Wayne Liko has worked with the feds for years. He sees one thing missing from the RTO debate

March 6, 2026

Wayne Liko has worked with the federal government for almost 30 years. In his view, federal office buildings aren’t ready for a return-to-office mandate.

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Wayne Liko has worked with the federal government for almost 30 years. In his view, federal office buildings aren’t ready for a return-to-office mandate. Liko is the managing partner of Ottawa-based Horizant, which works with clients throughout North America to implement integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) that gather, store and analyze real property data. The company has worked with the federal government since 2000 and currently has data from 30 departments. According to Liko, pandemic-era changes optimized federal workspaces for hybrid work. Now, with civil servants expected back in the office four days a week starting July 6, offices aren’t ready to accommodate the influx of staff, he said. “On one side of the conversation, we’re excited about the idea of being on that cusp of helping (the federal government),” Liko told OBJ. “On the other side, there’s a level of frustration that comes into the mix. You know how it can be better, but it’s a question of finding the right mandate or policy to drive that, versus departments making decisions for their own department.” There are “pockets of readiness,” Liko said, with some departments better positioned than others to meet the mandate. This is because departments have implemented different property strategies, he explained, using different definitions, formulas and standards to measure occupancy and utilization of office space. Departments also don’t have an effective way to communicate with each other, he said. “When we look at the Government of Canada, there’s a lot of great work being done on the departmental level, but from a national perspective, I’m not so sure,” Liko said. As a result, it’s difficult to create a wide-reaching strategy to address ongoing issues, he added. And while much of the current debate has centred around space availability, furniture and equipment, Liko said there are bigger questions about “real property readiness,” which involves capital planning, accessibility requirements, recapitalization risk, building health and modernization needs. So instead of worrying about whether a building has enough desks, the question is more about whether the building can safely accommodate an increase in workers, he said. An office space can have all the desks it needs, he said, but it doesn’t mean much if the building is aging and the HVAC system needs an update. And that’s where the data could come in. Even though the government has extensive data about its office buildings, Liko said it doesn’t yet have a strategy to put that data to use. “When we start talking about any sort of policy or mandate, for me the biggest question mark is around using the data to make decisions that support it, whether it’s return-to-office or disposing of Crown assets,” Liko said. According to Liko, each department also has different day-to-day space needs, and those needs are different now compared to during or before the pandemic. For example, some teams that used to hold weekly meetings of 25-plus people now might only need space to accommodate five-person gatherings, he said. Equally, a department that only meets quarterly might not need a large meeting space that another team could make better use of. Liko suggests that type of scenario presents an opportunity for departments to work together on innovative arrangements. Enough data exists to enable readiness assessments to be completed over the next few months, he argues, saying such assessments would allow the government to analyze its existing space, identify gaps and model potential solutions. It’s the kind of approach that could help address the department-level space concerns that have been prevalent in the RTO discussion. Federal public service unions and workers have warned there isn't enough office space to support the federal government's new mandate. The Public Service Alliance of Canada has said there is already a shortage of federal office space and warns "the chaos will only get worse" as in-office time increases. “Pick a department that you know doesn’t have enough space,” Liko said. “It’s going to have to improve the quality of the space that it has. There's a cost associated with that. So how do you look across to another department that says, ‘I have enough space. I don’t need to fit-up or improve that space.’ There's an opportunity to collaborate and avoid that cost and investment.” Taking a space-optimization approach is especially important, he said, as the federal government looks to reduce its real estate footprint. In the 2024 budget, the government said it would cut its office portfolio in half over 10 years. More recently, a 2025 ministerial transition binder said "recent developments" have undermined the government's goal of off-loading half of its office portfolio by 2034, and said the government would get rid of about one-third of its office space over the 10-year period. The government also plans to cut the number of public service jobs by about 40,000, further impacting its space needs. According to Liko, by taking a broad look at priorities and shifting departments to more suitable locations, the government can avoid unnecessary construction and investments, reduce costs and identify properties that are best suited for improvements. And more than just addressing immediate needs, he said a national approach could make changes that would make life easier for civil servants. “Having all this can help drive a better user experience for people coming into an office,” he said. “It goes into other elements. If you wanted to start looking at where buildings are located in comparison to where your employees are located, then all of a sudden you start introducing an element of quality of commute. We can keep extrapolating these kinds of ideas, because there’s so much data. How do we bring the data together to make it the best experience for government workers? “I think we’re close, but I’m not sure that the focus is in the right place yet. But I’m the perennial optimist. I think that we’re moving in the right direction. Some days, I feel like I’d like to move faster. But patience is very much a virtue.” With files from The Canadian Press