Canadian Federal jobs open to all as policy of regional discrimination ends

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From Montreal 940

Federal jobs open to all as policy of regional discrimination ends next
April at 16:43 on October 6, 2005, EST.

OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government plans to throw open its doors to job
applicants from across the country and end its long-standing practice of
regional discrimination. But a host of hurdles still face most Canadians
hoping to land full-time permanent employment in the federal civil
service. Personal favouritism, racial discrimination and bilingual
imperatives - not to mention a growing federal addiction to temporary
employees - are among the impediments to a federal workforce that
accurately reflects the Canadian population, suggest three audits and an
annual report released Thursday in Ottawa.

"Access and representativeness are very important to me," Maria Barrados,
president of the Public Service Commission of Canada, said at a news
conference. Barrados announced that beginning April 1 next year, all
officer-level jobs in Ottawa will be open to Canadians from every region,
and no longer limited to local candidates. Officer-level work includes
scientific, professional, administration and technical positions. By the
end of 2007, Barrados wants all federal jobs open to everyone.

Conservative MP Bill Casey welcomed the change, citing 23 current
Ottawa-only job postings, including one that seeks someone with expertise
in seamanship equipment. "It seems to me it might be appropriate that
somebody from British Columbia or Atlantic Canada should apply for that,"
said the Nova Scotia MP. But getting rid of "postal code discrimination" -
Casey's term - is just one step.

The annual report says less than 10 per cent of the government's new hires
in 2004-05 were permanent workers. "Casual hiring has become a major
mechanism for entry into the public service," says the report. In fact,
last year the total number of permanent hires dropped 33 per cent from the
previous year. Only last week, federal Labour Minister Joe Fontana chided
CBC management on the principle of hiring full-time staff over contract
workers.

"Obviously, that's the way you build an economy," said Fontana. "That's
what you do, is you give people security and there's no greater security
than a long-term, permanent job." Barrados said her main concern is that
temporary workers - who don't face the same screening as others - then
parlay that employment into permanent work, thus circumventing federal
hiring rules. She's also concerned about perceptions of personal
favouritism in staffing decisions. Some 45 per cent of civil servants
believe this occurs often or sometimes in their departments.

Visible minorities are still "significantly under-represented" in the
civil service, added Barrados, who was at a loss to explain the continuing
shortfall. One issue found in the annual report but not highlighted as
problematic is that of the bureaucracy's linguistic make-up. While the
split among anglophones and francophones was 70-30 for new hires, that
proportionality disappears in bilingual imperative positions (which
comprised a quarter of all new postings, including most executive-level
positions).

Francophones made up 66 per cent of the new hires for bilingual imperative
jobs, a classification the Liberal government has said it believes should
be more heavily represented in the federal workforce. Barrados shrugged
off this disproportionate hiring. "It suggests we don't have enough of a
pool of non-francophones who have the language skills that we would like
to see," she said.

http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=23&id=100665