The top Treasury Board official is chalking up the government's four-day return-to-office directive to a "philosophical choice" and says the policy is not based on a study of remote work.
"It's a philosophical choice, frankly, that there's a belief that having the teams together in the office to collaborate on doing things in new and different ways leads to a better public service," Bill Matthews, secretary of the Treasury Board, said at a Commons committee on government operations on May 7.
The government announced its new policy, which requires most public servants to work from offices four days a week as of July 6. Executives have been required to return to the office full time as of May 4.
Matthews also admitted at committee that the decision was made to increase public servants' in-office presence, knowing that some departments would not be prepared to handle the surge.
"Decisions around returning to office was made knowing that some departments have more people than space," Matthews said.
When pressed by Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau for the reason for announcing the controversial four-day in-office directive, Matthews insisted it was based on a belief, not evidence.
"If you're looking for a study that says this is a better way to do things, I don't have one. I would describe this as a philosophical choice of the employer and a belief that teamwork is better," Matthews added.
Instead of research, Matthews pointed to other governments and the private sector where "you're seeing the trend" of returning to a pre-pandemic in-office culture.
Matthews added that the federal government has a "very ambitious agenda" the public service is working to execute.
"That is really about getting the most of the public service," Matthews said of the new remote work policy.
Matthews, alongside other Treasury Board officials, announced in February that public servants would be returning to the office for four days a week this summer. Currently, most public servants are required to be in the office three days a week.
When it comes to office space, a number of departments have stated they won't have enough desks for the change in policy.
The Ottawa Citizen reported that the Department of National Defence will not be able to accommodate all its public servants for four days come July. Global Affairs Canada and Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada have told Radio-Canada that they, too, will not be ready.
Public Services and Procurement Canada, the government's property manager, has acknowledged that it may be forced to acquire additional office space to accommodate employees on site four days each week, reversing a previous commitment to cut the federal building portfolio by half over the course of a decade.
Matthews' remarks around return-to-office policy echoed an earlier committee appearance on May 5 in which he announced that the federal government would move to an assigned seating model "so teams can be together."
"Workforces are more productive that way," Matthews added at the May 5 meeting.
With files from Ben Andrews.
