On June 1, 2017, the Joint Union-Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion presented a progress update to Treasury Board President Scott Brison.

The Task Force has a one-year mandate to define what diversity and inclusion means in the public service, establish the case for diversity and inclusion, and recommend a framework and action plan.

The update summarizes their work over the past six months and identifies areas for potential action. These actions include creating tools to ensure that diversity and inclusion are considered in making decisions and policies, better engaging senior leaders and employees on diversity and inclusion, and improving education and awareness to spur change across the public service.

PIPSC is proud of the leading role we have played in the establishment of this initiative. We would particularly like to convey our sincere appreciation to its Technical Committee Co-Chair, our own Waheed Khan, for his tireless commitment to the cause of Diversity and to this critical initiative.

“We need to identify and address systemic barriers that keep certain groups of talented Canadians from joining the Federal Public Service, and advancing to positions and levels where they can make optimal contribution to the health of the public service institutions, which is essential to serving Canadians with excellence. We need to develop leadership that is capable of, and committed to changing the culture of the public service to become more representative and inclusive. A public service that rewards talent, professionalism and dedication, and where the background, culture, religion and any other identities, are respected and promoted.”
– Debi Daviau, President, The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC)

The Task Force is expected to present its action plan in the fall of 2017.

For more information:

Progress Update: Joint Union/Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion in the Public Service

Joint Union/Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion in the Public Service

PIPSC takes leading role in the Joint Union/Management Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion in the Public Service

Name-Blind Pilot Initiative, Debi Daviau Interview on CTV Power play - April 21, 2017

Demographic Snapshot of Canada’s Federal Public Service, 2016

“Today’s update by Deputy Minister Lemay indicates that the government has again failed to plan ahead -- this time for entirely predictable increases in the numbers of employee payroll adjustments needed to implement new collective agreements,” said PIPSC Vice President Steve Hindle. “The government’s plans for dealing with these increases and achieving so-called ‘steady state’ are based on employing previous and new staff, most of whom have yet to be hired. The government should have foreseen this challenge months ago. The number of pay transactions resulting from implementation of new collective agreements is only going to increase over the coming months.”

The announcement this week that the federal government will temporarily hire an additional 200 staff, invest a further $142 million over three years, and introduce even more measures to expedite fixing Phoenix is welcome, if long overdue, news.

Given the ongoing cost to government, taxpayers and federal employees, however, one has to ask if Phoenix was ever really worth it to begin with. It wasn’t.

Compounding this problem is the likelihood that a speedy fix will be difficult – especially since new resources take time to be effective – a fact that Parliamentary Secretary Steven MacKinnon seemed to acknowledge in his remarks on Wednesday.

While the additional $142 million will be spent over the next three years, no new time lines for fixing Phoenix were provided in this latest announcement – something employees are anxious to know. A technical briefing planned for next week may reveal more.

In short, while we should be cautiously optimistic that progress is being made, we should also be wary of governments bearing new fixes – especially those that come without clear timelines and that enhance an already-flawed contract with IBM.

In fact, one glaring omission in this week’s announcement was any mention of what PIPSC considers to be a root cause of the Phoenix troubles – outsourcing IT transformations to multinational companies such as IBM, who have a vested interest in additional, ongoing contracts.

After everything that we’ve seen so far, now is the time to look in-house and ensure that the government's own IT workers are managing the system going forward. We will never reach the government’s long-promised “steady state” without them. Only then can we – and all Canadians – really say whether the fixes are worth it.

Better Together.

Debi Daviau
President