Federal agencies incurred costs exceeding a quarter million dollars per month on unused government-issued cellphones for employees working from home during the pandemic, according to an internal audit by Shared Services Canada. Blacklock's Reporter says the investigation revealed a significant increase in dormant telephone accounts, reflecting the impact of work-from-home orders.“The number of mobile devices that had not been used for three or more months increased by 65% between March 2020 and March 2023,” stated the report. “At the same time, the service plan fees for these unused phones cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per month, totaling $5.9 million in 2021 and $3 million in 2022. The average monthly cost of unused phone service plans was $253,832.”Auditors identified 91,237 mobile phones issued to employees that went unused, possibly due to the increased use of videoconferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams during remote work.“During the pandemic, mobile phones were provisioned for public servants to enable them to contact their teams and provide services to Canadians while working from home,” the auditors noted. “Since then, the adoption of Microsoft Teams has decreased many public servants’ reliance on mobile phones.”The audit also highlighted an overabundance of government-issued cellphones and landlines, surpassing the number of federal employees. Auditors reported more than 840,000 phone lines for 375,000 employees, with annual telephone line costs reaching $339.6 million — a 73% increase since 2019.In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated that most federal employees vacate government buildings for health reasons. “Enough is enough,” Trudeau stated on March 23, 2020. “Go home and stay home. This is what we all need to be doing.”Ottawa emerged as the nation’s telework capital, with 47.5% of its workforce working from home at the pandemic’s peak, according to a 2021 Statistics Canada report. This was higher than other major cities, including Toronto (44%), Montréal (43%), and Vancouver (32%).The Treasury Board recently ordered all federal employees to return to the office for a minimum of three days per week, starting September 9. This directive has faced pushback from the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the largest federal union, which views the mandate as a violation of a 2023 agreement.“Workers feel betrayed,” stated Chris Aylward, Alliance president, on May 8. “We will be using every recourse we have available to fight this mandate and enforce a telework model that works.”
