Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to appear before you today as you continue your important study on the care of ill and injured CAF personnel.
In my position as director general of civilian human resources management operations with the assistant deputy minister of human resources at the Department of National Defence, I oversee the operation of six regional civilian human resources service centres. These regional human resources service providers work in partnership with civilian and military managers at National Defence to address the strategic and operational human resources management needs. HR service providers offer leadership, advice, and support services related to human resource planning, recruitment and staffing, employee relations, classification, compensation, and learning. In essence we are responsible for developing and enabling the delivery of services to recruit, develop, and retain civilian employees to effectively support DND/CAF. This includes the recruitment of mental health professionals, which I know is of particular interest to this committee, DND, and ADM HR-Civ to ensure that CAF members receive the support they require.
With respect to staffing, DND, as well as other departments, conducts staffing practices according to the Public Service Employment Act. The PSEA governs how appointments are to be made to ensure a public service based on merit and non-partisanship, in which the values of fairness, transparency, access, and representativeness are safeguarded. In making hiring decisions at National Defence, we always ensure that we maximize flexibilities to meet operational needs and requirements with respect to the PSEA appointment policy.
The care of ill and injured CAF personnel is one of DND/CAF's highest priorities. Today the Canadian armed forces have approximately 400 full-time mental health workers at 38 primary care clinics and detachments and 26 mental health clinics across Canada. These mental health workers include psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, mental health nurses, and addiction counsellors. We take all opportunities to recruit mental health professionals, including advertising online and in trade journals, recruiting at conferences such as the annual Canada Psychiatric Association conference, and working with the Canadian Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The reality is that Canada as a whole currently faces a shortage of health care providers. As the Chief of the Defence Staff recently noted, National Defence is therefore in competition for psychiatrists and other medical health professionals with the provinces and territories and the private sector. National Defence's challenge in attracting and recruiting qualified and experienced mental health professionals in a competitive market is due in large part to the limited labour market availability of these professionals in Canada.
An added challenge for National Defence is that the locations for certain positions are either remote or not metropolitan, such as Cold Lake and Bagotville. As is the case in the private sector, it can be difficult to attract medical professionals to these areas.
In light of these challenges, National Defence has been working to address the current shortfall of medical health professionals by reducing red tape and improving incentives. We have engaged our central agency partners, including the Public Service Commission and the Treasury Board Secretariat, to maximize the flexibility within the public service legislative construct to successfully attract and recruit mental health professionals.
To help address the issue of relocation, including to isolated regions, the Treasury Board Secretariat has approved a temporary increase in the maximum amount that can be reimbursed for the relocation of external candidates. Until March 31, 2015 we can reimburse up to $40,000 of the cost of relocation, an increase from the normal maximum of $5,000.
The Public Service Commission has also agreed to refer priority persons to National Defence if they meet our recruitment needs and requirements. A priority person is a person who has entitlement under the PSEA and regulations for a limited period to be appointed ahead of all others to vacant positions within the public service. The person must meet the essential qualifications of the position. In addition the Public Service Commission is facilitating the priority clearance process to reduce the time required to staff a position. Priority clearance is a clearance to staff granted by the PSC when an organization has first considered priority persons for the position in question.
In order to be in a better position to compete with the private sector, we are also offering the top of the pay scale in each of the clinical categories of new hires.