Public service union delivers $40 billion invoice to prime minister

A return to office policy invoice was delivered to government officials as unions and supporters against return to office policies gathered in Ottawa, July 06, 2026. Photo by Jean Levac /POSTMEDIA

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A federal public service union delivered a $40 billion invoice to the Prime Minister’s Office one the same day public servants were ushered back to the office four days a week.

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The Canadian Association of Professional Employees held an event in front of the Prime Minister’s Office on July 6 to deliver the invoice over what it calls the cost of cancelled savings due to return to office mandates.

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The federal government previously planned to offload around 50 per cent of their office space, before shifting to a new target of 33 per cent due to an increased office presence and federal departments and agencies struggling to meet office space demand.

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In February, the Treasury Board announced public service executives would be required on-site five days per week as of May 4, while most other public servants would be mandated back in-office four days per week on July 6.

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Bill Matthews, the top bureaucrat at the Treasury Board, told a House of Commons committee in May that the four day in-office mandate was a “philosophical choice” as opposed to a decision made of any particular study.

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“What we’ve seen so far, RTO looks a lot less like a workplace policy and more like a political choice,” said CAPE president Nathan Prier. “It’s kind of hard to believe that RTO is just about collaboration here.”

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The Treasury Board did not return a request for comment on the union’s position by deadline.

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A return to office policy invoice was delivered to government officials as unions and supporters against return to office policies gathered in Ottawa, July 06, 2026. Photo by Jean Levac/Ottawa Citizen Photo by Jean Levac /Jean Levac

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Four day return to office leaves workers with less: union

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Rebecca Clark, the local president at CAPE 520 at Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), told the Ottawa Citizen that “it’s really frustrating” to see the federal government rush their return to office strategy.

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Clark says that the federal government is “cramming in desks” and “putting us back to back, side by side” instead of cubicles that were common before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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At NRCan, Clark also said that they are “eliminating a lot of the focus rooms and the sensitivity rooms that a lot of neurodivergent folks, or folks with allergies, or folks with migraines rely on in order to support their in-office presence.”

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Clark said that the federal government should allow for flexible remote work in order to do “deep focus work” and “balance work and life requirements.”

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For Prier, the cuts and a return-to-office mandate is now threatening the working conditions of the public servants that serve Canadians.

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“We’re asking for a modern workplace, we’re asking for proper staffing, we’re asking for the right tools and evidence-based decision making, because we serve Canadians,” he said.

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With files from Ben Andrews

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