City of Vancouver orders 1,400 employees back amid return to office

In an email last week, new Vancouver City Manager Donny van Dyk ordered all 1,400 exempt staff to return to five days a week, in-person work. This directive will be effective come January 1st, 2026. “We’re enacting this change at a time when we’ll need to be working together closely,” van Dyk said in an email to relevant employees. “The adjustment will align us with other leading public and private sector organizations across Canada that have returned to onsite work.”

Growing trend back to the office

The City of Vancouver is not alone in implementing its new “return to work” policy; many other governments in Canada, such as the province of Ontario and the City of Ottawa, have implemented policies mandating a return to the office for five days a week.

Workplaces across Canada have slowly begun returning to an in-person work model in the years since the height of the pandemic. According to data from Statistics Canada, employed people who commute, also known as those who work outside the home, are 82.6 percent of the workforce. This is up from 60 percent during the pandemic and 77.6 percent in 2022.

Percentage of Canadians who work outside home. Sourced from Statistics Canada.

Verdict on working from home is unclear

While currently 59 percent of Canadians say working remotely for a majority of the work week would be ideal, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that a hybrid workforce increases productivity. A 2024 study by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found that there was no significant change in productivity between those who work from home and those who work in hybrid situations. That being said, those who worked in hybrid settings quit less by 33 percent, and employees in the hybrid schedule reported higher job satisfaction/self-reported productivity and appreciated the flexibility.