Winnipeg mayor expects city staff to be back in the office full time

Winnipeg’s mayor says he expects city staff to return to the office five days a week. CTV’s Jeff Keele reports.

All City of Winnipeg employees could be coming back to the office five days a week, after Mayor Scott Gillingham said he expects a full time return to the workspace.

The mayor made the comments Friday following his annual State of the City address to Winnipeg’s business crowd.

Right now, city workers are required to be in the office at least three days a week, but Gillingham wants to see that change.

“My expectation as mayor is that our staff are back in the office five days a week,” he said.

In addition to helping businesses downtown, Gillingham said he believes customer service would be better in-person.

The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce said businesses are not asking employees to do anything they weren’t doing before the pandemic.

“Our members are coming back to the office full time more and more; they want to see government join them in that leadership effort,” Chamber President Loren Remillard said.

A 2023 report at city hall said around 1,500 city employees were working on a flexible schedule. It noted the policy produced cost savings and efficiency and was a good way to recruit and retain workers.

The union representing city workers said the mayor needs to do his homework on this one.

“If you want to be an employer of choice, there’s three areas that you need to look at: compensation, flexible workplace, and education and advancement,” Gord Delbridge, president of CUPE Local 500, said.

The lack of downtown foot traffic has hit Judy Weselowski’s bookstore.

“It sucked,” she said. “Any of the businesses, like restaurants or us, depend on walk-by traffic all the time.”

She hopes the mayor’s change could lead to more customers walking through her doors.

“People are still ordering stuff online instead of shopping local,” she said.

As for when all this will happen—the timeline is still up in the air. The mayor said he’s been in discussions with the interim CAO about this. When the city hires a permanent CAO, Gillingham said they will be tasked with looking into this.