Ottawa/CMEDIA: In one of Ottawa’s suburbs, some federal public servants reportedly wait nearly an hour each morning for a desired spot for co-working spaces rather than endure the commute to their government offices downtown.
At Place d’Orléans, one of six GCcoworking offices in Ottawa and Gatineau, employees reportedly lined outside a co-working office, which opens at 7am.
Each employee hopes to secure one of about 30 workspaces available on a first-come, first-served basis.
To pass their time some sat on folding chairs as they waited for the door to open, while others listened to music or knitted.
With a combined capacity of 684, most of the workspaces the Orléans location has are reserved in advance, but a portion are available for daily walk-ins.
Seven more of the co-working offices are also present in cities across the country including Vancouver, Toronto and Laval, Que.
Most of these opened in 2019, as a Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) pilot project, well before the COVID-19 pandemic forced government employees to work from home.
Designed as activity-based workplaces with individual and collaborative workpoints, these offices aim to promote collaboration, innovation and productivity, according to the PSPC website.
For enhanced efficiency each site is equipped with modern tools and technology, such as Wi-Fi and video-conferencing services.
Fully accessible workspaces are also provided with amenities such as electric height-adjustable desks, power doors and tactile signage based on operational requirements according to the Treasury Board.
A new policy announced in May said that federal civil servants are required to spend at least three days per week in the office, while executives will have to spend at least four days in the office, and civil servants should be in their offices only two days per week.
According to PSPC spokesperson Nicole Allen, the co-working spaces are often at full capacity and that PSPC is also open to the idea of contracting private companies to provide co-working options for federal public servants
Allen said that these locations were an additional option for employees and were never intended to replace federal government offices.
“We plan to eventually open other [locations] in the longer term, with the aim of offering affordable shared office solutions to federal public servants,” Allen reportedly added in an emailed statement to Radio-Canada.
In 2022, the federal government signed a contract worth more than $13.8 million with the company LAUFT Inc. to “offer office space on demand and flexibly, unlike the conventional way of offering it for rental or sale.”
