The environment is not open.
Evidence of meeting #53 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 cases.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #53 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 cases.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
9:35 a.m.
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
There is no environment.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Okay. Thank you.
I have another question.
This morning, you mentioned that the 19 conflict resolution centres will be reduced to four.
Could you explain the potential risks for clients and possible solutions?
9:35 a.m.
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
Cutting alternative dispute resolution or ADR services was the decision of the Canadian Forces. I know that this will have a considerable impact because informal conflict resolution helped to solve a lot of problems.
Major strides have been made over the past five years within the Canadian Forces. They have integrated a joint team of military members and civilians in their informal conflict resolution system. It was a mixed team that made it possible to offer quality services to both the military and civilians on each base. In addition, the fact that this team was on the ground, that it was known by the chain of command and that it was made up of local people was very helpful.
As a result, eliminating this team means eliminating an important tool for quickly resolving issues on the ground.
In my view, if this tool no longer exists, people will be likely to go through much more formal processes a lot sooner because that will be the only solution they will see. In addition, all the existing formal processes take a long time. A harassment complaint takes on average 90 days to process and a grievance takes between 18 and 24 months.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Is this informal resolution a pillar for the Treasury Board in dealing with harassment? Is that the case?
9:40 a.m.
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
This service is mandatory for public service. It is actually a tool that has to be implemented for public servants. This service will continue to exist, but it will be very limited. In my view, this service will be centralized in the large centres and people will have to travel to get access to the service.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Marie-Claude Morin
Thank you very much, Mr. Gauthier. Unfortunately, I have to interrupt you. We have already used all the time we had. The time has gone by very quickly.
Thank you very much for coming back and taking the time to answer questions from the members of the committee. It has been very interesting. We really appreciate that you have made the trip here for a second time.
I am going to suspend the proceedings for a few minutes to let the next witnesses take their seats.
Thank you.
9:45 a.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Marie-Claude Morin
I would like to welcome the second panel of witnesses, both of whom are from the Canada School of Public Service. Joining us are Jean-François Fleury, Acting Vice-President, Learning Programs, and Felicity Mulgan, Acting Director General, Functional Communities, Authority Delegation and Orientation. Thank you very much for accepting our invitation.
You have 10 minutes for your presentation, followed, if time permits, by a round of questions, of course. We may have to leave to vote later this morning.
Go ahead.
9:45 a.m.
Jean-François Fleury Acting Vice-President, Learning Programs, Canada School of Public Services
Thank you very much.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about the training offered at the Canada School of Public Service.
I will start by providing a brief overview of the school's mandate. Then I will describe the relevant curriculum for this study.
The school is a common learning provider for the public service of Canada. We provide a broad range of learning opportunities for public servants. These opportunities can take the form of classroom courses open to all, online courses available 24/7, courses customized to meet organizational needs, and events to share best practices and promote government and public service priorities.
The school's objectives are to support the growth and development of public servants; to help strengthen the knowledge, skills, and competencies they need to do their jobs effectively; and to assist deputy heads in meeting the learning needs of their organizations.
We are a service delivery organization. We offer services in both official languages across Canada.
Responsibility for learning in the public service is shared. Deputy heads are responsible for determining the learning, training, and development needs of the employees within their organizations and for fixing the terms on which these activities are carried out.
The Treasury Board Secretariat and the office of the chief human resources officer are the policy leads. The school works closely with both the Treasury Board Secretariat and the office of the chief human resources officer, as well as with subject matter specialists and public servants as a whole, to identify the learning needs of public servants and to determine the right opportunities and methods for addressing those needs.
As per Treasury Board's common services policy, the school is defined as an optional service provider. We are a key delivery arm for training public service employees. Departments can choose to come to the school or they can use other services and service providers. These include in-house training strategies and contracting with the private sector.
I will be more specific now about the training the school provides in the context of this study. I will describe the curriculum from broad foundational learning to specific subject matter training to the training offered to specialists in the field.
The school provides broad foundational learning through a variety of courses and programs that help employees understand the craft of government. This training includes orientation, authority delegation, professional development, and leadership training. Many of these courses contain modules and/or content that deal with values, ethics, and people management issues. This type of training aims to provide employees with basic and essential information on how government works, on the code of values and ethics, and on the legislation, policies, and regulatory environment that govern how the public service operates.
To be more specific, I will get into the orientation program. It's one of our key foundational learning products.
This program is designed to introduce new public servants to the culture and structure of the public service and to make them understand their roles. It includes modules on the code of values and ethics and on how government works. This program is delivered using online and in-class methods. It includes a one-day classroom course touching on values and ethics and a mandatory online module called “Paving the Way: Values and Ethics Foundations for Employees”. It also includes coverage of the policy on harassment prevention and resolution and uses scenarios to help participants explore ethical issues.
An evaluation was done in 2009-2010. The results demonstrated that over 80% of the respondents were better prepared to deal with ethical situations in the workplace, to discuss ethical issues with others, and to find resources regarding values and ethics.
Another key foundational learning program is authority delegation training. This suite of courses is designed for supervisors, managers, new executives, directors general, and ADMs. It provides public servants with the essentials on the roles and responsibilities related to their delegated authorities in the fields of human resources, finance, procurement, and information management. More specifically, it contains a people management component on creating a respectful workplace. It also covers the values and ethics code and the policy on harassment prevention and resolution.
All participants who go through ADT, or authority delegation training, have to validate their knowledge through an assessment. This provides them with certification showing that they meet the knowledge standards as defined by the Treasury Board Secretariat.
The school also offers sessions to senior leaders, including newly appointed deputy ministers, to help orient them in their new role. It includes discussions of real-life cases and considers approaches to managing different situations that take into account the key accountabilities.
Over and above the foundational learning I just described, the school also offers subject-specific training to help employees and managers foster a respectful workplace with a diverse and representative workforce.
Typical objectives for this type of subject matter training are to sensitize employees to the culture of values and ethics, increase awareness of obligations and responsibilities, and understand how harassment complaints should be managed.
This curriculum includes a number of learning products.
The first is creating a respectful workplace. This course is designed for employees, supervisors, and managers. It explores potential harassment situations, what it means to create a respectful workplace, and how to promote attitudes and behaviours that will improve workplace well-being. Participants learn about personal and corporate responsibilities and have the opportunity to discuss the process and typical outcomes of harassment complaints.
The second product is an introduction to employment equity and diversity. This course, for all public servants, explores the issues, organizational requirements, and legal obligations related to the implementation of the Employment Equity Act. Participants learn creative and practical approaches to supporting a diverse workforce.
A third product deals with leading a diverse workforce. This is a leadership course that provides supervisors and managers with the opportunity to explore the emotional, intelligence, and leadership competencies required to lead diverse teams. Participants explore generational, cultural, and gender-based differences to help them lead more effectively.
A fourth product is a course on principles and practices of labour relations for supervisors and managers. It covers the policy on harassment prevention and the code of values and ethics. Other legislation includes the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Canada Labour Code, and the Employment Equity Act.
Finally, we have a course on mediating conflict. It is a course for supervisors and managers that examines how to deal with conflicts rationally and fairly by using feedback and observational techniques.
In addition to the training offered to the general public service, the school offers training aimed at subject matter specialists. This training helps develop employees' knowledge and skills to meet specific legislative, regulatory, and policy requirements, or mitigate risks related to these functions. For example, the school offers labour relations training for HR advisers as well as labour relations training for labour relations specialists. These are two different products.
Furthermore, the school offers two courses aimed specifically at people dealing with actual harassment complaints inside departments. These could be managers, values and ethics specialists, HR specialists, or others.
One course is on investigating harassment complaints. This course prepares them to conduct these investigations according to the standards of the Treasury Board Secretariat policy on prevention and resolution of harassment in the workplace.
We also have a course on managing harassment complaints. This course is designed to help participants manage a harassment complaint process in accordance with the policy. Participants follow how the complaint process unfolds step by step and learn their role in managing this process.
In conclusion, the school plays a key role in offering relevant and responsive training that helps departments create and sustain a values-based and respectful workplace. We constantly review our curriculum to ensure offerings are up to date, effective, and reflective of current legislation, policies, and public service reality.
We review our curriculum using three main methods. After each course, a learning evaluation form is filled to ensure that the objectives were met, that the instructor was understood, and that the content was up to date. If ever the results for these are not favourable, a corrective measure is then put in place immediately.
We also review our entire curriculum annually to ensure its relevance. We regularly consult our colleagues at TBS, as well as relevant community leaders and subject matter specialists, to ensure we meet their needs from a learning perspective.
To close, I want to reiterate that the school's principal role as a learning service provider is to support deputy heads in meeting their learning needs of the employees and of their organizations.
I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity, and I welcome any questions you may have.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Marie-Claude Morin
Thank you.
We will now proceed to the question period.
Ms. Ambler, you have seven minutes.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much to both of you for being here today, and for your presentation.
My first question is very simple. Who pays for the courses, and how many people go?
9:55 a.m.
Acting Vice-President, Learning Programs, Canada School of Public Services
The two courses that are part of foundational learning, the orientation and authority to delegation, are centrally funded. The rest of the products we've enumerated in this list are cost-recovered, which means that employees and departments pay the school for that course.
We have statistics on the public servants' usage of these courses. I can go down all of them if you wish, or just highlight a few.
The foundational learning area is where the bulk of the public servants come through the school. The orientation program, since its inception in 2006, has served 42,000 learners, and the authority delegation training has served 57,000.
As we move into more specific products, these numbers go down because the target audience is smaller and more focused. I can give you other examples if you wish, but—
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
No, that's great. Thank you.
Are any of the courses mandatory?
9:55 a.m.
Acting Vice-President, Learning Programs, Canada School of Public Services
The foundational learning course is. The authority delegation as well as the orientation program are required training. This means that we work with departments. Departments identify a learning coordinator, and when they have new employees or recently promoted employees, they submit the list of those employees to the school; we ensure meeting that demand by offering the products.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
Thank you.
Do you train any of the students or deputy ministers or employees who attend to be mediators or to specialize in alternative dispute resolution, or is it more informal?
9:55 a.m.
Acting Vice-President, Learning Programs, Canada School of Public Services
For deputy ministers, it's more of a high-level orientation to the culture and to creating a respectful workplace. For employees, it varies on which level of course they want. For the subject matter specialists, we guide them through the step-by-step way to manage harassment complaints.
9:55 a.m.
Felicity Mulgan Acting Director General, Functional Communities, Authority Delegation and Orientation, Canada School of Public Service
I could build on that. Probably the closest we get to that is our course on mediating conflict, but it's really aimed at managers.
We're not training people to be specialized mediators or alternative dispute resolution professionals. We're really just training managers to deal with issues at the manager level and to know when something needs to go beyond that.
10 a.m.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
If and when they receive a complaint, they'll know how to deal with it, which would be more about who to send it to rather than how to deal with it themselves.
10 a.m.
Acting Director General, Functional Communities, Authority Delegation and Orientation, Canada School of Public Service
Correct.
10 a.m.
Conservative
Stella Ambler Conservative Mississauga South, ON
Okay. Thank you for that clarification.
We've heard a lot in this study about the culture of the work environment, and you spoke about it as well. If it's an unhealthy one, it can create a culture for harassment. We've also heard that sometimes a lack of respect is part of the problem and will sometimes create harassment in the workplace.
Creating a culture of respect is something that is important, but it's tough to legislate respect. How does what you do contribute to creating that culture of respect in the workplace?
10 a.m.
Acting Vice-President, Learning Programs, Canada School of Public Services
As you mentioned, the respectful workplace has many different facets to it.
From a learning perspective, from a school perspective, the code of values and ethics in creating a respectful workplace is an underlying theme of most of the products we listed here and other products that we have. Whether it's leadership courses or whatnot, we always promote creating a respectful workplace and ensuring that the code of values and ethics is well understood. From a learning perspective, that's what we contribute to the more holistic end game, which is to have a respectful workplace in the departments.