OTTAWA, March 11, 2021 — Government outsourcing deepens gender inequity across Canada’s public service, shows a new report by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).

“There are two worlds of outsourcing in the federal government,” said PIPSC President Debi Daviau. “In one world, lucrative IT contracts are doled out to a male-dominant industry that has notoriously struggled with gender equity. In the other one, temporary workers who are predominantly women are paid 21% less than what they would make in a permanent position doing the exact same work.”

PIPSC analysis shows that temporary work has increased at nearly 4 times faster than permanent staff since 2011. The majority of temporary workers are women, and they become trapped in a cycle of persistent temporary work, defined by low pay, few or no benefits, and high risk of unemployment and labour force exit.

Lucrative IT consultant contracts, however, are awarded to male-dominated tech giants like IBM, Veritaaq or Randstad. Only 2 out of 10 IT consultants in Ottawa-Gatineau are women, and they are paid about $13,000 less per year than their male counterparts. On average, members of equity-seeking groups are paid about $9,700 less when they work for the government as IT consultants.

Despite the commitments to building a feminist economy and despite the promises to control the runaway cost of outsourcing, the government has created a shadow public service that plays by an entirely different set of rules: they are not hired based on merit, representation, fairness or transparency; they are not subject to budget restraints or hiring freezes; and they are not accountable to the Canadian public.

“Outsourcing means higher cost, lower quality services for Canadians – less transparency, less accountability, and the loss of institutional knowledge and skills,” said Daviau. “Today’s report shows us that it also undermines Canada’s commitment to a representative public service. The only solution is to end the government’s over-reliance on outsourcing.”

Read the full report Outsourcing and Gender Equity here: https://pipsc.ca/news-issues/outsourcing/part-two-outsourcing-and-gender-equity

- 30 -

For further information: Johanne Fillion, 613-883-4900 (cell), jfillion@pipsc.ca

Government outsourcing, especially outsourcing of IT personnel, is costing Canadians billions of dollars each year. From time to time, outsourcing may be necessary to augment staff compliments or bring in external skills and expertise¹. But years of unchecked spending on outsourcing has created a shadow public service of consultants operating alongside the government workforce. This shadow public service plays by an entirely different set of rules: they are not hired based on merit, representation, fairness or transparency; they are not subject to budget restraints or hiring freezes; and they are not accountable to the Canadian public². It’s time for a major shift in outsourcing policy in the federal public service.

Over the course of 2021, PIPSC will release a series of investigative reports unpacking the government’s growing reliance on outsourcing and its true costs.

Part two: Outsourcing and gender equity

Government outsourcing deepens gender inequity across Canada's public service. In IT, lucrative contracts are doled out to a male-dominant industry that has notoriously struggled with gender equity. While at the same time, lower paid and precarious temporary service contracts are disproportionately filled by women. The majority of temporary workers become trapped in a cycle of persistent temporary work, defined by low pay, few if any fringe benefits, and high risk of unemployment and labour force exit³.

Part one: The real cost of outsourcing demonstrates that the government’s reliance on external consultants and contractors to provide services to Canadians has more than doubled since 2011. Years of unchecked outsourcing has created a shadow public service of consultants and contractors working alongside the public service. But who works in the shadow public service? This report examines the consultants and temporary workers who fill the ranks of the shadow public service. It highlights the vastly different experiences of IT consultants compared with temporary workers. It shows that outsourcing bypasses important staffing values, which in turn, drives precarious work and undermines gender equity in the public service. It explores the connections between government staffing and outsourcing while identifying ways to make staffing faster and more flexible without undermining core staffing values.

Government outsourcing isn’t only expensive and wasteful, but also fuels gender inequity in the public service.

Staffing values in Canada’s public service

The public sector is subject to legislation that actively works to build equity, diversity, and inclusion into hiring and recruitment. The Employment Equity Act (EEA) promotes equal opportunities for marginalized groups – women, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities and racialized people. The Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) promotes merit, accountability, transparency and representation based on language, region, and gender. Together this legislation aims to create a public service that represents the population it serves.

When managers rely on outsourcing as a backchannel to staffing, they bypass the values protected by the EEA and PSEA, fueling gender inequity and making the public service less representative of the Canadian public.

Who works in the shadow public service?

IT consultants, management consultants and temporary workers are the majority of the shadow public service. IT consultants make up the largest share of the shadow public service, accounting for more than 7 in 10 dollars spent on personnel outsourcing⁴. Similar to management consultants, IT consultants are drawn from a male-dominated industry and paid generously for their services. On the other end of the spectrum, temporary workers are often women, strung along on multiple short-term contracts and paid less than permanent staff. While temporary workers occupy a relatively small share of the shadow public service, this work has grown at a rate nearly 4 times greater than permanent staff since 2011⁵. This demonstrates a fast growing preference for precarious work in the public service.

Who are the IT consultants?

The IT consultants working in the shadow public service are drawn mainly from the male-dominant tech workforce of the Ottawa-Gatineau region, working for tech giants like IBM, Veritaaq, or Randstad. Only about 2 out of 10 tech workers in the Ottawa-Gatineau region are women and are paid about $13,000 less per year than men. On average, members of equity-seeking groups are paid about $9,700 less⁶.

The pay gap between men and women in the tech sector is actually larger for workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The larger pay gap at higher levels of education means that women in tech with an education above a bachelor’s degree actually make less relative to their male counterparts than women with less education⁷.

IT consultants working with the Canadian government are likely among the top earners in Canada. While the federal government does not publish what individual IT consultants are paid on lucrative federal government contracts, IT consultants working for the government of Ontario cost about 30% more per year than a similar full-time IT worker, even after accounting for benefits⁸.

The largest and fastest-growing segment of the shadow public service is in a male-dominated field where women and members of equity seeking groups are paid less. Most of the work done by the IT consultants would be better done by the public service, for significantly less cost and where pay is guaranteed to be equitable⁹.

Who are the temporary workers?

The government’s increasing reliance on temporary workers has meant that many of these “good jobs” aren’t so good after all. Growing temporary work in the federal government has dire long-term implications for these workers.

Unlike an IT consultant, temporary workers are usually women and are paid less than comparable permanent employees. According to Statistics Canada, 56% of temporary workers in public administration are women and are paid about 21% less than permanent employees¹⁰. Women temporary workers not only have lower starting pay than men, but they also have a larger and more persistent pay gap with permanent employees over a five year period¹¹.

Managers are increasingly turning to temporary workers as a cheap option to fill resource needs. Temporary work is cheaper because the workers do not have the same safeguards – like pay, benefits and job security – that permanent employees are guaranteed in their collective agreements. Temporary work provides additional cost savings for the government because managers are not required to invest in the career development of temporary workers as they are with permanent employees. These savings have led managers to increasingly balance their budgets on the backs of temporary workers¹².

The permanence of temporary work

A common misconception about temporary workers is that they are only hired for short-term assignments. While temporary contracts are tempting for workers who see them as a foot-in-the-door to the public service, many temporary workers get trapped in ongoing precarious work within the government. For instance, the Public Service Commission of Canada found that 1 in 5 temporary work contracts were for long-term and continuous work. Only about 1 in 10 temporary workers obtained permanent positions in the public service within 180 days of their contract ending¹³.

A broken staffing system drives outsourcing and perpetuates inequality

The staffing system in public service is deeply connected with outsourcing. Staffing in the public service is costly, time-intensive and particularly bad at matching skills to the requirements of increasingly project-based work. Numerous hiring rules, security clearances and other bottlenecks push the average time it takes to hire a new full-time employee to 198 days (over 6 months)¹⁴.

It is no wonder that managers have little faith in the staffing system to deliver resources. Nearly 9 in 10 managers surveyed in the 2018 Staffing and Non-partisanship survey believe that staffing is burdensome while more than 6 in 10 believe it is not quick enough¹⁵. Conversely, managers interviewed by the Public Service Commission (PSC) cited “speed” and “flexibility” as the main advantages of outsourcing¹⁶.

The mismatch between fast and flexible contracting mechanisms on the one hand, and a slow and cumbersome staffing system on the other, incentivize managers to bypass staffing in favour of outsourcing.

Rethinking staffing

The federal government recognizes that its staffing system is broken. In 2018, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates began a study to improve the federal public service hiring process¹⁷. The President of the Public Service Commission, Patrick Borbey, admitted in a hearing of the committee that the time it takes to hire new employees is “unacceptably long” which frustrates applicants, hiring managers and HR advisors. Adding, “[…] many strong candidates decide to work elsewhere and positions are not filled for long periods of time.”¹⁸

The government’s attempts to fix the staffing system to date have been mixed. In 2016, the PSC delegated much of the authority for staffing decisions to deputy heads of departments as a part of the New Direction in Staffing (NDS)¹⁹. Described by the PSC as “the most significant change to the staffing system we have seen in over ten years,” the NDS did not have the effect on staffing that the PSC had hoped. Incidentally, the most notable effect since the implementation of the NDS has been a marked increase in non-advertised appointments²⁰. This can result in favouritism in hiring rather than recruitment based on qualifications alone.

The government also began testing a new way to deliver existing skills within the public service, in part to reduce the reliance on consultants. In 2016, the government launched the Free Agents pilot as a proof of concept for the larger, GC Talent cloud. The Free Agent pilot gives managers access to a pool of pre-vetted public servants with in-demand skills for short-term projects. The early results have been positive, with high levels of satisfaction from both workers and managers who participated in the pilot.

Learn more about the New Direction in Staffing and the GC Talent Cloud.

Despite the government recognizing that the staffing system is woefully inadequate, they have yet to connect the dots between staffing and outsourcing. The government needs to take drastic action to fix the staffing system – far beyond the 10% reduction in staffing times committed by the PSC – to begin reducing their reliance on outsourcing²¹. Fixing staffing in the public service is an essential part of the solution to reducing outsourcing.

Read PIPSC’s policy recommendations to ensure staffing in the public service is equal and equitable.

There is work to be done to ensure that Canada’s public service represents the diversity of Canadians and is a fair and equitable employer. Hiring more women into precarious government work is not a triumph for equity, diversity and inclusion. It is a subversion of equity, often abused as a way to cut costs. Outsourcing doesn’t just cost Canadians billions of dollars each year, it is undermining the government’s own goals of creating a fair, equitable and representative public service.

 

 

---

[1] According to the Treasury Board’s Outsourcing Policy (16.1.5) Managers can outsource for personnel if they need to fill in for a public servant during a temporary absence, to meet an unexpected fluctuation in workload, or to acquire special expertise not available within the public service. However, in the case of outsourcing IT work, managers,working with PIPSC CS members, must first make every reasonable effort to use existing employees or hire new indeterminate employees before outsourcing (Article 30.1 of the PIPSC CS Group collective agreement).

[2] David, McDonald. The Shadow Public Service. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. 2011.

[3] Stecy-Hildebrandt, N., Fuller, S., & Burns, A. (2019). “Bad” Jobs in a “Good” Sector: Examining the Employment Outcomes of Temporary Work in the Canadian Public Sector. Work, Employment and Society, 33(4). P. 564.

[4] The federal government spent $11.9 billion on personnel outsourcing between 2011 and 2018, $8.5 billion or about 71% was spent on IT consultants.

[5] Spending on temporary help services grew by 78% between 2011 and 2018 while payroll spending on permanent staff grew by 21%.

[6] Brookfield Institute. Canada’s tech Dashboard: Diversity Compass. 2019. See: Visible Minority Pay Gap in Tech Occupations: Ottawa-Gatineau.

[7] Brookfield Institute. Who are Canada’s Tech Workers? January 2019. P. 22.

[8] Auditor General of Ontario. 2018 Annual Report. 3.14 Use of Consultants and Senior Advisors in Government. P. 619.

[9] Canadian Union of Public Employees (2011). Battle of the Wages. P. 1.

[10] Temps earned $21.8 an hour on average, compared with $27.71 an hour for permanent staff. Statistics Canada. Temporary Employment in Canada, 2018. May 14, 2019.

[11] Stecy-Hildebrandt, N., Fuller, S., & Burns, A. (2019). “Bad” Jobs in a “Good” Sector: Examining the Employment Outcomes of Temporary Work in the Canadian Public Sector. Work, Employment and Society, 33(4). p. 564.

[12] Ibid. p. 565.

[13] The Public Service Commission of Canada. Use of Temporary Help Services in Public Services Organizations: A Study by the Public Service Commission of Canada, October 2010. P. 28.

[14] House of Commons. Improving the Federal Public Hiring Process. 2019. P. 25.

[15] Public Service Commission of Canada. Staffing and Non-partisanship survey: Report on the Results for the Federal Public Service. 2018. P.6.

[16] Public Service Commission of Canada. Use of Temporary Help Services in Public Services Organizations. October 2010. P. 26.

[17] House of Commons. 2019. Improving the Federal Public Service Staffing Process.

[18] House of Commons. Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Evidence. 2018. P. 1.

[19] Government of Canada. New Direction in Staffing – Message from the Public Service Commission to all Public Servants. 2017.

[20] Ottawa Citizen. Non-advertised appointments on the rise in the public service, PSC data show. February 2019.

[21] House of Commons. Improving The Federal Public Service Hiring Process. 2019. P. 25.

The Institute is saddened to report the untimely passing of our friend and colleague Shirley Gillette. Shirley’s commitment to Institute members was deep and unwavering. We will miss her very much.

A loyal and hard-working member of the CS Group, Shirley liked to come to the aid of her colleagues. Shirley helped members deal with issues such as difficult work situations, getting answers to their questions and obtaining information concerning issues that affected them.

Shirley served Institute members with distinction in a number of capacities over many years, notably as a union steward at Global Affairs Canada in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Shirley was president of the CS Global Affairs Canada Sub-Group and president of the NCR Global Affairs Canada Branch.

For many years, Shirley served as a delegate to the PIPSC AGM.  She also served on the Vision Committee of the Retired Members Guild and on the Global Affairs Canada Consultation Team.

Professional Institute members extend their heartfelt condolences to Shirley’s family and to the many friends who were privileged to know her.

More information can be found on this web page.

Members in the core public administration whose collective agreements were ratified in 2019 may be eligible for a new payout that PIPSC negotiated.

In 2019, we negotiated a compensatory sum of $400 that was to be paid to you due to the extended implementation period of 180 days for your new agreement, which was necessary due to a new process being implemented. After many weeks of negotiations, and after activating a “catch-up” clause in the collective agreement, we’ve negotiated an increase to $500.

Members in the following groups are eligible for this $100 increase to their retro pay compensatory sum:

• AV Group (CO and PG classifications)
• NR Group (AR and EN classifications)
• RE Group (DS, HR, MA and SE classifications)
• SH Group (DE, MD, ND, NU, OP, PH, PS, SW and VM classifications)
• SP Group (AC, AG, BI, CH, FO, MT, PC, SG-PAT and SG-SRE classifications)

If the 180-day implementation period is not respected, and your retro pay or part of it is still not issued, the Treasury Board is responsible for issuing you a penalty of $50 for each subsequent period of 90 days that the collective agreement is not implemented. There was previously a maximum of 9 penalty payments; however, following our negotiations, this limit has been removed.

This is positive news for members who are waiting for their retro pay. You work hard each day for Canadians, and we’re doing everything we can to ensure that your retro pay is calculated correctly and paid promptly. You can learn more about retro pay in our FAQs or in our webinar.

Please note that you will only receive this money if you are eligible for retro pay, if you were working after your collective agreement expired, and before your new agreement was signed. The AV collective agreement expired on June 21, 2018. The NR, RE, SH and SP collective agreements expired on September 30, 2018. The new agreements were all signed on August 30, 2019. If you were working in between these dates, then you’re eligible for retro pay. It’s unclear when the payments will be processed for each group.

PIPSC has concluded negotiations with the Treasury Board Secretariat regarding several top-ups to your Phoenix compensation.

As we indicated in July, another union signed a Phoenix agreement that we analyzed and ultimately determined had a higher monetary value to our own Phoenix agreement, which included up to 5 days of leave for all members paid by Phoenix. After many weeks of negotiations, we successfully applied our “top-up clause” that brings the value of your Phoenix compensation in line with the value of any superior Phoenix agreement concluded by other unions.

If you’re a PIPSC member paid by Phoenix in one of the following groups:

• CP (formerly AV)
• CS
• NR
• RE
• SH
• SP
• NRC (LS, IS, RO-RCO, TR)
• AFS (CRA)
• OSFI
• NUREG (CNSC)
• CFIA (IN, S&A, VM)
• CER
• NFB

You’ll be eligible for up to $1000 in top-up payments, based on the number of fiscal years you were employed and part of the union (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20). This is in addition to the 5 days of leave you already received for Phoenix as well as the claims processes that have been launched.

You can be eligible for a payment of up to $1000, based on the years you were working in a position represented by PIPSC: $400 for 2016-17, and $200 for each of the 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 fiscal years. We negotiated these amounts as compensation for the late implementation of the 2014 collective agreements.

Further, current and former members whose annual salary is under $78,264 ($300/day) will be eligible for another top-up payment to their Phoenix compensation for each fiscal year that you were part of the union (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20).

This payment is associated with the 5 days of leave that were already received as general compensation for Phoenix. You can get as many top-up payments as you did days of leave for Phoenix. The amount of the top-up payment is equal to the difference between $300 and your daily rate of pay, which may be different for each of the fiscal years. The payment will only apply if the difference is more than $10.

Current members that meet the eligibility criteria do not need to take any further action to request the payment. Former (retired) members must submit a claim to receive this payment.

This is great news for PIPSC members, past and present, who have been hit hard with pay issues due to Phoenix. Whether or not your pay was directly impacted, the stress of a failed pay system has weighed hard on your professional life. The backlog of Phoenix cases at the pay centre remains an important concern for our members.

Our Phoenix help team is here to help you address your pay issues, have your out-of-pocket expenses related to Phoenix reimbursed, and get compensation for lost financial income and investment revenues as well as for any severe personal or financial impacts due to Phoenix. We encourage you to submit a claim if you’ve been affected by Phoenix.

Track my claim link

PIPSC is unable to provide an update of your claim status. Track your claim status on the Treasury Board’s website.

The Women in Public Sector Science Toolkit is a living library of resources, tools and best practices – all with the aim of advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in public sector science.

The objective of this toolkit is to equip women, non-binary members and allies to advance and support equity, diversity and inclusion in public sector science. “A challenged world is an alert world – and from challenges comes change. As the theme for International Women’s Day 2021 encourages us, let’s all #ChooseToChallenge,” stated PIPSC VP Norma Domey. 

The Women in Science Task Force and the Lab participants’ wealth of experience and expertise have made this toolkit. Their voices are reflected in this toolkit. Together, we present this guide for those in public sector science who see themselves encountering barriers in their workplaces.

This toolkit is also for people in more privileged groups. We call on our allies to support our work to advance equity, diversity and inclusion in public sector science workplaces and to share the load so it is not only our burden to carry.

"A huge thank you to all our Women in Science member-led teams across Canada and PIPSC staff for producing an extensive toolkit towards addressing these systemic challenges,” said PIPSC VP Norma Domey. 

The Women in Science Initiative is inclusive of racialized women, Indigenous women, nonbinary people, transgender women, women with disabilities, LGBTQI2S+ people and women experiencing any other system or form of oppression. When we say women, we mean all women.

Each section of our toolkit covers a barrier, experience or reality for women in science. You will find tools, resources and best practices to inform and inspire action.

Explore the toolkit

The Women in Science team sees this toolkit as a living library of resources. It is a dynamic and community-led resource. We will continue to add to and expand this toolkit to meet new equity challenges in public sector science workplaces. We see this toolkit as a starting point, rather than a finish line.

If you have content that you would like to see in the toolkit, please send it to bettertogether@pipsc.ca to be included in a regular update.

Michelle saw baby guppies in her childhood aquarium and immediately fell in love with biology. After attending university to study science, Michelle was hired to work in the Experimental Lakes Area and kicked off her career in environmental studies and fieldwork.

After a successful career working as a laboratory technician, Michelle loves spending time with her family, travelling and being outdoors, so pursuing a career where she got to spend most of her days canoeing for water samples and scuba diving was a dream come true. Before her current position, she also worked in Manitoba’s virology lab testing for measles, mumps and rubella, along with other viruses.

If women weren’t as well represented in biology, Michelle says she may never have decided to go to university. As the first person in her family to earn a degree, she said that continuing to improve women’s representation in STEM is essential to empowering women and girls.

“I feel very grateful to work as part of a union because it shows to me the value in the advocacy of the union.”

This year, PIPSC bargained a historic win of 10 paid days of leave for survivors and victims of domestic violence, as well as a parental leave top-up of five weeks when both parents work for the federal public service. Michelle says that these important wins could never have been made possible without the advocacy of the union and the united efforts of women at the bargaining table.

“We have a long way to go in terms of Indigenous rights, women’s rights and the rights of the other,” Michelle says. 

“A better Canada is one where we realize we are all in this together.”

With amazing members like Michelle working to improve our communities and advocate for women’s rights, PIPSC will continue to make a difference in shaping a stronger Canada.

Today, Michelle works as a research biologist at the Canadian Grain Commission. On a daily basis, she helps establish and maintain science-based standards of quality for Canadian grain sold nationally and abroad.

“I use science to help farmers sell their grain. The testing I do is critical,” she says. “I’ve always tried to make a positive difference in my community that I hope will have a ripple
effect around the world.”

Michelle isn’t just an important part of the lives of Canadian farmers, but she’s also an important leader in her workplace and union. Michelle is an active, contributing member of the PIPSC Women in Science (WiS) taskforce that works to improve
equity and inclusion policies in public science.

“With respect to the WiS taskforce that I’m involved with… I see that evolving into really great projects and policies shaped by women in science.” For Michelle, the work she does in the WiS task force is more important than ever because of the way women have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

“The pandemic has hit women harder than men. Some women have had to leave their careers or scale back their careers because of the pandemic,” she says. “When we shape policy, we need to do it with all genders in mind.”

 

On February 23, 2021, President Debi Daviau testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) about our concerns with Bill C-224, which would create a single tax return for Quebecers to be processed by Revenu Québec.

She outlined the reasons why we oppose the bill:

• It will have a negative financial impact on taxpayers across Canada

• It will not result in tax processing efficiencies for residents of Quebec

• It’s a step backward in the fight against tax evasion

• It’s a move away from tax fairness

• It will lead to the loss of high-quality jobs in Shawinigan and Jonquière, two smaller provincial communities already hard hit by the pandemic

We are not the only ones to take this position.

Academic and expert literature on this issue demonstrates that there is no clear evidence that decentralization of Canadian tax administration to a provincial authority would result in greater aggregate savings, efficiency, compliance or accountability as compared to centralizing the administration of provincial taxes at the CRA.

Bill C-224 should not be adopted. A better way to go, if we want less paperwork, a lighter tax filing burden on individuals, and a guarantee that people get the benefits they are entitled to, would be automatic tax filing. This is something the Trudeau government has committed to implementing and we support that initiative. The CRA has the capacity to effectively process Quebec taxes, as it already does for the other provinces.

We continue to meet virtually with Members of Parliament on this issue and we will report back to our members on the status of the bill in the weeks ahead.

On February 19, 2021, President Debi Daviau wrote to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Commissioner Bob Hamilton regarding its recent decision to hire a third-party contractor to answer questions from taxpayers about emergency benefits and their impact on 2020 tax returns.

While the various programs introduced to help Canadians during the pandemic may well result in a substantial increase in the number and complexity of questions fielded by the CRA during the upcoming tax season, it is incomprehensible why public service professionals have not been asked to perform this work. CRA had many options to provide these services internally, including the hiring of term employees, and there is no good reason why it chose to look to an external provider to do so.

Private call centre staff are much likelier to provide incomplete or inaccurate information to taxpayers than CRA personnel. Their training is not of the same calibre and they are not held to the same standard of confidentiality as public service employees. Worse, many Canadians may not realize they are not speaking to a CRA professional and may inadvertently provide confidential information to these private-sector call centre agents.

This brings to mind the fiasco that ensued when hundreds of hastily prepared call centre agents were hired to provide assistance to federal employees experiencing complex pay problems caused by Phoenix.

We support our CRA colleagues represented by the Union of Taxation Employees and we call upon the Commissioner to immediately reverse this decision. Canadian taxpayers deserve the best service possible. Contracting out this critical work will once again prove more expensive and less effective than if it were performed by knowledgeable and experienced public service professionals.

The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance re-launched its pre-budget consultations for 2021.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has referred to the upcoming budget as the “the most significant one of our lifetimes.” The stakes are high; we want to ensure this budget works for PIPSC members and all Canadians.

READ OUR BUDGET 2021 RECOMMENDATIONS

Here are some excerpts:

Recommendation 1: Build an equitable and sustainable national recovery plan

The impact of public policy decisions made in the next few years will be felt for generations. Success means protecting people’s health today and their livelihood tomorrow while also addressing structural inequity and ecological imperatives.

Recommendation 2: Invest confidently in the public service

When markets failed, the public service was there. The crisis has proven that Canadians benefit from having a strong, efficient and professional public service. Now is the time to confidently invest in the future. The vital programs that save lives, protect the environment and grow our economy must remain in the hands of our non-partisan public service.

Recommendation 3: Protect workers as the country reopens

We need to move slowly, protect people and pull everyone up along the way.

Recommendation 4: $750 million grant for NAV CANADA in each of the next two years

The government must immediately support the company by providing it with emergency funding to get through this crisis.

Recommendation 5: Correct inequality with tax fairness

We cannot simply strive to return to the status quo; we must correct the deep inequality that has been exposed. A rigorous examination of the tax system will be critical to ensure there is a legacy of positive and meaningful change – allowing those who have profited from the crisis to lift up those who have been harmed.