Government Operations committee  If it's all right with you, I will ask our methodology expert to comment on that.

Government Operations committee  The methodology can be applied in certain circumstances. We are ready to share the methodology with departments that have gaps in representation. As you know, employment equity groups are generally overrepresented across the public service. Some departments or agencies, however, may need to improve representation in their workforce.

Government Operations committee  The figures actually show a slight overrepresentation of francophones in the public service. That means there isn't really any issue with representation in that regard. Managers are the ones who decide whether to designate a position as bilingual, unilingual English, or unilingual French.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Other countries and even some Canadian provinces have undertaken similar pilot projects and studies, but our pilot was the largest and used actual staffing processes. As I mentioned, some other projects relied on fictitious processes and resumes. Consequently, they did not test real staffing processes used by real managers making staffing decisions about real applicants and cases.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to appear before the committee to share what we have learned as we have explored the use of anonymized applications and its impact on the screening and recruitment of visible minorities within the Canadian public service. As you said, I'm accompanied here by colleagues from the Public Service Commission, whom you introduced, but I also want to note that I'm pleased to have Carl Trottier here.

Human Resources committee  Ms. Poitras is too modest. Part of her role is also to advise us on how we can make sure that our programs are working well for young Canadians. We're looking for her to play a leadership role within the Public Service Commission, but also to have a broader impact. Certainly we're looking forward to working with Roxanne in that capacity.

Human Resources committee  Yes. In the national capital region, the majority of positions are bilingual. That is also the case in the bilingual regions. Federally, 43% of positions are designated bilingual. You may know that Mr. Mendelsohn and I are the authors of a report that was published recently, on the use of both official languages in the federal workplace.

Human Resources committee  That's a great question. In fact, in some cases I think we need to intervene before university and reach into high school. For example, there are initiatives to try to encourage young women to study in science and the STEM areas, and that has to be done at the high school level.

Human Resources committee  Those are ways that we try to do that matching.

Human Resources committee  We had 272 outreach events—job fairs—last year, quite often involving deputy minister champions as partners. There's quite a lot that's being done. We are trying to be more targeted in our approach. For example, over the last year we've prioritized universities with a strong aboriginal or indigenous student population.

Human Resources committee  I think the positions are being filled. If the manager normally—

Human Resources committee  Do you mean reasons that candidates were turned down when they had been referred to managers?

Human Resources committee  This is part of our outreach strategy. We have deputy ministers assigned to be the champions of particular universities and colleges. They have the role to go to those universities and promote employment programs and opportunities and try to help with the matchmaking. The Public Service Commission is there to support those deputies.

Human Resources committee  I don't know; perhaps 40 or 50. We're looking at making sure there's a deputy for each university so that we cover the whole country. Last year we had a really interesting experience. The champion for the University of Montreal is Hélène Laurendeau, who is Paula's boss. She arranged with the university to have a group of 60 or so students actually bused to Ottawa.

Human Resources committee  That would be pretty complicated. We'd have to go back and survey. If we refer five candidates and the manager takes the one who they feel is best suited, it may also be that when they're talking to the candidates, the candidate says, “That's not really what I want; I want something else.”