare hits working families hard. Hybrid work has proven to be an equalizer for women, Indigenous workers, and employees with disabilities, all of whom thrive in flexible roles.
Meanwhile, the cost savings generated over six years of hybrid work: through reduced real estate, utilities, and overhead, are now being reversed with savings becoming expenditures and with taxpayers left footing the bill for unnecessary infrastructure, transit pressures, and expanded office needs.
In a 2024 study published in Nature, Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economist and one of the foremost researchers on work-from-home policies, found that employees who work from home are just as productive and boosted employee retention by 33% – a win-win for both employee and employer.
The Real Threat Isn’t Hybrid Work—It’s Unregulated AI
Instead of destabilizing a well-functioning workforce model, the government would be far wiser to direct its energy toward preparing for the true disruption ahead: artificial intelligence. Poorly regulated AI technologies raise pressing concerns. How accurate is the information they generate? How secure is our personal data? What are the implications for our livelihoods?
Already, 60% of jobs in Canada are exposed to AI. Major employers like Amazon have eliminated large segments of their workforce following AI adoption. If governments follow that path, the social fabric will fray quickly. Yet Ontario, the province’s largest employer, has offered little reassurance that it intends to protect, support, and retain the people who will help it manage AI’s complexities.
We need our most skilled public servants focused on navigating these questions—not stuck in traffic or searching for a desk.
We Can’t Afford to Lose Focus
Hybrid work is not a novel experiment. Public-sector workers have operated with flexible arrangements for more than a decade. What is new is the government’s insistence on erasing years of proven productivity, employee satisfaction, and fiscal responsibility. We don’t need to create unnecessary upheaval where we have already successfully adapted.
Change will find us—AI makes that unavoidable. Pushing human resources backward while ignoring the rapid evolution of non-human resources is not a strategy for a modern, competitive province.
If the goal is to get back to the future – let’s get back to the future of work.