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CBC
41 minutes ago
- CBC
How scrapping remote work could affect Ontario public sector recruitment
Ontario's move to order public servants to work from the office full time is raising questions about its potential impact on the government's ability to recruit and retain skilled staff. Premier Doug Ford's government has told the 60,000 members of the Ontario Public Service (OPS) they must be at their workplace at least four days a week starting in October and then in the office full time from early January. The OPS consists of people who work in the ministries and agencies directly controlled by the province. Roughly half of that workforce has had the option to work remotely up to twice a week since at least April 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic waned and Ontario's return-to-office plan kicked in. Taking away that option is stirring up a debate about its merits for productivity, employee well-being and attracting talent. Eliminating remote work has a particular impact on the union AMAPCEO, which represents 14,000 professional and administrative staff, many of whom opted for the hybrid model of splitting their time between an office and home. AMAPCEO president Dave Bulmer says the Ford government's decision will affect both recruitment and retention in the OPS. "I represent professionals, highly educated people who can choose where to work in the market, the best and the brightest," Bulmer said in an interview with Radio-Canada. "Nobody's going to come to an OPS that doesn't have hybrid work," he said. "We have lots of people who are with the OPS who are probably going to move on now." 'Attracting, developing, retaining top talent' Bulmer argues the government's move runs counter to its own official human resources strategy, dubbed the OPS People Plan. The chief goal stated in the plan: "Attracting, developing, and retaining top talent that reflects Ontario's diversity." Maria Gintova, an assistant professor of political science and public policy at McMaster University, has researched the impact of flexible work arrangements on public sector employees. Those employees generally viewed mandatory work-from-office rules as "government going with their idea of how things should be done, without any kind of consultations, and not listening to the public service," she said in an interview with CBC News. WATCH | Ford government orders public servants back to the office full time: Ontario's public servants will be back in office full time as of 2026 2 days ago Ontario Premier Doug Ford is ordering the province's 60,000 public servants back to the office full time starting in January. CBC's Mike Crawley has the details. Gintova, who previously held policy jobs in several Ontario ministries, says allowing people to work remotely helps boost diversity in the workforce by opening up jobs to a geographically wider field of candidates. "Remote work is a key for improving work-life balance," Gintova added. While Ford says he believes government employees are more productive when they are in the office, Gintova says there's no evidence to suggest that's accurate. Mulroney spokesperson defends move A spokesperson for Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney, the cabinet minister who oversees the OPS, says moving to a standard of five days per week in the workplace reflects what's happening in workplaces throughout Ontario. "Our standard is also aligned with other provinces, cities, and organizations across Canada," Mulroney's director of communications, Andrea Chiappetta, said in an email to CBC News. "We are confident in our ability to attract and retain top talent into the public service," Chiappetta said. Provincial data puts the turnover rate in the Ontario public service at six per cent. The OPS People Plan includes a target of reducing that to 4.2 per cent by 2026. The province also wants to boost another measure of the lure of an OPS job: the number of applicants per vacancy. It has averaged 28.4, and the government's target is 42.8 Scrapping the option to work remotely neither helps attract talented people to the public sector nor helps keep them there, says Marion Nader, CEO of Nexus Strategy Group and a former senior advisor with the Ontario NDP. "It shuts out a huge labour pool because people now want that flexibility," said Nader in an interview with CBC News. "People want the flexibility to be able to at least work from home a couple of days a week." Nader believes the Ford government has an ulterior motive with the plan: reducing the number of public service jobs through attrition. "The return to the office policy isn't about productivity. It's more about a downsizing strategy for the OPS," she said. John Fraser, the Ontario Liberal Party's labour critic, says the Ford government needs to take a more thoughtful and balanced approach to the issue. "Telecommuting has benefits for our economy, families' lives, and our environment," Fraser said in an email. "The reality is this is where the world is going." City of Brampton follows suit The Ford government's move has already prompted at least one other public sector employer in Ontario to follow suit. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said Friday he plans to follow the province's lead and require city staff to return to full-time in-office work on an identical timeline. Four of Canada's big banks — RBC, Scotiabank, BMO and TD — recently announced that staff at their Toronto headquarters must spend at least four days a week in the office, effective this fall. The province's announcement comes just two weeks after AMAPCEO ratified a new collective agreement, and while the other major union representing provincial public servants, OPSEU, is in the midst of negotiations. Hybrid work has "provided measurable benefits in productivity, retention, and well-being," said OPSEU in a statement. Ontario's mandate for OPS staff to be in the office four days per week takes effect on Oct. 20, with the full-time-in-office rule kicking in on Jan. 5, 2026. Employees who currently have what's called an "alternative work arrangement" — a formal, signed agreement to work from a different location — will not have to follow the new in-office mandate. A government official says those will remain valid until the expiry date in each agreement. The two unions are encouraging members who still want to work remotely but don't have such an arrangement in place to request them from OPS management.
CBC
41 minutes ago
- CBC
Trump leaves Alaska without a Ukraine peace deal — and Putin gets a win
Social Sharing U.S. President Donald Trump set the bar low for the high-stakes meeting with his Russian counterpart in Alaska — and it became apparent why late Friday as things wrapped up with little more than a commitment to meet again. Trump had the chance to prove to the world he is the master dealmaker and global peacemaker he claims to be — but he couldn't deliver, at least not yet. Trump, who seemed tired and even dejected as he spoke briefly to reporters alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin after a three-hour face-to-face, said the two sides weren't able to close the deal on a plan for peace in Ukraine. He has maintained all along there would be a second meeting before things could be settled, but he cracked open the door to the possibility of something more transpiring at this historic gathering. Asked by reporters about a ceasefire on the way up to the summit in the Russian territory turned U.S. state, Trump said: "I'm not going to be happy if it's not today." That didn't happen — the word ceasefire wasn't uttered by either leader in the end — but Trump wasn't exactly angry during the closing media availability. WATCH | Trump says Putin meeting was 'very productive': Trump calls meeting with Putin 'very productive' 8 hours ago U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladamir Putin agreed on many points during their talks Friday about the war in Ukraine, but about any formal agreement, he said, 'we haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway. So there's no deal until there's a deal.' Does that mean progress really has been made and a deal to end the atrocities in Ukraine could soon be in hand? Hard to say. "We didn't get there but we have a very good chance of getting there," Trump said. Sticking points Trump stressed that, in his view, the two had "an extremely productive meeting" even if there's nothing concrete to report at this stage. There are some unnamed sticking points that still need to be resolved, Trump said, mentioning one area in particular that hasn't been sorted out — and that's probably the "most significant." It's possible Trump was referencing Russian demands over land swaps. Putin is eyeing the oblasts in Ukraine's east that his troops have captured over the course of the years-long conflict. Before Friday's meeting, the U.S. president said he will likely meet again with Putin to discuss how land will be divided up, a comment that undoubtedly prompted concerns in Kyiv where ceding territory is anathema. Still, there was apparently enough progress on some points of contention that Trump said he will call Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and others to report back on what was discussed. WATCH | Putin and Trump speak following meeting: Putin and Trump speak following their meeting 8 hours ago Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to reporters following their meeting in Alaska about the war in Ukraine. They praised each other and suggested they were both committed to peace but gave no details about how they might get there. Trump said there would be 'no deal until there is a deal.' Trump wasn't willing to publicly divulge the details of what went on until he spoke to his allies — he even demurred when speaking to Fox News in a post-summit interview — a diplomatic courtesy that's not always standard practice for this president. "Ukraine has to agree to it, maybe they'll say no," he said. Putin, for his part, was all smiles. He was even bold enough to suggest — in English, no less — that when the two sit down again, the meeting should be in Moscow, something Trump chuckled at, saying he would catch "heat" for doing that. Putin 'in from the cold': former ambassador Putin, who's been a pariah among Western leaders since he launched his brutal assault on Ukraine, walks away with something of a win. After years on the outs, he had a meeting with the de facto leader of the Western world and the chance to press Russia's case to the country that's backstopping the Ukrainian war effort. He also got a red carpet welcome — a red rug was physically unfurled on the tarmac upon his arrival — and Trump clapped and smiled as the two gathered for a seemingly friendly photo opportunity before the talks. "Putin was kind of re-legitimized, rehabilitated, you know. He was brought in from the cold. That was a big step," said Jeremy Kinsman, a former Canadian ambassador to Russia. "I met the guy in the 1990s, what he's always wanted was to recapture the status that the Soviet Union had in the world. The biggest symbol of that is having this hand-in-hand, arm-in arm relationship with the most powerful country in the world," he said. And Putin got Trump to defy the longstanding Western practice of "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine" by keeping Zelenskyy out of the summit. Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute, said he doesn't expect Zelenskyy will make much of a fuss about being snubbed — which is also something of a plus for Russia. "Zelenskyy decided after that disastrous meeting in the Oval Office to really bear hug the American position. He is so dependent on the United States in several respects that he is going to try to agree as best he can with whatever it is that the U.S. puts on the table," Rough said in an interview. Putin returned the favour, affirming Trump's longstanding claim that the Ukraine war would have never happened if Trump was in office instead of former president Joe Biden when the hostilities started in 2022. "I was so happy," Trump said of that remark. This sit-down came about just as Trump's fraught relationship with Putin was seemingly at its lowest point. Recent tension Only a few weeks ago, the U.S. president said he was growing weary of dealing with the Russian leader, telling the world that Putin often says one thing to him and then does another. Trump called out what he described as Putin's "bullshit" and branded Russia's relentless bombing of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities as "disgusting." He said his wife, Melania Trump, was often reminding him of Putin's barbarism. "I go home, I tell the first lady, 'You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.' And she said, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit,'" Trump said at a meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last month. And Trump turned to his favourite cudgel to try and force a deal. He said, if Putin couldn't cut a deal to bring the war to a close soon, he would hit Russian goods with a punishing 100 per cent tariff. Then, he threatened to hike tariffs on India, a major buyer of Russian oil. There was also talk of major U.S. sanctions on Russia, too, which is what experts say Putin fears the most. In the end, Putin got a meeting, dodged any commitment to a ceasefire and Trump said nothing about tariffs or sanctions. For the Russian leader, it was worth the red-eye flight.
CBC
41 minutes ago
- CBC
Can the ZEV mandate survive political pressure and industry objections?
Social Sharing With the federal carbon tax dead and gone, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has found a new target among the Liberal government's climate policies — the electric vehicle availability standard, otherwise known as the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. "We will legalize, into the future, your right to drive a gas or diesel-powered truck or car by repealing the Liberal EV mandate," Poilievre said last week, while restating his desire to see a number of Liberal policies repealed. In a Conservative fundraising email in June, Poilievre's deputy leader, Melissa Lantsman, put the issue in even more bracing terms, writing that the "radical Liberals" were planning to make gas-powered vehicles "illegal" and "force" people to buy "expensive" EVs. Appealing to supporters in rural areas — where EVs might be less practical at the moment — Lantsman added that "Liberals in Ottawa and in busy downtown cores think they know better than you." On Thursday, Poilievre announced that Conservatives would be launching a " nationwide campaign" to stop the mandate. The Conservative leader is smart enough to know he is pushing against a policy that is already under pressure. But that may set up the ZEV mandate as a test of the ability of Mark Carney's government to defend and meaningfully advance climate policy — a test Justin Trudeau's government arguably failed on the carbon tax. Whether or not the Charter can be read to give Canadians the "right" to own an internal-combustion engine, it's not quite the case that gas-powered vehicles will be made illegal. More specifically, the ZEV mandate establishes a series of escalating light-duty vehicle sales targets for auto manufacturers and importers, starting at 20 per cent in 2026 and reaching 100 per cent in 2035. Companies have some flexibility if they are unable or unwilling to meet the annual target — they can buy credits from other sellers or invest in charging infrastructure. The debate over EV policy Advocates of action to fight climate change have supported mandates as a way to guarantee a predictable supply of EVs and accelerate adoption — British Columbia and Quebec have each had ZEV mandates for several years. But North American automakers have bristled at the prospect of additional regulation and would prefer to stick with less-prescriptive regulations aimed at emissions from passenger vehicles. Though those "tailpipe" standards have typically been harmonized with the United States and the Trump administration is currently intent on repealing its regulations. Automakers have called on Carney's government to change or scrap the mandate. Against the backdrop of a trade war, the government seems willing to hear them out — Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told the Globe and Mail in July that the government was working with industry to "find what would be that right level." WATCH | Automakers want EV mandate removed: Automakers push Ottawa to drop EV mandates 1 month ago In arguing against the mandate, the auto industry also now points to a recent slump in EV sales in Canada. But auto executives themselves have said the recent slump is a " direct response" to changes in the rebates offered by federal and provincial governments. The federal government's EV incentive ended in January, Quebec's incentive was temporarily paused in February and British Columbia halted its rebate program in May. The Carney government has said it's working on a new rebate, but that promise might be pushing prospective buyers to wait. Joanna Kyriazis, director of public affairs at Clean Energy Canada, says the Liberal government should broadly stay the course with its mandate, but there are compromises it could make. The Liberals could, for instance, build in additional flexabilities or adjust some of the near-term targets. It could even adjust the ultimate target of 2035. "If this idea of a 100 per cent sales target is really polarizing and really scary to Canadians, then bring it down to 95 per cent — show that there's room for the niche applications or niche situations where in 10 years EVs still might not work," Kyriazis says, though adding that she thinks the technology will have advanced enough by then that such an allowance won't be necessary. Such changes might have the effect of watering down the initial policy without deviating from the larger goal — significantly increasing the use of non-gas-powered vehicles for the sake of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. "[The current sales targets are] in line with where the rest of the world is going," Kyriazis argues. "North America is on a little detour right now, but in the rest of the world, EV sales keep on rising." Worldwide, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids accounted for 22 per cent of all new car sales in 2024, according to data from the International Energy Agency. In Canada, according to the IEA, EVs accounted for 17 per cent of all sales (Statistics Canada says it was 14 per cent). In the U.K. — where a Conservative government introduced a ZEV mandate in 2024, which was then amended by a Labour government — EVs accounted for 28 per cent of all new cars sold last year. In France, they accounted for 24 per cent. "If you look at jurisdictions that have high levels of EV adoption, it's because they have put in place the conditions to create strong consumer demand. So you have incentives … and you have a much more effective charging infrastructure rollout," says Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, which represents Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Beyond the question of which type of regulations make more sense, that argument might make the case for governments putting even more money toward building charging infrastructure, alongside reintroducing rebates for consumers. The politics of EVs In the meantime, there will be a political fight — and it will apparently be waged in terms of a culture war. In a video posted in June, Poilievre said the mandate was not about reducing emissions, but about "imposing elite ideology on the common people." The last time a federal climate policy came under this much concentrated pressure, the carbon tax suffered from both the surging inflation that followed the pandemic and the falling popularity of the prime minister who introduced it. The Trudeau government then undercut its own policy with a carve-out aimed at voters in one region of the country. Appearing before a Senate committee not long after the Trudeau government made that move, Mark Carney said that "if something is going to be changed, then something at least as good is put in its place. Ideally, if you're going to change something, you put in place something better that still has that credibility and predictability that has the power that drives investment." That stated principle might hang over whatever the Carney government is considering now. Ultimately — for Carney and Poilievre, for Canadians in urban and rural communities — there is the unforgiving math of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is currently aiming to reduce its total national emissions by at least 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. The federal government is further aiming to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The transportation sector accounted for 156.6 megatonnes of emissions in 2023 — 22.6 per cent of Canada's total emissions. Specifically, passenger cars and light trucks for 91.5 megatonnes — 13.2 per cent of the national total.
