OTTAWA
| Feb.
9,
2007 — Hiring
by the Canadian government has failed to keep pace with the changes sweeping
through Canadian society.
 |
| Diverse government workplaces are the exception,
not the rule. |
The Public Service Commission recently reported that in 2004-2005 one
quarter of those who applied for federal government jobs described themselves
as coming from visible minority groups,
but only 9.1 per cent were hired.
While the commission's response to the growing divergence between
the makeup of Canadian society and the federal bureaucracy is to conduct
a study of the question, others say the time for more studies has passed
and action is long overdue.
"We're doing the study because when you have a gap of 15 per cent,
something is happening in there," says Tom Kelly, manager of media
relations for the Public Service Commission. "We have some of the
answers, but we want to see where in the hiring process people are dropping
out," he says, referring to previous studies on similar issues.
In 2000, Lewis Perinbam, who has
had a career in the public service and in international organizations,
headed a task force under the Liberal government called "Embracing
Change." The
task force recommended the government set a goal that one in five
newly-hired employees be visible minorities. However, the Liberals never
implemented that approach, and critics say the Harper government has
not indicated that goal will be a priority.
"There is no room for discrimination in the public service. We
are making progress and increasing our representation of visible minorities,
since 2000," says Mark Quinlana spokesman for Vic Toews,
Treasury Board President who is the minister responsible for employment
equity. However, critics say there is a lack of commitment on the part
of governments.
"There is a perpetual situation in Canada where we tend to have
the best legislation and policies, but we don't give them enough resources," says
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race
Relations based in Montreal. Niemi says targets have not been met because
there is a "lack of will to see to it that policies get translated
into actions that see results."
Departmental development
Some departments fare better than others in hiring visible minorities.
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is at the bottom
with 0.7 per cent of employees as visible minorities, while the Immigration
and Refugee Board is at the top with 21.8 per cent.
The Canadian International Development Agency has been a leader
in minority hiring. In 2003, CIDA, along with other departments, received
an award for creating a pool of potential visible minority candidates
to sit on boards that made decisions about hiring employees. The number
of visible minority employees has also been increasing, but only slowly.
In 2001, they made up 7.7 per cent of CIDA's employees, while in 2005
they comprised 9.4 per cent. Even though the department says
it promotes visible minorities through awareness sessions, events, and
workshops, some argue eliminating discrimination in the workplace and
in the hiring process across all branches of the federal government
requires more than keeping track of numbers and holding workshops.
 |
| Hard to find visible minorities. |
"I have experienced and heard of all the things the Perinbam task
force discussed," says Jeanne To-Thanh-Hien, a visible minority
who has worked in the public service for 14 years, and co-founded the
National Council of Visible Minorities, an organization of federal public
service employees who hold an annual symposium to discuss and promote
visible minority concerns. She says she has heard stories from visible
minority employees who face workplace inequality, barriers to career
advancement, and lack of respect from their colleagues.
"There could be a situation where a person has done a job for many
years, and then a competition for a higher position opens up, but then
another person who has come out of nowhere is selected because he or
she is the preferred candidate," says To-Thanh-Hien. She has also
encountered situations where people have been denied language training,
even though someone less senior in their department has been allowed
to have the same training. She says this can be discouraging for visible
minorities who are hoping to get into the public service.
Solving the problem
Ravi Pendakur, a professor at the University of Ottawa who has conducted
studies for the government on diversity, says one way to increase the
numbers is to link meeting employment targets to the size of a manager's
end of the year bonus payment.
"Part of the problem is that to increase visible minorities, you
have to bring in new people," he says. Pendakur says managers are
more likely to hire those with whom they feel "comfortable," that
is, people who look and sound like them.
Niemi agrees, but says the problem is a combination of explicit and
systemic barriers, such as how jobs are advertised. He also notes only
Canadian citizens may be accepted to the federal public service, thus
limiting many visible minorities from getting jobs.
However, because 20 per cent of the Canadian population will be a visible
minority by 2017, Niemi says these issues may become larger problems.
"This is important because the state has a responsibility to reflect
the people. It's a fundamental principle of modern democracy." 
|
National
Council of Visible Minorities