On behalf of the members of the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service, I present to you our action plan. A task force asked to consider the participation of visible minorities in the federal public service acknowledged it faces a daunting task. Despite major efforts by the federal civil service to address employment equity issues, the problem of visible minority underrepresentation in the federal workforce remains.
The Task Force considered the issues surrounding the participation of visible minorities in the context of changing the federal public service to improve it for all Canadians. The federal public service now has the opportunity to address the representation of visible minorities in ways that will help create an exemplary workplace.
Set a Benchmark
The task force shares the federal government's view that progress in improving the representation and advancement of visible minorities has been unacceptably slow, so that it now lags behind the private and federally regulated sectors. The Task Force believes the time has come to step up efforts to aggressively pursue a time-limited benchmark for the hiring and advancement of visible minorities. The task force is confident that there is a commitment to a results-oriented approach among deputy leaders.
The Taskforce believes that a benchmark of 1 in 5 is achievable for recruitment in the public sector as a whole. The Task Force emphasizes that “closing the gap” amounts to chasing a historical figure; the LMA represents what the federal workforce should have looked like in 1996.
Help Departments and Managers Achieve the Benchmark
In analyzing underrepresentation, the Public Service Commission noted the dramatic difference between application and hiring rates of visible minorities. The Task Force notes that few departments are involved in outreach; must be much more to prepare for the upcoming recruitment drives and because of expected retirements alone (the average age of all employees in the public service is 42.5 years, and that of managers is 49.3 years). Many potential recruits have a negative perception of the federal civil service as a place to work.
The federal government should counter this by identifying beneficial aspects of public service employment and promoting them in recruitment practices. Changing the face of the federal public service is not just about external marketing; the civil service must believe this internally.
Change the Corporate Culture
Signaling that the federal government is committed to being an employer of choice and creating an exemplary workplace: The federal government service should offer a career path program for promising new hires and existing employees. The federal government should offer innovative internship programs, which would also allow it to compete with the private sector.
Intensify efforts to attract a new generation of visible minority Canadian youth to the federal public service. The federal government should overall strive to not only meet but to exceed the benchmark.
Provide for Implementation and Accountability
The task force envisages that departments would incorporate the action plan into their annual employment equity planning and develop HR strategies and objectives accordingly. The Action Plan envisages enhanced roles for the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Secretary of the Finance Committee and the Chairman of the Public Service Commission to: (a) identify where strategic progress can be made; (b) promoting and monitoring progress; and (c) if progress is not made, to direct departments accordingly. The Public Service Commission can help in practical ways: helping managers understand the objectives of the action plan; use existing flexibility; and make the most of innovative recruitment tools and practices.
The Task Force sees that the Commission, with its regional offices, is well placed to administer an annual national grant program linked to the objectives of the action plan. Formulate the objective of achieving a representative civil service in annual objectives and include those objectives as a key commitment in the performance agreements concluded between the Clerk of the Privy Council and deputy chiefs. Provides for the Committee of Senior Officials (COSO), a committee of deputy chiefs chaired by the Clerk of the Privy.
The Treasury Board Secretariat can also assist departments to draw on the expertise of other departments and agencies. Each department's annual report, measured against the goals of the action plan, should coincide with its annual reporting on employment equality in the report to Parliament from the President of the Treasury Board. The National Council of Visible Minorities may wish to report annually to the President of the Treasury Board on progress.
In their annual employment equity reporting to the Treasury Board Secretariat, departments must also include reporting on progress on elements in the action plan. Because the objectives of the action plan are not legislated, they do not necessarily fall within the mandate of CHRC in its annual departmental audits. At the end of three years, the President of the Treasury Board must provide for a.
External Advice and Independent Review
The additional activity generated by the action plan must be accommodated under the existing funding authority of mainstream human resources programs and activities. The Treasury Board to set aside a reserve of ten million dollars annually for the next five years to help implement the action plan. The Task Force anticipates that additional financial resources may be needed to fund initial activities under the action plan.
This would fund, for example, new cross-departmental career and leadership development programs, new youth internships and new management programs offered by the Canadian Center for Management Development under the action plan. The Task Force believes that the action plan can achieve progress towards a representative public service only if its employment equity measures are integrated into core human resources programs and activities. This will require a shift of priorities and resources within and between existing programs and activities.
The Finance Council should set aside an annual reserve to help fund programs and activities in the action plan that are either less easily accommodated within existing budget allocations for human resources or that are outside the mandates of existing programs and activities.
Provide for Incremental Financial Resources
In 1999 (end of fiscal year), one in 17 employees in the federal public service was a member of a visible minority group. Most recently, following a national conference in Ottawa in October 1999, the National Council of Visible Minorities was established to give visible minorities a stronger voice in the public service. 1 in 17 among all employees in the federal public service 1 in 16 among men in the federal public service.
1 in 17 among women in the federal public service 1 in 33 among management in the federal public service. It also liaises with the Task Force on Inclusive Public Service appointed by the President of the Treasury Board. Visible minorities are under-represented in the public service as a whole; in 1999, the visible minority population in the entire public service was 5.9 percent of all employees, well below the LMA of 8.7 percent (based on 1996 census data) for the public service as a whole.
In the late 1980s, visible minorities numbered about 6,000 in the federal public service and accounted for about 3 percent of the workforce. Of these departments, Revenue Canada employed 35 percent of visible minorities in the public service in 1999. The Task Force noted that in the 1999 Public Service Employee Survey, 7.2 percent of respondents checked "yes" to being a visible minority.
To be sure, in recent years of downsizing, federal government hiring rates have fallen and promotion prospects have diminished. Their perception is that the federal public service views young people as a burden rather than an asset. They believe that the federal civil service is still shrinking and therefore offers little in the way of a challenging career or real opportunity.
Of the 526 job categories in the Canadian workforce, the federal public service uses only 380 in calculating its LMA. The map portrays variations between provinces and territories in the representation of visible minorities in the public service compared to their availability from the LMA and their distribution in the population.
Canadian National Railway (1987)
C. Best, Ottawa
Consultant in employment equity, board member of the National Capital Alliance on Race Relations (NCARR) and chair of its Employment Equity Committee. Data for members of the Canadian Forces are not included, as the Treasury Board is not their employer. Source: Annual Report to Parliament, Employment Equity in the Federal Public Service 1998-99. The graph illustrates the impact of the implementation of the criterion proposed by the Task Force as it relates to recruitment and compares it with the impact of current recruitment practices on representation of visible minorities in the public service.
The forecast assumes that the benchmark will be met across the government by the start of the fiscal year, i.e. in 2000. The Action Plan proposes a gradual increase in the benchmark by the third year, rather than an immediate increase to the benchmark level. The forecast does not foresee an increase in the volume of the public service; recruitment is for vacancies created by departures.
In 1999, visible minorities made up 6.5 percent of feeder groups and 3.0 percent of the executive branch. According to the forecast of the benchmark scenario for the executive category, the annual number of appointments should increase from 17 in 1999 to around 50 in the fifth year. According to the forecast of the feeder groups' benchmark scenario, annual appointments should increase from approximately 50 in 1999 to 200 in the fifth year.
Department heads may request the PSC Area Office to use the PSC's ad hoc Employment Equity Program to accept only EE candidates from one or more designated Employment Equity Groups. Deputy Heads may encourage the use of the Career Assignment Program (CAP) as a means of. The Management Trainee Program (MTP) is a training and development pathway for visible minorities currently in public administration.
Deputy leaders can promote the use of the Interchange Canada Program (ICP) as a vehicle for visible minority career development and mobility. The Working Group also benefited from the exceptional expertise of Wally Boxhill of the Finance Council Secretariat and Doug Booker and Stan Lee of the Public Service Commission.