OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Professional Employees is backing the Association Justice Counsel (AJC) in its demands for immediate answers and accountability after the discovery of asbestos in a Montreal office building that has caused at least one serious health condition.
“This incident is deeply troubling and raises pressing concerns about what the government is doing,” said CAPE President Nathan Prier. “Why is Mark Carney so insistent on forcing workers into buildings that pose an immediate and serious threat to their health? Why is the government wasting billions of dollars to try and fix these crumbling and unsafe buildings? Every day, another problem emerges for which remote work would be the logical fix. The prime minister owes Canadians and workers answers.”
CAPE is demanding that all employees at the Guy-Favreau complex in Montreal be granted immediate telework rights to prevent more harm, full disclosure on all testing activities and results, and regular ongoing monitoring with proactive reporting. This is the bare minimum to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all workers in the building.
Since 2022, when the government began mandating employees back to the office, CAPE has been calling for permanent remote work. Public servants proved to be more productive during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most experienced an immediate transition to remote work. It also safeguards workers’ health, as many government buildings have been found to have issues with asbestos, Legionnaire’s disease, rodents, bedbugs and other health concerns.
Implementing widespread remote work for federal public sector workers could save taxpayers up to $40 billion over 10 years, according to government estimates. Reducing the federal real estate portfolio and its maintenance costs should have been a clear cost-savings opportunity during an expenditure review. This government decided instead to find savings by cutting programs and services for Canadians, while forcing federal workers to work less productively from unsafe buildings.
