Mark Sutcliffe has consistently treated clarity about federal office attendance as important to Ottawa’s economy. His public comments have emphasized the effects on downtown businesses, commercial activity and transit ridership.

Under RTO4, the City’s practical response has focused on transportation readiness. OC Transpo restored double-car Line 1 weekday service, reviewed bus routes likely to require additional capacity and prepared for increased federal commuting. The City also developed a Transportation and Mobility Strategy covering transit, roads, traffic flow and parking.

Sutcliffe’s downtown approach also supports more housing, private-sector activity, tourism, culture and mixed uses. This matters because increased office attendance may help weekday businesses without solving office vacancy, evening activity or downtown housing challenges.

His position is best characterized as supportive of the local economic opportunity created by RTO4 and focused on implementation rather than opposition to the federal decision.

Leiper explicitly opposes blanket return-to-office mandates, arguing they increase congestion, put additional pressure on Ottawa’s transit system and increase commuting costs for workers. In August 2026, he pledged to restore flexible work arrangements for City employees where operationally appropriate and said he would encourage the federal government to reverse its return-to-office mandates.

Leiper also proposes advocating for additional shared federal workspaces in communities including Orléans, Barrhaven and Ottawa’s south end to reduce commuting distances and pressure on the transportation network. He argues that downtown Ottawa’s economic future should rely increasingly on people living downtown rather than mandatory office attendance.

Alex Lawson published a dedicated return-to-office policy on August 5, 2026 and explicitly states that he does not support the federal four-day return-to-office mandate.

Lawson acknowledges that an Ottawa mayor cannot repeal a federal staffing policy. He proposes instead to put the City formally on record asking the federal government to reverse the four-day mandate.

He also proposes using municipal land-use, zoning and permitting powers to facilitate more federal workplaces outside the Greenbelt in areas such as Kanata, Orléans, Barrhaven and the south end. To address additional commuting demand, he would restore rush-hour station-to-station express bus service using buses Ottawa already owns or has on order, consistent with his broader transit plan.

Saravanamuttoo explicitly opposes the federal return-to-office mandate and argues Ottawa was not prepared for the additional commuting pressure it creates. He has said he would have pushed the federal government to reconsider the mandate and criticized the current mayor for not doing so.

His position on workplace flexibility is more specifically defined by his response to the independent Ottawa Telework & Future of Work Candidate Survey 2026. For jobs that can be effectively performed remotely while maintaining service and operational requirements, Saravanamuttoo selected hybrid work as the preferred default. He also strongly agreed that workers should generally be evaluated based on their performance and results rather than where they perform their work, and said he would publicly advocate for evidence-based workplace flexibility.

His position therefore combines opposition to a blanket federal RTO4 requirement with support for hybrid workplace arrangements where operationally appropriate, while emphasizing the transportation and infrastructure consequences federal workplace decisions have for Ottawa.