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“Half the public service is already at work five days a week — and I want to thank them — and I just look forward to having everyone back to work,” Ford told reporters Thursday in Pickering.

“How do you mentor someone over a phone? You’ve got to look at them eye to eye, over the water cooler, wherever train them, camaraderie — plus the economy,” said the premier, noting most private-sector employers are insisting workers return to the office.

“I just use downtown ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, for example, the PATH. There’s hard-working entrepreneurs (whose) businesses basically just died when they weren’t seeing the flow of traffic,” he said of the stores, services and restaurants beneath office towers.

“All the companies I’ve talked to — from the banks to the insurance companies to everyone else — everyone needs to go back to work.”

But an “incensed” Dave Bulmer, president of the Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO), which represents some 16,500 public servants insisted “remote work works.”

“For the last five years, AMAPCEO members have gone above and beyond working for the people of Ontario — from anywhere. From the office, the field — and yes, our home offices,” Bulmer said.

“I am incensed by this morning’s announcement that the OPS will be returning to five days in the office in the new year. The secretary of cabinet is now using policy to force through what couldn’t be wrested from us during free and fair collective bargaining,” he said, referring to Michelle DiEmanuele, head if the public service.

“AMAPCEO is going to continue to fight for flexibility for members who want it and stop the secretary from dragging Ontario’s hardworking public service back to the Stone Age.”

During the COVID-19 health emergency that began in Ontario in March 2020 and was officially over by March 2022, most public servants were able work remotely at least part of each week.

In April 2022, the province decreed that public servants should only work from home two days a week.

Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney said it is time to get back to normal.

“Effective Jan. 5, 2026, the Ontario public service and its provincial agencies, boards and commission public bodies will return to the office full time,” said Mulroney.

“Based on the nature of their work, over half of the Ontario public service are already required to attend the workplace full time,” she noted.

“Starting on Oct. 20, 2025, employees who have been attending the workplace for a minimum of three days per week will increase their attendance to four days per week as part of a gradual transition period to the full time in-office standard effective Jan. 5, 2026.”

Oct. 20 is also the day the legislature resumes for the fall session after MPPs’ extended 137-day summer break.

While some private-sector employers continue to use a hybrid model, forcing workers to come into the office one or two days a week, Mulroney indicated Queen’s Park wants to set an example.

“The return to a five days per week in-workplace standard represents the current workforce landscape in the province and it reinforces our commitment to reflecting the people and businesses we serve across Ontario,” she said.

“This transition is an important step that supports the government’s ongoing efforts to build a more competitive, resilient and self-reliant Ontario.”

That’s was a reference to the ongoing trade war with the U.S. due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and to the fact that the unemployment rate in Ontario is now 7.8 per cent.

Ford emphasized that “Ontario’s public service is the best in the entire country.”

“They’ve been effective and professional, helping Ontario face down major challenges, including the challenge we now face from south of the border,” said the premier.

“Our province is in a fight for our lives, and I could not deliver on our plan to protect Ontario’s economy, our workers and our future without our public service,” he said.

Bulmer told AMAPCEO members the union’s fight is not over yet.

“If you have a formal, signed remote work agreement, there should be no change to your working arrangements for the duration of your agreement,” he said.