Transport Canada (TC) intends to maintain its remote work policy after announcements of similar plans. While the federal government struggled to let employees back in their offices after COVID-19, TC established a permanent work-from-home policy in line with major tech companies, such as Twitter and Shopify. The announcement was made by the Deputy Minister of Transport during a virtual meeting, TC Talks, on Wednesday with the participation of about 3,500 employees. TC confirmed that it will continue to provide the possibility of working remotely and recognized that while this new permanent policy may not work for everyone and may not be accepted by all, it will turn out to be an important policy in the future. TC believes that this policy will create many distinct opportunities related to organizing work and finding the most appropriate remote work method for all employees, whether they live in the same city or in different regions of the country. The ministry spokesman explained that TC seeks to employ technological developments and achieve the right balance between remote and in-office work for the long term to enable employees to provide the best services for Canadians and improve the quality of life and well-being of employees. The decision was well received by employees in general and some even tweeted, during and after the meeting, expressing their joy about the fact that working from home has become the rule and not the exception. Some positive reactions indicated that the new decision would enhance the work-life balance or even better combine them.
By maintaining the work-from-home policy after the end of the COVID-19 crisis, TC becomes the first government entity to follow in the footsteps of major tech companies like Shopify and Twitter, which announced similar decisions in recent weeks. "Until recently, work happened in the office. We’ve always had some people remote, but they used the internet as a bridge to the office. This will reverse now. The future of the office is to act as an on-ramp to the same digital workplace that you can access from your work-from-home setup," stated Shopify CEO.
For the permanent work-from-home policy to succeed, the entity must be equipped with the infrastructure that fully supports it. This is where a gap appears between the entities and governments that had previously taken the initiative to invest in advanced infrastructure. As for TC, it had already begun its digital transformation two years ago. By shifting to modern and flexible working methods, TC employees were able to seamlessly transition to the remote work system over one weekend in mid-March.
Most employees own mobile devices, such as tablets or laptops, as a result of this digital transformation. TC stopped using landline phones and provided its employees with smartphones instead. All these details required an increase in internet speed, more remote work permits, equal distribution of IT equipment, and providing applications that enable collaborative work like Microsoft Teams.
Can these changes expand and cover the entire public services sector? There is no doubt that this crisis will forever impact the way we live and work, this is why the government of Canada continues its efforts to plan and re-envision the future of jobs.
