Evidence of meeting #170 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was hiring.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Thanks.
Mr. Harris and Ms. Rowe, can you comment on this issue of the change in the seniority since June 2018? I have to apologize. I'm not at all familiar with that. I haven't heard of that before. Can you give some feedback on where this came from? Was it a published directive within the government where you lost the seniority?
4:05 p.m.
Sgt Matthew Harris
It's from our collective agreement, the union, PSAC. That changed it.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
You're PSAC.
Ms. Rowe, are you PSAC as well?
You're both CBSA, is that right?
4:05 p.m.
Sgt Matthew Harris
Yes.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Have you heard back from the union about this? Did this just come out of the bargaining?
4:05 p.m.
Sgt Matthew Harris
At first they took it out. The union took it out of the last round of bargaining, which happened in June 2018 when we finally signed a contract. It was discreetly taken out.
I don't really know how to confirm how it all came about, but there was a vote within the union, as well, where they voted on this single... It was an unprecedented vote. There was this issue—
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I would suspect there's a smaller number of you than the others.
4:05 p.m.
Sgt Matthew Harris
Yes.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Mr. McKenna—and I'll ask Ms. Rowe and Mr. Harris—can I assume there's a general agreement within the veteran community that a day served in the army is no different from a day served in the public service, for seniority?
4:05 p.m.
Director, Equitas Disabled Soldiers Funding Society
It's certainly our view that it ought to be—
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
4:05 p.m.
Director, Equitas Disabled Soldiers Funding Society
It's my view that it ought to be. I'll leave it at that.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
4:05 p.m.
Director, Equitas Disabled Soldiers Funding Society
Yes. I'll never claim to have worked harder than anyone every day, but I'm struggling to find someone else who finds that their day of work was harder than mine, so it's one for one.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
First of all, I just want to say thank you to everybody for appearing before the committee and sharing your experiences with us.
I have a question for the VIA Rail representatives.
One of the problems we have heard about is the equivalency between the various types of military training and other types of training.
How did you establish a system to find the equivalency between military training and VIA Rail's work requirements?
4:05 p.m.
Director, Government and Community Relations, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
My answer is short: information technology.
We have disseminated information on social media and created partnerships with organizations with expertise, such as Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian Forces.
The most important, however, has been our own military people. We have a great resource in our own agency. If I want to know what a combat engineer does, I just go see somebody else within VIA Rail who was a combat engineer, and I'll tell you, that that person's going to validate that CV really quickly.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Would you say, then, that there's a culture you've managed to successfully develop within VIA Rail?
One of the things we've heard is that sometimes, even if a department has a good policy, at the hiring level, the hiring manager may not have that expertise or access to that expertise. It ends up being extra work for them, and then that's work that may not end up getting done. Then they make a decision about hiring based on what they know and what they're comfortable with, as opposed to doing that work every time.
If we're trying to recommend to government departments how to do this well—“Look at VIA Rail”—what more can we say other than that VIA has successfully developed a good culture? What can we tell them that they need to do in order to be able to get the person who's doing the hiring to feel more at ease with the information that they're getting off a military person's CV?
4:05 p.m.
Director, Government and Community Relations, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
First of all, as I mentioned in my opening statement, I think exposure to military members' success is an example of success breeding success, and when that happens it is good to see the reservists.
My colleague Ziad Nader agreed to go on an ExecuTrek, which is a trip to enable non-military people to be exposed to the military environment. What better occasion to actually create a rapprochement between two groups, precisely to enable them to better understand the dualities.
In the end, we realize that we both serve Canada, and though one learned it in a very harsh environment—be in it Constance Bay here in Ottawa or in Afghanistan—when it's time to move the train, safety is a priority, leadership is a priority and service to clients is a priority, and you wear a uniform as well.
I'm not sure whether Ziad Nader wants to add anything else, but that's what I'm proposing to the president.
4:05 p.m.
Ziad Nader Director, Human Resources and Information, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
On our side, as recruiters, we ask people to especially look beyond competency, title, experience or degree. It is a question of seeing which skills are transferable to work. For example, for a person who has held certain positions in the military and has developed certain skills, it is a matter of determining how those can be put to good use in the position they are seeking.
When we went to experience a day in military training, we brought managers with us—since they are the ones who hire—in order to expose them to the life and skills of a military member on the ground. For example, in terms of safety, they can learn what the training, the military exercise, is when there are chemicals in the environment. This shows the rigour with which military members must proceed. Those are all transferable skills. That's what we're looking for.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Of course, it would be great if public service managers spent some time with military members.
Would it also be a good thing if they spent some time with people like you who work in non-military organizations and who have successfully hired veterans?
4:10 p.m.
Director, Human Resources and Information, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
When the time comes to hire military members, the people involved co-operate.
We all want to hire the best people and help the military members transition to civilian life. Clearly, companies that are trying to transform their culture communicate and talk to each other. We are trying to see what the best way is and how best to support the cause.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Thank you very much, and thank you all for being here.
As we are studying the hiring of veterans into the public service, we have been listening to many veterans and one of the challenges they talk about is getting a buy-in from the union for an equivalence. I'm trying to figure out, for our study, what sort of a recommendation we could make so that we can be proactive, because there is an equivalence for service in the military.
Ms. Rowe, you talked about training. We had officials from Veterans Affairs here on Monday and they talked about the career transition services and the education fund. Were you aware of this training and the dollars available for training purposes for veterans?
