Natural Resources Canada Implements Office Attendance Tracking Pilot
Natural Resources Canada has become the latest federal government department to initiate a pilot project designed to monitor whether public servants are adhering to in-office requirements. This move aligns with similar programs already implemented by other federal agencies.
Transition to Detailed Data Collection
In a statement, department spokesperson Marie Martin explained that the project aims to strengthen reporting practices by providing appropriate tools and information to address potential non-compliance and ensure consistent in-office expectations for all employees. Martin emphasized that the pilot would help NRCan transition to the new in-office directive released by Treasury Board earlier this year.
While NRCan has previously relied on high-level, aggregated in-office attendance statistics to guide senior management since 2024, the department will now move toward using more detailed disaggregated data. This data will be drawn from existing IP login information in accordance with Canada's Privacy Act, mirroring approaches taken by other departments.
Federal Return-to-Office Mandates
The Treasury Board directive mandates that public servants return to the office four days a week starting in July, while executives are required to work in-office five days a week beginning in May. As the government has gradually made in-office requirements more stringent, federal departments have faced challenges in ensuring worker compliance with these orders.
Similar Programs at Other Departments
Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada have both implemented comparable tracking programs. IRCC initially monitored employee log-in information as part of a pilot before making the program fully operational in January.
Jeffrey MacDonald, spokesperson for IRCC, clarified that their program uses Internet Protocol login information from IRCC buildings and offices to monitor in-office attendance. The program specifically does not monitor IP addresses from other locations, such as employees' homes or Public Service and Procurement Canada GC Coworking sites.
MacDonald stated that the program provides managers with data to address cases of non-compliance and support a fair work environment.
ESDC's Monitoring Approach
Employment and Social Development Canada has provided weekly aggregated reports about on-site attendance since 2024. In 2025, the department began surveilling individual log-in information to ensure compliance with the in-office directive.
Samuelle Carbonneau, ESDC spokesperson, explained that using two existing sources of information—IT login data from office locations and work arrangement and leave information from the department's main human resources platform—a Low Onsite Connectivity Report was produced in July 2025.
The report, which used data from June 2025, showed that 99.5 percent of employees were compliant with in-office requirements. Carbonneau added that ESDC continues to monitor the presence of employees and supervisors and that additional Low Onsite Connectivity Reports may be produced as needed in the future.
As federal departments increasingly turn to technological solutions to enforce workplace policies, the balance between operational requirements and employee privacy remains a critical consideration in government administration.
