Evidence of meeting #42 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was numbers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
On a little different point then, in attachment 4 you have significant numbers of applicants--for example, 35,000 with the post-secondary recruitment program for 550 hires.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Roughly how many of those 35,000 would have qualified to be hired? Do we have numbers on that?
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
We go through different streams for this kind of thing.
Dan, do you have those numbers at hand? It was roughly around 17,000, wasn't it?
Dan Coffin Director General, Special Projects, Public Service Commission of Canada
Yes, 17,000.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
Yes, so the first round was 35,000, then we screened on the main things such as you're a Canadian and you have your degree. Then we look at whether you have the qualifications for the particular streams. Then we take it further in terms of any of those other things you might be looking for.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
It seems to me there is a very high percentage of people who have applied and gone through the process; maybe a number of them even qualify and aren't hired. I'm wondering whether that eventually leads to a fatalistic attitude, that there is no point in applying because there are so many rejections. There is probably not an answer for that, but it's one thing I wondered about.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
Well, I'm actually very worried about that. Last year we tested.... Was it 8,000?
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
We tested 8,000. We actually brought them in and gave them tests. This was a really good group of people. We gave 500 jobs, and half of them are not even permanent jobs.
We hear a lot about “Come to the public service” and “We need you in the public service”, so I worry about this, because—
Conservative
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
Yes.
In fact you see a lot more who are brought in through other ways. They're not done through the central way; they're done more through connections and having a casual job, then having a special assignment and finding their way into a position. That really works against fairness. So I actually am quite concerned.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
I think you indicated in your remarks that 17% find their way in that way, and that does seem like a pretty high number.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
Some of the other numbers I see, which show where people have been before they get permanent jobs, are not very assuring for me.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
I have another minute. On attachment 5, there is an indication in the bottom right-hand corner of the different equity groups. That's indicative of the current employment in the public sector. We have 2% of our public sector people.... Or are these, according to Statistics Canada numbers, the numbers that we could achieve?
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
I'm sorry. You're on attachment 5?
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Yes. The little box at the bottom on the right-hand side puts visible minorities at 34.7%.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
Those are the numbers of applicants—
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
--that were post-secondary. Of the post-secondary recruitment program applicants, 34.7% were visible minorities. We're not managing to get ourselves up to the labour force numbers of about 11% representation.
So what I'm really saying with this is that there are lots out there who are interested. We don't hire many through this program, but they're there.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
So just to clarify it for me then, 34% of those who applied were visible minorities. How many were hired?
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
It was roughly in the same proportion as the others.
Conservative
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
We have quite a drop-off. They don't get hired in that same proportion.