Evidence of meeting #52 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Serge Jetté  Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat
Linda Savoie  Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
Marielle Doyon  Acting Assistant Deputy Minister , Human Resources Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Pat Langan-Torell  Director, Values and Ethics, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Yves Vaillancourt  Inspector General and Chief Audit Executive, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Charles Vézina  Director, Labour Relations and Ethics, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Caroline Weber  Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services and Strategic Policy Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

Actually, we've been reviewing them over the last three years when I came in, and that's where we adopted an approach that is much more aligned with trying to accompany the parties and to offer informal conflict resolution. Right now we're in the process, through all these workshops we're offering, of giving out a questionnaire which has three questions. We are asking employees based on their knowledge of the organization and the practices what they think would be necessary to reduce any kind of harassment, what kind of management practice they think should be addressed, or whatever.

We are trying to get a better understanding of why 28% of people say they've been harassed when we have very few complaints in reality. That's the challenge to understand. One of the hypotheses is maybe people don't understand the real definition of harassment. You can feel harassed, as I said earlier, and you could be exposed to inappropriate management practices, or inappropriate behaviour, but it's not necessarily directed at you, or complying with the definition of harassment as we have it.

In that sense we are always questioning ourselves to try to understand how we can make the workplace more respectful, and when people feel they have been the subject of inappropriate behaviour they can come forward safely and that some action will be taken to support them. It's ongoing.

9:25 a.m.

Liberal

Judy Sgro Liberal York West, ON

Thank you.

9:25 a.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Marie-Claude Morin

Thank you.

We will now proceed to the second round of questions.

Ms. Young, you have five minutes.

November 29th, 2012 / 9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

Thank you to our panel for coming.

I found the information that you shared most interesting. I'm very impressed by the small number of harassment complaints that there actually is.

I'm going to ask a set of questions and I'd like both departments to respond to them, if possible. Some excellent questions already have been asked covering a variety of things, so I want to focus on the program and why it seems to be working particularly at Treasury Board where there has not been a complaint for 12 years now, and as well with Status of Women Canada where it's been seven years since there has been a complaint.

Obviously you're doing many things right to inform and educate your staff and to create a respectful workplace because you haven't had any complaints. We may even say that you are perhaps a model department.

Can you give me a quick overview, each of you, of your staff?

For Status of Women, you had some of those statistics in your presentation, but how many staff are there at Treasury Board?

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

We have about 1,900 employees.

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

You have 1,900 employees. Is this across Canada?

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

It's mostly in Ottawa. I would say it's 95% in Ottawa.

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

You have obviously been implementing these various workshops, and you have pamphlets.

Is it possible for the committee to get a copy of your workshop pamphlets and outlines, please?

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

Obviously it's very effective, and we need to see what's working.

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

That would be great.

It would also be great to have a job description for your harassment prevention coordinator. Obviously, he or she is doing a very good job.

With these particulars and tangibles, which hopefully we will receive copies of to review, I'd like to ask you a couple of things. When you put all of your staff through this training course or workshop, is it a half-day workshop or whole-day workshop?

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

It's a half-day workshop.

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

It's a requirement within the department, of course.

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

Management probably gets a bit longer workshop and a bit more training, as you were saying.

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

No, they get the same half-day workshop, but they are together as managers.

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

Okay, great.

Mr. Jetté, have you primarily been overseeing the implementation of this whole program?

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

You would have the best experience with this program.

9:25 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

Yes, the coordinator and I would.

9:25 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

Right.

With 1,900 staff and a half-day workshop, would you be able to—not today, of course—pull that into resources in terms of staff time and your time? How much resources are Treasury Board putting into this particular area of combatting harassment?

9:30 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

There are no additional resources. It's the harassment coordinator himself who delivers the training. We are using a large room and we have 40 people at a time in the workshop. We deliver one or two workshops per week. This year, we are focusing mainly on managers. We have more or less 400 managers, or anybody who has supervisory responsibility.

In terms of necessary resources, that's what it is. For the next 24 months, it's going to be ongoing for employees.

9:30 a.m.

Conservative

Wai Young Conservative Vancouver South, BC

What I am hearing is that you have pretty well integrated this harassment training into your existing department, and certainly into your existing training structure at Treasury Board.

9:30 a.m.

Manager, Conflict Management Services, Human Resources Division, Treasury Board Secretariat

Serge Jetté

Yes. It's an in-house course.