Embracing Change in the Federal Public Service - Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service

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Background

The Canadian Reality and the Federal Public Service

Recent decades have witnessed, as have few periods in Canada's history, dramatic change in the country's demographic profile. Canada has been transformed from a society with predominantly European roots into one that embraces many cultures and traditions. One Canadian in nine is a member of a visible minority group. In the 1996 census, visible minorities numbered more than three million. Two million came as immigrants; one million are Canadian by birth.

Canadians live with diversity as a Canadian reality. They see diversity when they visit their children's classrooms, turn on multicultural television channels, read a brochure from the City of Toronto that is written in thirteen languages, or ask for Revenue Canada's help, available in some 20 languages, in completing their tax returns.

The federal public service is supposed to serve all Canadians, yet its workforce does not reflect the diversity of the Canadian population. Visible minorities are under-represented. In 1999 (end of fiscal year) one in 17 employees in the federal public service was a member of a visible minority group. Visible minorities are almost invisible in the management and executive categories; they account for one in 33. In 1999, of a total of 298 new executive appointments, 19 were visible minorities, of whom 5 were women.

In contrast, the private sector has been quick to recognize the capabilities and potential of visible minorities. The federally regulated sector (mainly banks, airlines, railways and communications) raised the visible minority representation in its workforce from 6 per cent to 9.9 per cent between 1997 and 1998. In 1999, visible minorities made up 16.7 per cent of Scotiabank's workforce. Of its management and executive ranks respectively, 10 per cent and 5 per cent were visible minorities.

Visible minorities are:

Figures do not tell the whole story. The federal public service, which can be inhospitable to outsiders, can be particularly so to visible minorities. A tribunal under the auspices of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) ruled in 1997 on a case involving Health Canada and found evidence of systemic discrimination at several levels in the department's workplace. Just as the United Nations has acclaimed Canada as "the best country in the world in which to live", so too must the federal public service live up to being one of the best in the world.

How the Task Force Conducted its Work

The problems of under-representation and adverse workplace conditions for visible minorities are well documented. A wealth of commissioned studies, dating to the Report of the Commission on Equality in Employment (1984), by Judge Rosalie Silberman Abella, enunciate a strikingly similar array of issues of systemic discrimination in the workplace. These studies include extensive discussion of barriers both real and perceived. Many offer recommendations. Over the years, various advisory and advocacy groups have been established. Foremost among them is the National Capital Alliance on Race Relations (NCARR). Most recently, following a national conference in Ottawa in October 1999, the National Council of Visible Minorities was established to give visible minorities in the public service a stronger voice.

Within the federal public service, the CHRC conducts audits of federal departments to determine whether they are in compliance with their legislated employment equity obligations.

In November 1999, the federal government released the results of the Public Service Employee Survey, the first-ever comprehensive survey of workplace conditions and attitudes conducted across all departments.

From these various sources, the Task Force gained valuable insight into the scope of the problem of under-representation, and turned its attention to finding solutions.

In the limited time available, the Task Force consulted as many stakeholders as possible inside and outside the federal government. They included groups and individuals in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa-Hull, as well as representatives of federal departments and public service unions. It also liaised with the Task Force on an Inclusive Public Service appointed by the President of the Treasury Board.

The Task Force was supported by a small secretariat in the Treasury Board Secretariat and relied on the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Public Service Commission for statistical and technical support. As well, the Treasury Board Secretariat made available officials from various departments to act as a sounding board for the Task Force as it formulated its action plan. The Task Force made presentations to two committees of deputy heads, to the Treasury Board Secretariat Advisory Committee (TBSAC), chaired by the then Secretary of the Treasury Board, V. Peter Harder, and to the Committee of Senior Officials (COSO), chaired by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Mel Cappe.

Visible Minorities in Canada

The visible minority population of Canada stood at 1.6 million in the 1986 census. By the 1996 census, that population had doubled to 3.2 million, or 11.2 per cent of Canada's population. Of the visible minority population, two out of three came as immigrants. Generally, 85 per cent of immigrants become Canadian citizens, more than 75 per cent within five years of landing.

Immigrants head for the large cities. More than 40 per cent of Canada's visible minorities live in Toronto. That city, together with Vancouver and Montreal, is home to 72 per cent of visible minorities. Among Canadian cities, the circumstances of visible minorities in Halifax are a special and distressing case. Almost seven per cent of Halifax's population are visible minorities, many of whom are of African descent and whose families have lived in Nova Scotia for generations. They continue to suffer racial discrimination, especially with respect to employment.

The population trend of visible minorities in Canada is upward; the annual immigration target for the year 2000 is 200,000 to 225,000, of whom some 130,000 are to be skilled workers or business immigrants. Even if these targets are not met (immigration was 10 per cent below target in 1998 and 1999), about a half-million immigrants will join the Canadian workforce by 2006.

Visible Minorities in the Public Service

Representation and distribution issues

The federal government has some 60 departments and agencies, with 178,000 employees. In accordance with federal employment equity legislation, the visible minority workforce of each of those departments and agencies should be at least equal to labour market availability (LMA) as calculated by department according to census data. For each designated group under the legislation -- visible minorities, women, Aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities -- departments are required to make progress in bringing their departmental representation to the level of LMA. With few exceptions, with respect to visible minority representation, gaps persist relative to the departmental LMAs (see Appendix II for a listing of the representation of visible minorities and LMA by department).

Visible Minorities in Canada's Cities

Source: Statistics Canada, 1996 Census of Population.

Visible minorities are under-represented in the public service as a whole; in 1999 the public service-wide population of visible minorities was 5.9 per cent of all employees, well short of the LMA of 8.7 per cent (based on 1996 census data) for the public service as a whole. The Public Service Commission forecasted the hiring rates required for groups designated under the Employment Equity Act to reach the LMA by a given year. To achieve LMA by the year 2005, the hiring rate for visible minorities would have to rise, beginning in fiscal 1999-2000, from its historical average (1990 to 1999) of 7.1 per cent to 20.1 per cent, or, from about 1 in 15 to 1 in 5. If the historical rate of recruitment of visible minorities continues, it will take more than two and a half decades to reach LMA as defined by the 1996 census.

Some statistics show advances for visible minorities over the last decade. In the late 1980s visible minorities numbered about 6,000 in the federal public service and accounted for about 3 per cent of the workforce. By 1990, the visible minority population was 7,583, or 3.5 per cent. At the end of fiscal 1999, the population stood at 10,557, or 5.9 per cent.

Two factors, other than recruitment, help to explain the rise in percentage terms: this decade has seen the total workforce of the public service shrink from about 218,000 to 178,000 employees; and more visible minorities already in the public service are stepping forward to self-identify.

Other figures reveal a different picture:

• In 1998-1999, visible minorities received 19 of the 646 promotions involving the executive category. Four out of 38 external recruits into the executive group were visible minorities.
• Of 42 departments (with 200 or more employees), only four have surpassed a representation of 8.7 per cent for visible minorities.
• Visible minorities are concentrated in four departments: Revenue Canada, Human Resources Development Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada and Health Canada. They accounted for 56.5 per cent of all visible minority employees in 1999. In contrast, these departments accounted for 43.9 per cent of the public service workforce.
• Of those departments, Revenue Canada employed 35 per cent of the visible minorities in the public service in 1999. In November of that year, Revenue Canada became a separate agency (Canada Customs and Revenue Agency); taking Revenue Canada out of current public service statistics would drop the total representation of visible minorities from 5.9 per cent to 5.0 per cent.

The overall population numbers mask a disturbing problem of distribution. Visible minorities start to disappear as a presence in the workforce at the more senior levels. This was portrayed in earlier federal reports (Breaking through the Visibility Ceiling (1992) and Distortions in the Mirror (1993)) as "now you see them...now you don't". Since 1991, the population of visible minorities in "feeder" groups for the executive category (EX) has languished between 6 and 6.5 per cent. In the top ten feeder groups, visible minority members account for only 3.4 per cent. Rates of promotion vary widely, favouring some occupation groups, such as economists, sociologists and statisticians, over others.

In 1999, 103 of the 3,421 public servants in the EX category were visible minorities. That share is mired at 3 per cent and compares with a current 6.5 per cent share in the feeder groups. The federal objective of equitable representation of designated group members at executive levels is achieved when their share of executive positions and their share of the feeder groups are about equal. Other designated groups have closed their respective gaps. (Actual executive population numbers for persons with disabilities and Aboriginal peoples remain dismally small, however.)

The visible minority population is also clustered by occupational category. According to an interdepartmental study of the 22,000-strong science and technical community in the federal public service (Visible Minorities in the Scientific and Technical Occupations (1998)), of all visible minority employees, 24 per cent are in those occupations, far greater than the 10 per cent of all public service employees. The study found visible minorities to be concentrated in selected occupational groups, namely chemistry, engineering and land survey, pharmacy and scientific research. Health Canada, at 10.1 per cent, had the highest representation of visible minorities in these occupations, exceeding the 5.9 per cent representation across the federal workforce, but short of the 12.2 per cent representation in Canada's science labour force as a whole.

The interdepartmental study also revealed uneven hiring by departments in various categories. While visible minorities were well represented in biological sciences at Health Canada (14.2 per cent of employees compared with the external labour force of 11.5 per cent), they numbered only 9 out of 331 employees at Fisheries and Oceans, and there were none at Environment Canada.

Reports cited earlier (1992 and 1993) referred to the scientific and professional category as a "visibility trap". Employees in those categories were in positions "from which they do not proceed into management positions". Yet they were identified as being at "feeder" levels. They had hit a glass ceiling.

The need for gender balance

Women in the public service have faced negative attitudes and stereotyping and have been consistently undervalued. Visible minority women face "double jeopardy". Accordingly, there must be equal emphasis on cultural and gender sensitivities in efforts to improve their representation and the climate of the workplace. Among women in the public service, 5.8 per cent are visible minorities.

Visible minority women have furthest to catch up in executive ranks: of 3,421 executives in the federal public service in 1999, 919 were women, of whom 23 were visible minority women. Of women in the executive feeder groups, visible minorities make up 5 per cent (355 of 7,016). Visible minority men comprise 7 per cent of all men in the feeder population (1,145 of 16,259). Expressed another way, in the feeder groups, for every visible minority woman, there are three visible minority men; for every non-visible minority woman, there are two non-visible minority men.

Note: EX-Feeder are persons in some 170 classifications below executive levels (i.e., EX minus 1 and EX minus 2 or with EX equivalent salaries)

Source: Employment Equity Division, Treasury Board Secretariat.

Public Service Employee Survey 1999

Source: Public Service Employee Survey 1999.

Workplace conditions and attitudes

The November 1999 Public Service Employee Survey results give employers and employees a first comprehensive look at how visible minorities perceive the federal workplace. The survey was particularly revealing where there were significant differences between the degree of dissatisfaction or satisfaction expressed by visible minorities and that reported by public service employees as a whole. Such differences were more accentuated in some departments than in others.

Issues regarding self-identification

Departments often cite the voluntary process of self-identification, which generates counts of visible minorities, as biasing representation numbers downward because some employees who belong to a visible minority group would rather not self-identify or do not bother to do so. This is no reason to stall or delay implementation of employment equity. The Task Force noted that, as with companies in the private sector, some departments are more successful than others in encouraging self-identification. For example, in 1998, the Canadian International Development Agency made considerable effort to communicate the importance and the advantages of participating in the agency's self-identification survey. As a consequence, the response rate to the survey was 81 per cent, an increase from 23 per cent in an earlier survey.

The Task Force noted that in the 1999 Public Service Employee Survey, 7.2 per cent of respondents checked "yes" to being a visible minority. Given the methodological problems in using representation figures from anonymous surveys, that figure cannot be construed or extrapolated to represent the population of visible minorities in the public service as a whole, nor can it replace the use of official self-identification statistics.

The Task Force's Consultations

The Task Force focussed on two groups of stakeholders: those who will manage change and those most affected by change. The overwhelming message was that employment equity for visible minorities was studies-rich, and results-poor. The Task Force repeatedly asked why progress has been slow.

In general, the Task Force sensed frustration about the public service as a place to work and heard confirmation that the private sector was often the employer of choice. Certainly, in the past years of downsizing, federal public service hiring rates dropped and prospects for promotion declined. As a result, an environment conducive to retrenchment was reinforced.

The Task Force heard repeatedly about a corporate culture permeated with attitudes best summed up in the often used, and perhaps misunderstood, phrase "systemic discrimination". Racism can be intentional. As expressed in two Supreme Court judgements, much systemic discrimination, however, is unintentional.

The Task Force met with human resources personnel and middle-level managers across Canada. It recognized that middle management is where most decisions on hiring and initial promotions are made and the workforce culture instilled.

From visible minority employees, the Task Force heard numerous charges of systemic discrimination along the lines of "old boys' club". Visible minorities across the country expressed dismay about the lack of recognition of foreign degrees and credentials and about the scarcity of visible minorities on selection boards. Visible minority employees were concerned that the delegation of authority to departments for implementing employment equity has not been accompanied by appropriate provisions for accountability and that, as a result, systemic discrimination may remain embedded. They also believe many managers are either unaware of government policy on employment equity and workplace diversity, or disregard it as they hire and promote.

The consultations in Montreal produced different concerns and elicited harsh comments about "resistance by staffers who make decisions to exclude visible minorities". Visible minorities complained that they lacked information about opportunities and openings, and they perceived resistance in the federal public service to participation of visible minorities. Employees saw managers as enjoying "maximum latitude" that allows them to interpret negatively such subjective factors as "accent" and thus exclude qualified visible minorities who speak fluent French. They argued that accent should not be a consideration in evaluating linguistic proficiency in French or English and that skills should be clearly identified with a specific job.

Across Canada, many drew the Task Force's attention to the requirement under the Public Service Employment Act that Canadian citizens be given preference over non-citizens. This preference can be a major hurdle for those who have not become citizens or whose citizenship applications are outstanding; one-third of Canada's visible minority immigrants arrived in the country between 1991 and 1996.

The Task Force also sought the views of visible minority youth. It consulted with a group drawn from across Canada from the public and private sectors and chosen for their confidence in their own future. Their perception is that the federal public service sees youth as a liability rather than an asset. They believe the federal public service is still downsizing and therefore offers little in the way of a challenging career or real opportunities. They expressed frustration about their lack of insider knowledge about how to get into the public service and, once in, how to advance. They believe the federal public service needs to improve its image and visibility. They said the federal government should recruit youth like them because they are high achievers -- that is, for reasons other than being a member of a visible minority.

The private sector has put in place programs and approaches with proven results that could be considered for adaptation to the public sector. Companies under the Federal Contractors Program and the Legislated Employment Equity Program report employment equity practices to Human Resources Development Canada. That department's Labour Standards and Workplace Equity Directorate monitors some 300 federally regulated companies (i.e., with more than 100 employees) that are subject to the Employment Equity Act. It also reviews progress in another 800 companies and institutions active in the Federal Contractors Program. The Task Force believes the federal public service could participate in more interchanges with private industry and, as well, undertake joint outreach and recruitment activities.

Learning from the Federal Experience in Bringing about Change

The Task Force reflected on the recent experience of the federal government in implementing employment equity and on Health Canada's response to the directives of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision of March 1997.

In accordance with the Employment Equity Act, responsibility for implementing employment equity is delegated from the employer, Treasury Board, to individual departments and agencies. Each department compares its representation of the four designated groups with the relevant LMA. Where results show under-representation, departments are obliged to review their employment systems, policies and practices to identify possible barriers. The departments, in consultation with bargaining agents and representatives of employees, prepare a plan to achieve reasonable progress in eliminating under-representation.

Shortcomings that contribute to the lack of results

The Task Force saw shortcomings in the implementation of employment equity that may help explain the persistent lack of results:

• There is a lack of a government-wide commitment to employment equity.
• There is little shared learning among departments of good practices or lessons learned.
• Many managers do not see employment equity as an important part of their jobs. Rather, they see it as an add-on, and those too busy push it aside all too easily. Human resources personnel do not evaluate whether a manager's practices conform to government policy.
• Human resources personnel often occupy junior positions and have few means at their disposal to influence the employment equity performance of managers. Moreover, visible minorities are under-represented in the human resources community.
• Individuals responsible for employment equity coordination in departments have little clout, and their turnover is high. Moreover, administrative arrangements are short-lived. During the Task Force's tenure, the interdepartmental Consultative Committees on Employment Equity, constituted for each of the four designated groups and under the responsibility of the Treasury Board Secretariat, were disbanded.

The labour market availability measure

For the Canadian workforce as a whole, the 1996 labour market availability of visible minorities was 10.3 per cent. As that figure includes both citizens and non-citizens, the federal public service adjusts it downward to 8.7 per cent, to exclude non-citizens.

Whether the representation of visible minorities in the federal public service is measured against 8.7 per cent, or 10.3 per cent as favoured by the CHRC and the public service unions, demographic trends will raise the LMA by the time it is recalculated based on the next census. Hence, representation goals must be set higher than the LMA; if not, the government will be faced with an intense game of catch-up by the time the new LMA is calculated. In other words, the LMA measure is a floor on which to build diversity.

The Task Force emphasizes that the LMA measure is conservative in several important ways:

• It is based on census data (the most recent is the 1996 census). Before the next census, it will rise on account of immigration, landed immigrants taking up citizenship, and high school and university graduates joining the workforce.
• It excludes occupations that the government deems not relevant to the public service. Of the 526 job categories in the Canadian workforce, the federal public service uses only 380 in calculating its LMA.
• It includes only persons who had some work experience in a seventeen-month period before the census.
• It assumes that most departmental hiring will be done locally rather than from wider geographic areas.

The map portrays the variations across provinces and territories of the representation of visible minorities in the public service compared to their availability by LMA and their distribution in the population.

Visible Minority Population and Representation in the Public Service by Province/Territory

Key: Using BC as the example
17.9% equals visible minority share of provincial population
11.4% equals visible minority share of representation in the public service
13.2% equals provincial labour market availability

Source: Treasury Board Secretariat and Public Service Commission, 1999.

The tribunal decision regarding Health Canada

The tribunal decision, rendered in March 1997, imposed strict and specific detailed measures. The decision was binding, and senior management accepted it without appeal. The Task Force noted that Health Canada's response produced impressive early results after only two years of the five years set for the implementation of six "temporary corrective measures" related to recruitment and promotions and a dozen other supporting measures. In the first two years of compliance, Health Canada not only met (with the exception of one minor gap) but exceeded many of the targets set.

The accountability structure that Health Canada was required to put in place included an overseer at the Associate Deputy Minister level to supervise implementation of these measures. All managers are required to justify their non-selection of visible minorities when qualified candidates exist, and are held accountable through their annual performance review. Implementation of the measures has to be reported regularly to the CHRC. Independent oversight is provided for, in that the chair of the employment equity committee of the National Capital Alliance on Race Relations meets quarterly with Health Canada officials (including the overseer and the Director General of Human Resources) to review Health Canada's progress. Within the department, an internal review committee meets quarterly, its co-chairs reporting directly to the Deputy Minister.

Changing the Corporate Culture or Getting the Numbers Up: Which Comes First?

There is much debate about which comes first: progress in numbers and creating a critical mass, or progress in changing the culture and attitudinal climate of an organization. People need to be prepared for change and convinced that it will turn out to be for the benefit of all. There are those who say organizations should, as a first priority, work on changing the corporate culture. On the other hand, can people be persuaded to alter their attitudes if they do not see substantial examples of change, and recognize the proven competence of people recently hired or promoted?

Public Service Employee Survey 1999

Source: Public Service Employee Survey 1999.

The Task Force came to the view that changing the culture and changing the numbers can and must move in concert. It looked at the Public Service Employee Survey 1999 in terms of how visible minorities in selective departments assessed workplace conditions, and it compared that with their absolute population numbers and with their progress toward closing the gap with their respective LMAs. The chart above compares, by way of example, the responses of visible minority employees at Statistics Canada to visible minorities across the public service. Visible minority employees at that department gave an above-average assessment of the workplace. The Task Force observed that Statistics Canada has a comparatively high population of visible minorities in the department (388), accounting for 7.6 per cent of its workforce. As well, the department is closing in on its LMA of 8.5 per cent. Nonetheless, the Task Force noted that the department remains equally determined to improve the corporate culture, and to increase the representation of visible minorities.

Striving for a Representative Public Service

The time is opportune for the federal government to invest in its human capital and to change the federal public service so that it better reflects the public it serves. During the severe downsizing that began in 1995 (to meet targets under the Program Review exercise), the size of the public service was greatly reduced, and hiring from outside was curtailed. This impeded progress toward fair representation of all groups. During the downsizing, few were being hired, the average age of federal employees rose, and many prepared to retire. With downsizing ending, the federal government must now renew and rejuvenate its workforce.

Visible minorities continue to apply in large numbers to the federal public service. In 1998-99, visible minorities, as a percentage of all applicants, made up 30.2 per cent of applicants to post-secondary recruitment and 20.6 per cent to general recruitment. Of all appointments under these recruitment programs, 13.9 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively, went to visible minorities. Those fall-off rates between the application and appointment rates suggest that the principle of merit is not being meaningfully applied.

Demographic Profile of Youth in Canada

Source: Statistics Canada, 1996 Census of Population.

Recruiting youth and the next generation of leadership

The public service must also set its sights on engaging the next generation of Canadians about to consider employment opportunities with the government. The federal government must find ways to raise its profile as an employer. It must demonstrate its desire and ability to move in step with the ambitions of those now in high school or entering colleges and universities. Their world is fast-paced; they are used to an accelerating rate of change and are comfortable with a globalized world where borders have less meaning. All the more important, therefore, that, as Canadians, they should be familiar with their own country and have a sense of belonging to it and a sense that it belongs to them.

An estimated 10 per cent of graduates of Canadian universities in 1996 were members of visible minorities. The trend is sharply upward. As an employer, the federal government must do more than provide and fill jobs; it can be an instrument for building a concept of citizenship and participation. As such, it should provide employment opportunities in different parts of Canada and share the wealth of a diverse talent pool in larger cities with the regions. As well, it should provide opportunities for young Canadians to acquire working proficiency in French or English as necessary. It should invest in the next generation by offering attractive work opportunities that also recognize changing concepts of career and of work.

The visible minority population is a relatively young one. Compared to the overall population of Canada, visible minorities are more concentrated in lower age categories. In the Canadian population of "working age", almost 20 per cent is between the ages of 15 and 24. In the visible minority population, that figure rises to just over 23 per cent.

While this is a time of opportunity, it is also a time of challenge -- to raise confidence in the public service as an employer. The period of downsizing brought dismay to many in the public service and discouragement to many others who might have applied for employment in it. As the saying goes, people have more than one string to their bow as they hunt for satisfying jobs, and what sounds like perilous uncertainty to an older generation might seem stimulating to a younger one. The federal government should harness the talents and energies of the dynamic talent pool of youth across the country.

Conclusion

The Task Force believes its action plan is pragmatic and achievable, its objectives measurable and its results accountable. It believes that the action plan will also help position Canada for the year 2001, which the United Nations has proclaimed International Year for Mobilisation against Racism and Racial Discrimination. It believes that discrimination in all forms must be eliminated in Canada.

Times of change are times of danger, when established values and attitudes are threatened and new ones are born. The Task Force believes the federal public service can make the needed changes and that federal public servants are prepared to embrace fairness and equity. Furthermore, the Task Force is confident that visible minorities will seize the opportunity to show their individual talents and to make a valued contribution. The action plan can herald an era in the federal public service when all Canadians take part in exciting change.

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