Federal Departments Hit a Wall Literally as Ottawa’s Return-to-Office Mandate Runs into a Space Crunch

The federal government’s ambitious push to get public servants back at their desks is running into an unexpected obstacle: there simply aren’t enough desks to go back to.

Several federal departments are either delaying or actively weighing delays to the Treasury Board’s return-to-office directive, citing a shortage of physical workspace as the primary roadblock. The situation is casting doubt on whether the mandate can be rolled out on schedule this summer.

Earlier this year, Treasury Board laid out a clear timeline: executives were to report on-site five days a week beginning May 4, with all remaining federal employees to follow at four days a week starting July 6. The policy was positioned as a firm step toward normalizing in-person work across the public service after years of pandemic-era remote arrangements.

But the reality on the ground is proving more complicated.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada became one of the more prominent examples of the squeeze, telling its staff last week that it cannot meet the July deadline as things stand. The department said managers would be required to come in four days a week starting in July, but all other employees would remain on the current three-day schedule until more space is secured.

Global Affairs Canada flagged a similar issue a month earlier. The department announced it would not be able to comply with the full mandate due to a multi-year renovation project affecting its facilities a timeline that doesn’t bend to suit any government directive.

Meanwhile, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada is reportedly in active talks to lease additional office space in the majority of its locations, according to the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. The union noted that the board simply doesn’t have the physical capacity to bring employees in at the required frequency under the new rules.

The emerging pattern raises broader questions about whether the government adequately assessed its real estate footprint before rolling out the expanded attendance requirements. For many departments, the message to staff is essentially the same: the policy is coming, just not yet and not until the buildings can actually hold everyone.