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

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Table of Contents

Cover Letter

Embracing Change

A Call for Leadership

The Action Plan

Background

Appendices

Acknowledgements

Cover Letter

March 2000

The Honourable Lucienne Robillard, P.C., M.P.
President of the Treasury Board

Dear Minister:

On behalf of the members of the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service, I hereby submit our action plan. We believe that it will enable the government to bring about the changes necessary to create a representative federal public service that inspires the confidence and trust of all Canadians.

We look forward to an early public release and expeditious implementation of the action plan. The tools are available to managers; the workforce is ready; the benchmarks are attainable. Now is the time for action.

We wish to thank you for the opportunity and the privilege of serving our country in this way and hope that our efforts will assist you in moving forward on this agenda.

Yours sincerely,

Lewis Perinbam, O.C.
(Chairperson)

(Members)
J.C. Best
Denise Chong
Marjorie M. David
Shawna Hoyte
Alain Jean-Bart
Audrey Kobayashi
Earl A. Miller
Henry K. Pau

Embracing Change

As Canada enters a new century of potential and promise, it faces an urgent imperative to shape a federal public service that is representative of its citizenry. The public service has met this challenge before; it must do so again. Just as the greater presence of francophones and women enriches and enhances the public service, so too do visible minorities bring new dimensions and vitality to it.

The public service must be regarded by its citizenry as its own, not as the preserve of any particular group. It must be driven by the principle that what an individual can do on the job must matter more than his or her race or colour.

These considerations, together with the government's commitment to eliminating all forms of discrimination and to fairness and equity in the federal public service, prompted the former President of the Treasury Board, the Honourable Marcel Massé, to establish the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service. Mr. Massé's successor, the Honourable Lucienne Robillard, was quick to affirm her commitment to this initiative and to give it her wholehearted support.

The Task Force sought to develop an action plan to transform the public service into an institution that reflects all Canada's citizens and attracts them to its service to play a part in shaping the Canada of tomorrow. The plan is designed to harness the talents of all Canadians for the federal public service, not only to serve Canada's domestic needs, but also to meet the demands and opportunities of globalization. In a world of many cultures, Canada is particularly fortunate to have a population that is, in many ways, a microcosm of that world. It is a source of strength of the sort possessed by few other countries.

The action plan is realistic, pragmatic and attainable. It will require exemplary leadership and skill on the part of managers and employees at all levels; their goal should be to foster a federal public service whose members are assured of respect and fairness. The plan issues a call for leadership to embrace change, so that the public service can win the confidence and trust of all Canadians, become truly representative and become an employer of choice for a new generation of Canadians. The Task Force believes that the year 2000 can be a turning point in the history of the federal public service, when it takes up these challenges.

A Call for Leadership

Embracing change requires taking risk and managing it. The Task Force, asked to consider the participation of visible minorities in the federal public service, recognized that it faced a daunting task. Despite much effort on the part of the federal public service to address issues of employment equity, the problem of under-representation of visible minorities in the federal workforce has persisted. There is opportunity now, however, to make faster progress. The Task Force, after reflecting on the past, shifted its focus to the future. The following conclusions underpin the action plan and are a call for leadership:

1. The federal public service does not reflect the diversity of the public it serves. Visible minorities remain under-represented while demographic trends indicate their number will grow in the Canadian population. Faster progress in changing the face of the public service is vital; at stake is the integrity of services and the respect the federal government needs to govern.
2. As an employer, the federal government is not harnessing and nurturing talent as it should to compete in a new global environment. It must invest in human resources innovatively and be competitive with the private sector as an employer of choice in all its staffing activities, from outreach and recruitment to training and development and career advancement.
3. The federal government has not achieved its legislated employment equity objectives and goals for visible minorities. With few exceptions, departments have not achieved an equitable workforce representation (i.e., representation is short of labour market availability). For visible minorities already in the public service, advancement to management and executive levels has virtually stalled.
4. The slow progress has engendered frustration, discontent and cynicism about the future. Further delay -- or worse, inaction -- could result in complaints of discrimination and grievances that could revisit the lengthy and acrimonious arena of tribunal investigations and directives.
5. A lack of government-wide commitment and leadership, and consequently, accountability at the top, has hampered progress. Commitment from deputy heads would motivate managers and others responsible for hiring and managing people to achieve the objective of modernizing the face of government as a whole.
6. Changing the corporate culture so that it is hospitable to diversity is as essential as getting the numbers up. Both must move in concert. Diversity training must be available to all employees and translated into expected behaviour and attitudes in the workplace. Increasing the number of visible minorities in the workplace can create a "critical mass" to effect and sustain cultural change; the experience of francophones and women demonstrated this.
7. The government has an opportunity in its recruitment drives to change the face of the public service. Downsizing has given way to recruitment to renew and rejuvenate an ageing public service. In recruiting from an increasingly diverse talent pool, the federal government cannot afford to lose more ground to the private sector.
8. The time has come to focus on results. The federal government should establish a benchmark that, if achieved, would help make up ground in the representation of visible minorities. The purpose of setting a benchmark is to seize the opportunity to make progress over a short period. In proposing this approach, the Task Force does not seek quotas for visible minorities, nor does it wish to see them become entrenched as an employment equity group. The driving principle must be that what an individual can do on the job must matter more than his or her race or colour.

The Action Plan

The Task Force considered the issues surrounding participation of visible minorities in a context of changing the federal public service to improve it for all Canadians. In seeking to provide the federal government with a strategic instrument of change, it concentrated on action that, in addressing under-representation of visible minorities, would produce results within the next three to five years. Such quick results would have the effect both of making faster progress and of stimulating change for the longer term to enhance the quality of the federal workplace for all. The Task Force emphasizes that real progress comes only if visible minorities are present in occupations and at levels where they have previously been under-represented and excluded; tokenism and ghettoism must be avoided.

I. Set a Benchmark

The Task Force shares the federal government's view that progress has been unacceptably slow in improving the representation and advancement of visible minorities, so that it now lags behind the private and federally regulated sectors. The gaps between actual representation and labour market availability (LMA) have, for most departments, been persistent and widening. The problem of advancement is two-fold: (a) representation in the executive feeder group has shown little or no growth for a number of years; and (b) the appointment rate into the executive category falls disproportionately short compared to the feeder pool.

The federal public service has an opportunity now to make up ground in the representation of visible minorities in ways that will help to create an exemplary workplace. The imperative to renew and rejuvenate the public service is matched with the reality of a labour market that is diverse and becoming more so. The Task Force believes the time has come to step up efforts, namely, to pursue with determination, for a limited time, a benchmark for the recruitment and advancement of visible minorities.

A benchmark emphasizes results, and results generate the necessary momentum to sustain change. A benchmark should be achieved in the overall performance of the federal public service. Some departments will have further to go than others. Some leaders, however, challenge themselves and their organization to overachieve a target. Wanting to be at the forefront of change, they take risk, manage it and reap the concomitant rewards.

The Task Force sees Health Canada's response to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision as a demonstration that targets work when given the force of law. In that decision, the remedial measure called for a hiring rate of double the labour market availability. This was the same measure applied in a similar ruling, upheld by the Supreme Court, in the case of Action Travail des Femmes v. Canadian International Railway et al. (1987). The Task Force believes that departments do not want to find themselves being similarly overtaken by events and having to comply with legal directives. It observed that some departments, led by their deputy heads, have taken the initiative and made progress. Revenue Canada and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) made dramatic progress in the representation of, respectively, visible minorities in the workforce and Aboriginal peoples at executive levels. Such progress has made it easier for them to achieve further change while at the same time, improving service to their clientele.

The Task Force is convinced that, among deputy heads, there is a determination to take an approach that is results-driven. Given a mandate to determine benchmarks, the Task Force focussed on setting the benchmark low enough to be realistic and attainable for the government as a whole, but high enough to call forth creative and innovative responses from individual departments. It sought a benchmark that was simple and easily understood, and that had breadth, in that it would apply to all departments, and depth, in that it would embrace all activities from entry to executive levels.

Set a benchmark of 1 in 5 for visible minority participation government-wide:

II. Help Departments and Managers Achieve the Benchmark

In accordance with their legislated obligation to implement employment equity, departments regard representation as a matter of bringing their visible minority population to the level of LMA relevant to the occupational categories and locales of their department. The Task Force emphasizes that "closing the gap" is chasing a historical figure; the LMA represents how the federal workforce should have looked in 1996. Some departments mistakenly see the LMA as a ceiling; it was intended as a floor to measure performance. Other departments have exceeded the LMA in certain occupational categories but have not stopped recruiting. Achieving employment equity, therefore, requires striving for greater than the LMA to account for the historical lag in the measure and to take advantage of the larger recruitment pool available if hiring were expanded beyond local markets.

The benchmark of 1 in 5 has flexibility in two important ways: (1) departments have time, in the three- and five-year horizons, to achieve that annual rate of performance; and (2) departments can devise strategies and set targets to achieve the benchmark that are adapted to their particular corporate situation. Departments can determine where and how they can best make faster progress and direct their managers accordingly.

Managers, burdened by their day to day workloads, may resist yet another approach to employment equity. Some may question whether "enough" qualified visible minority applicants exist. Some may not know how to tap into wider recruitment pools. Others may need training in interview and selection techniques in order to recruit from a diverse candidate pool. The Task Force believes that, with education, managers will see opportunity rather than obstacles. It will require human resources specialists to work in step with managers and to advise them on employment equity policy, including whether or not their practices conform. Managers, assisted by human resources practitioners, should do more outreach and recruitment and do so innovatively. Recruitment pools must be larger, and referral, interview and appointment processes must work to the same objective, namely, allowing more qualified visible minorities to be appointed.

Help departments and managers make progress toward and achieve the benchmark:

III. Change the Corporate Culture

The Task Force grappled with which comes first, changing the culture or changing the numbers. It concluded that they should move in concert. The federal government must make this happen by staking out ground as an employer of choice and as a workplace of choice. This approach will speed the end of temporary corrective measures.

Signal that the federal government is striving to be an employer of choice and to create an exemplary workplace:

IV. Provide for Implementation and Accountability

The action plan can be integrated readily into the existing framework for employment equity under the aegis of the Treasury Board Secretariat. Within this context, the Treasury Board Secretariat consults with the bargaining agents, and departments develop employment equity plans, track their own performance on training and development, annually forward data on representation and report progress to the Treasury Board Secretariat for inclusion in the President's annual report to Parliament. In addition, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) undertakes audits of legislative obligations.

The Task Force envisages that departments would incorporate the action plan in their annual employment equity planning and formulate human resources strategies and objectives accordingly. It recognizes that departments will have varying ability to recruit from areas with higher concentrations of visible minorities. Depending on their occupational profiles, some may be able to make rapid progress recruiting for certain occupational groups, which would compensate for slower progress in other groups. Some may have greater success in recruiting externally at the managerial level, which will have the effect of expanding networks and creating a dynamo effect in later years.

The Task Force focussed on how to ensure progress is made. Each department must strive for year-over-year progress. The federal government should strive, overall, not only to attain, but to surpass the benchmark. The action plan envisages heightened roles for the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Secretary of the Treasury Board and the President of the Public Service Commission to: (a) identify where strategic progress can be made; (b) encourage and monitor progress; and, (c) where progress is not achieved, guide departments accordingly.

Strengthen the existing implementation and accountability framework:

V. External Advice and Independent Review

The Task Force believes that external advice is essential to sustain momentum for change. 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. The Task Force believes that an independent review should be conducted after three years. Such a review also gives the public an opportunity to comment on the federal government's progress in changing the face of government.

Provide for external advice and independent review:

VI. Provide for Incremental Financial Resources

The Task Force believes that the action plan can achieve progress toward a representative public service only if its employment equity measures are integrated into mainstream human resources programs and activities. This will require some shifting of priorities and resources within and between existing programs and activities. Treasury Board should set aside an annual reserve to assist in funding programs and activities in the action plan that are either less easily accommodated within existing budgetary allocations for human resources, or are outside the mandates of existing programs and activities.

Provide a reserve to assist in implementation of the action plan:

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.

APPENDIX I - Task Force Mandate and Membership

Mandate

On April 23rd, 1999, the Honourable Marcel Massé, P.C., O.C., President of the Treasury Board, requested the Task Force to:

• review and take stock of the situation of visible minorities in the federal Public Service through consultations and in-depth examination of data, past reports, studies and recommendations related to the employment of visible minorities in the Public Service;
• formulate an action plan that will further the participation of visible minorities in the federal Public Service for submission to the President of the Treasury Board;
• identify benchmarks and follow-up mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the action plan;
• provide the impetus for increasing the awareness and commitment of senior officials and managers regarding their responsibilities and accountabilities for improving the situation of visible minorities in the Public Service.

Members

Lewis Perinbam, O.C., (Chairperson) Vancouver.
Senior Advisor, The Commonwealth of Learning. Former Vice-President, Canadian International Development Agency.

J. C. Best, Ottawa.
Former Assistant Deputy Minister, Immigration, and former Canadian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago.

Denise Chong, Ottawa.
Author of The Concubine's Children and The Girl in the Picture. Former senior economic advisor to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Marjorie M. David, Ottawa.
Managing Director, Maron-Ibis Enterprises. Former senior executive in several portfolios in the federal Public Service.

Shawna Hoyte, Halifax.
Lawyer, mediator and community educator. Actively involved in community development initiatives for African Nova Scotians regarding issues of equity.

Alain Jean-Bart, C.Q., Montreal.
Ph.D. Psychology, consultant in cross-cultural relations and member of the Montreal Urban Community's Advisory Committee on Intercultural and Interracial Relations.

Audrey Kobayashi, Ph.D., Kingston.
Researcher and consultant on employment equity and racism and Professor of Geography at Queen's University.

Earl A. Miller, Toronto.
Director of Diversity, Scotiabank. Former human resources consultant and head of employment equity and race relations for the Government of Ontario.

Henry K. Pau, Ottawa.
Consultant in employment equity, board member of the National Capital Alliance on Race Relations (NCARR) and chairperson of its Employment Equity Committee. Former senior executive in the federal Public Service.

APPENDIX II - Distribution of Federal Public Service Employees by Selected Departments by Selected Departments

(As of March 31, 1999)

Note: Where absolute numbers are small, data is not provided to protect the confidentiality of the employees.

* Indeterminate, terms of three months or more and seasonal employees
** Departments with more than 100 employees

Source: Annual Report to Parliament, Employment Equity in the Federal Public Service 1998-99

APPENDIX III - Projected Impact of Proposed Benchmark on Recruitment

The graph illustrates the impact of implementing the benchmark proposed by the Task Force as it pertains to recruitment and compares that with the impact of current recruitment practices on representation of visible minorities in the public service. The forecast excludes Revenue Canada.

The forecast assumes that the benchmark would be achieved government-wide commencing fiscal 1999-2000, i.e., the year 2000. It forecasts a 1 in 5 level of recruitment for five years, rather than the three-year horizon set out in the action plan, to analyze when such a level of recruitment would meet the federal objective of closing the gap with labour market availability (LMA, 1996 levels).

Note: Excludes Revenue Canada
Source: PSC, Indeterminate Population, Separations and Appointment Files (1990/91 - 1998-99)

Under this scenario, representation of visible minorities would reach the labour market availability rate in 2005. In contrast, the historical share of recruitment of visible minorities (7.1 per cent or about 1 in 15 between 1990 and 1999) would make no discernible progress in closing the gap with LMA (it would not do so until more than two and a half decades from now).

The forecast may differ from actual practice:

• The action plan proposes a gradual increase to the benchmark by the third year, rather than an immediate increase to the level of the benchmark.
• The forecast assumes no growth in the size of the public service; recruitment is for vacancies created by departures. In reality, the federal public service is ending its period of downsizing and hiring will likely accelerate. Such growth could result in faster improvement in the representation of visible minorities.

APPENDIX IV - Projected Impact of Proposed Benchmark on Executive Feeder Groups and Executive Levels

The chart shows the impact of implementing the benchmark as it pertains to the movement of visible minorities into the executive feeder groups and to executive levels. It projects a gradual increase from present staffing levels to a rate of 1 in 5 in the fifth year, or 2005. The forecast excludes Revenue Canada.

In 1999, visible minorities made up 6.5 per cent of the feeder groups and 3.0 per cent of the executive category.

Note: Excludes Revenue Canada
Source: PSC, Indeterminate Population, Separations and Appointment Files (1990/91 - 1998-99)

In 1999, the share of appointments of visible minorities to the feeder levels was 7.3 per cent and to executive levels, 3.7 per cent. The impact of achieving the benchmark over five years for both the feeder and executive groups is that year over year, the gap between their respective rates of representation decreases; by the fifth year, it is eliminated. In the fifth year, both populations approach 8 per cent. Thus, the federal employment equity objective respecting visible minority advancement to executive levels is achieved; that is, the visible minority feeder and executive level representation are about equal.

The forecast is conservative compared to what might be achieved in practice:

• It assumes no growth in the population of feeder and executive levels; changes in representation come only by way of filling vacancies arising from attrition. In reality, last year (1999) represented the beginning of a trend of growth and recruitment in both those categories.
• Growth in both the feeder and executive categories will present opportunities to reach the benchmark faster than what is projected.

According to the forecast of the benchmark scenario on the executive category, the annual level of appointments would have to rise from 17 in 1999 to about 50 in the fifth year. Further projections were made to analyze to what extent such appointments would deplete the feeder pool of visible minorities if that pool remained unchanged. Under such a scenario, by the fifth year, the feeder pool would fall by four-tenths of a percentage point. Thus, the effect of increasing the share of executive appointments of visible minorities can readily be accommodated even if the recruitment share of visible minorities to the feeder pool remained unchanged.

According to the forecast of the benchmark scenario of the feeder groups, annual appointments would have to rise from about 50 in 1999 to 200 by the fifth year. In 1999, visible minority appointments to the feeder group totalled 173, i.e., at the upper range of that forecast. Thus, the recruitment shares to executive feeder groups called for in the action plan are already demonstrably realistic and attainable.

APPENDIX V - Public Service Commission Tools to Improve Employment Equity Representation

  Source: Public Service Commission, February 2000.

Acknowledgements

The Task Force is grateful to the many individuals from coast to coast who provided information, shared their views, offered suggestions and ideas, made submissions, and gave generously of their time. They included visible minority employees, senior officials, middle managers, human resources personnel, and representatives of unions and external organizations. Their insights and contributions were of great value to the Task Force.

The Task Force also wishes to acknowledge the valuable work of Wendy Barrow, Caroline Ishii, Line Saucier, Ainalem Tebeje and Joan Young of the Task Force Secretariat. It appreciated their indefatigable efforts to meet the Task Force's needs. The Task Force also benefited from the exceptional professionalism of Wally Boxhill of the Treasury Board Secretariat and Doug Booker and Stan Lee of the Public Service Commission. It also wishes to express its appreciation to Clyde Sanger.

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