Hon. Karina Gould, P.C., M.P., Minister of Families, Children and Social Development: Certainly. Thank you, Senator Housakos, for the question.

I think that one of the things that we’ve actually learned throughout the pandemic is that governments, like many workplaces around the country, can and must modernize. In fact, it’s not just government. Many private sector businesses are also looking at the efficiencies that have been achieved by hybrid workplaces, and some in the private sector have decided that they are not going back to the office at all. It completely depends upon what area of work we’re talking about.

Certainly, if it is an in-person service, if it’s front-line staff then, yes, there will be a requirement to go back to the office or to those front lines. But if it is something that is a back-end function, on occasion that can be more efficient from home as opposed to in an office. All of these things are going to be looked at.

I think one of the important things is that the Government of Canada has to modernize. Unfortunately, for decades, we didn’t do that modernization, and the pandemic forced us to. One of the great things that Service Canada has been able to achieve is e‑services, where we can serve clients over the phone or online in ways that we haven’t done before, and that has shifted a lot of the work that has been done and has resulted in faster processing times for EI, Social Insurance Numbers, OAS, CPP, GIS, et cetera. But there are other things that require in-person services, so we need to get that balance right, and that’s absolutely something that we’re looking at.

At the end of the day, the number one focus is on service to Canadians and how we can better deliver it to Canadian citizens, and that is exactly what we’re looking at.

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