Businesses in Ottawa Hope for More Public Servants in Office

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La Bottega owner Pat Nicastro stocks items in his downtown Ottawa store on Jan. 15. Federal public servants have long been reliable customers for the Byward Market business, but remote and hybrid work changed that. Dave Chan/

Federal public servants used to be a dependable source of customers for Pat Nicastro’s fine-food shop in Ottawa’s Byward Market.

He could always count on many of them who worked nearby to stop by for lunch, which made up a significant part of the customer base that has supported La Bottega for nearly 30 years.

However, the pandemic shifted many to working from home, and now most are only at the office three days a week. “Before, you had the benefit of thousands of workers working in the area [every day],” Mr. Nicastro said.

Public servants are still an important part of Ottawa’s economy, and hybrid work setups have negatively affected downtown businesses. The situation worsened with staffing cuts that resulted in fewer potential customers.

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Many business owners looking forward to seeing workers back more often have taken note of comments made by Prime Minister Mark Carney – an Ottawa MP – during a forum last month attended by about 1,100 people.

During a discussion with Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Mr. Carney recognized the strong interest from local businesses regarding hybrid work arrangements for public servants.

The Prime Minister mentioned that his government will engage with public-sector unions on this topic. “We will come to a sharper view on it over the course of the next several weeks,” Mr. Carney said.

He stated that employees will need to be present in the office more often based on their seniority level, role and what he referred to as “capacity” – alluding to reduced office space due to pandemic cutbacks.

However, unions representing public-sector employees have opposed demands for increased office attendance.

Sharon De Sousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, stated that “Prime Minister Carney’s commitment to make federal workers spend more time in offices is severely out of touch with what’s best for workers and taxpayers.”

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Pedestrians make their way along Sparks Street in Ottawa in November, 2021. Unions representing public servants have pushed back on calls for them to come into the office more often. Sean Kilpatrick/

According to Statistics Canada, there were 153,979 federal public servants in the National Capital Region that includes Ottawa and Gatineau as of 2025. In contrast, there were 48,886 in Ontario outside this region, 18,880 in Alberta and 28,901 in British Columbia.

Mr. Carney’s remarks were received positively by Anish Mehra, owner of East India Restaurant in Ottawa who was present at the event.

“The crowd he was speaking to was a lot of businesspeople. So for a lot of people in the room, the vibe was very much, ‘Great. This sounds good,’” Mr. Mehra said during an interview.

Before COVID hit, he noted that federal employees made up about 50 to 60 percent of his lunchtime clientele; he also had extra business from these patrons after hours. Now he estimates that federal customer numbers have dropped down to around 20 or 30 percent compared to before.

He expressed understanding toward federal employees working remotely saying “I think the general sense of the community for the core would be, ‘We understand their positions.’” Yet he added “we think it would make more sense to have people back at work a little bit more.”

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