Queen's Park in Toronto where public sector workers will be required to return to the office full-time in 2026. Photo by CYNTHIA MCLEOD/Postmedia

Public sector employees for the province of Ontario are returning to in-office work five days a week at the start of 2026.

the province announced

Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended the province’s policy change at an unrelated press conference Thursday.

“I believe everyone’s more productive when they’re at work, how do you mentor someone over a phone? You can’t,” he said.

Ford also said the move will help downtown businesses that rely on workers’ foot traffic.

“There’s hard-working entrepreneurs that their business basically just died when they weren’t seeing the flow of traffic,” he said.

The changing policy reflects a growing trend

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