As a major snowstorm caused travel chaos, serious weather alerts, highway closures and school cancellations, some working for Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation were told to head into the office.

Around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, with more than tens of centimetres already on the ground, a manager within the civil service emailed their employees to point out the Ford government’s office mandate.

“Just a reminder that we have a 5-day a week in person requirement,” the email, seen by Global News, said.

It added that the snow meant staff could arrive late and leave early as long as they made an effort to attend.

“Otherwise,” the note concluded, “please take a vacation day, which some … staff are doing today.”

The message was sent after schools in Toronto had announced they would close for the day, and while emergency services and Environment Canada were urging people to avoid all non-essential travel.

“Allow extra time for travel,” the weather agency wrote. “Non-essential travel should be avoided.”

About an hour after telling workers to head into the office or use a vacation day, the directive was revised.

“We are now being advised that if you have your equipment, you may work from home,” the follow-up, sent at 10:35 a.m., said. “Staff to decide for themselves if it’s safe or possible to drive in today. Please use your best judgment and prioritize safety.”

1:40
Slow commute into Toronto amid heavy snowfall

The contradictory messages to some in the Ministry of Transportation are part of a broader pattern of confusion which appeared to play out across the civil service on Thursday.

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At the beginning of January, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decree for civil servants to return to the office full-time came into effect, despite there not being space available for all civil servants.

The premier acknowledged early issues with the plan, but maintained it was paramount that public servants return to their desks.

“I think we have room for the majority of people,” Ford said during an appearance at Queen’s Park on Jan. 5.

“We’ll get through this. There’s a little bump; we’ve been working on this for the last little while.”

Thousands of civil servants also submitted requests to work from home or on hybrid schedules, which the government appears to still be assessing.

Thursday’s snowfall, however, presented a new hiccup for the office mandate.

Individual departments appear to have been given discretion to decide for themselves if the snowfall was a legitimate reason to stay at home. According to social media posts from civil servants, some told their staff to stay home, while others ordered them in.

Global News asked the Ford government if others had been told to brave the snowstorm to make it to the office. They did not respond to the question.

Instead, a spokesperson suggested there had not been any central decision on the snow day.

“As part of the OPS in-office standard, managers can approve ad hoc, occasional or temporary remote work requests to provide short-term flexibility for various extenuating circumstances — including inclement weather,” they wrote in a statement.

“As such, an OPS directive was not issued today because local managers already have the discretion to offer this flexibility.”

1:52
Ontario ends remote work for civil servants, orders full return to office in 2026

The office mandate was first announced in August, sparking protests and complaints from unionized workers who rallied at Queen’s Park, arguing they were more efficient with the option to work at home, which became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AMAPCEO and other public-sector unions forcefully opposed the government’s move to phase out remote work, saying it offers benefits such as improved work-life balance and higher productivity.

A petition launched by AMAPCEO garnered 13,000 signatures in support of a policy reversal.

Ten days after the return officially took place, the government is still refusing to say how much office space it needs to accommodate all civil servants, how much it will cost and if it needs to lease new buildings.

1:10
‘Time to get back to work’: Doug Ford addresses return-to-office mandate for Ontario civil servants

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The mother of a man living in a Toronto-area group home at the centre of a bitter labour dispute says she is seeking accountability after he was “savagely bitten” on the neck by another resident.

Jan Beddoe says she was “absolutely furious” after the Dec. 23 attack on her 47-year-old son Chris at the home run by Central West Specialized Developmental Services. It’s a provincially funded supportive living community for adults with developmental disabilities, with satellite locations in Burlington, Halton Hills, Mississauga and Oakville.

The bite happened more than two months after about 40 residents were moved into the care home’s main facility near downtown Oakville to ensure there would be enough staff to provide round-the-clock care in anticipation of a strike by support staff.

The workers represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union walked off the job in mid-November, about 40 days after CWSDS requested a no-board report from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour. Since then, third-party agency staff have been working in the main Oakville facility to support residents.

Beddoe alleges the attack on Chris occurred in the upstairs part of his unit while all the staff working in that area were in a meeting. Chris had to reach the top of the stairs before anyone could hear him calling for help, she said.

Chris saw a nurse on site and was later taken to a hospital, where he received several stitches, Beddoe said. The Canadian Press reviewed photos of the bite, which revealed a deep wound that extends from his chin to the edge of his jaw.

“As soon as the incident happened, (I felt) terrible fear,” Beddoe said in an interview. “But once I knew he was all right and he was going to be all right, then I was just absolutely furious, beyond furious. I did not hear from the centre. I did not hear from house management.”

Beddoe said she blames the incident “fully on understaffing, some unqualified staffing … They don’t know these clients well enough to know their individualized needs.”

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She said Chris’s wound was partially closed with stitches and the open part needs to be packed with gauze on a daily basis, likely for another month.

CWSDS CEO Patricia Kyle wouldn’t comment on the bite, citing patient confidentiality, but she said that “supervision was in place at the time of the incident.”

The organization is “deeply proud of the high-quality, compassionate care we provide people with complex developmental needs,” Kyle wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.

Union spokesperson Jolene Cushman said OPSEU is aware of the incident.

“This is a dangerous situation that members have been warning could happen long before they went on strike,” she wrote in an email.

After the bite, Chris came home for two weeks. Beddoe said her family managed to have a “lovely Christmas,” but was in a “lot of shock.”

In addition to managing typical care for Chris, who has an insatiable appetite and significant dietary restrictions as a result of Prader-Willi syndrome, Beddoe said she was also tasked with bathing and cleaning his wound every day.

“My one daughter took a week off work to stay with me to help care for Chris because I can’t do it myself,” the 73-year-old said. “We just laid low and cared for him.”

Chris has since returned to the care home in Oakville and is now living in a different unit that doesn’t have any “high needs” or “high volatility” clients, Beddoe said. She had requested that in several letters she sent to the home’s management.

“He is very content not to be frightened,” she said, adding that Chris still hasn’t been interviewed by CWSDS staff for the incident report.

Kyle said in her statement that CWSDS has been “supporting and communicating extensively with the person supported and their family to address their safety and well-being.”

Still, Beddoe said she’s concerned about the level of care as the strike continues and agency staff remain as the residents’ primary caregivers. She said the lack of familiarity with residents’ specific needs is contributing to an unsafe environment. She’s also frustrated by what she describes as a lack of communication and transparency from CWSDS.

Beddoe isn’t the only one with concerns. In October, more than a dozen family members wrote a letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, asking him to help return their loved ones to their regular care homes after the move to the main facility in Oakville. The letter said residents were moved without their families’ consent and needed to be among regular staff who knew them.

Family members sounded the alarm again when front-line workers walked off the job in November, with some questioning the quality of care their loved ones would receive.

Before Chris was bitten, Beddoe’s daughter Shannon also wrote a letter to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services about conditions at the care home.

When the issue was raised in the Ontario legislature in late November, Michael Parsa, the minister of children, community and social services, said the province requires every agency to “have strong contingency plans in place” to ensure the best care for those receiving support services.

In an emailed statement, the ministry said it conducts regular inspections of care agencies and that allegations of abuse or neglect can be sent through ReportON. It did not respond to questions about Chris’s bite or comment on allegations of unsafe conditions at CWSDS.

A resident died at the Oakville care home in December, as the union alleged conditions there had been worsening. Halton regional police have said the death is not considered to be suspicious.

On Jan. 10, OPSEU President JP Hornick sent a letter to CWSDS’s board of directors, urging them to “bear responsibility for the ongoing situation” at the care home. His requests included getting a fair deal for workers and addressing health and safety concerns via an emergency board meeting.

As the labour dispute drags on, what happened to Chris has caused panic among other residents’ families as well, Beddoe said.

“I think the feeling amongst everyone is: if this can happen to Chris, it can happen to anyone,” she said.