Public Service Commission of Canada

Canada

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The Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) is an independent government agency that safeguards merit-based hiring, non-partisanship, representativeness (aboriginal people, visible minorities, women, and people with disabilities) and the use of both official languages (English and French) in the Canadian public service. The PSC aims to protect the integrity of hiring and promotion within the public service. As well, the Commission works to protect the political impartiality and non-partisanship of public servants. The Commission develops staffing policies and provides guidance to public service managers and recruits Canadians into the public service. To ensure the staffing system in the government is properly maintained, the PSC has the power to audit, investigate and order departments and managers to make improvements. While typical government departments are headed by Ministers, the PSC is an independent agency that is headed by a President (Currently Maria Barrados) who reports to the Canadian Parliament.

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Mandate and goals

The PSC has the mandate to appoint people to the public service, and to promote people within the government. The PSC can also assist government departments with hiring and assessment tools. The PSC oversees the integrity of the hiring and promotion system, and makes sure that the hiring process is not compromised by partisan interference from elected officials. Part of this overseeing role involves collecting and analyzing data on hiring and promotion in the public service (e.g., hiring of different groups, by region, by department). As well, the PSC audits departments and agencies by examining their hiring and promotion files, to ensure that employees are hired and promoted based on merit. Lastly, the PSC administers the part of the 2003 Public Service Employment Act that sets out the restrictions on the political activities of public service employees and department heads (in Canada, these are called deputy heads or deputy ministers).

The strategic outcome of the PSC is to achieve "A highly competent, non-partisan and representative Public Service, able to provide service in both official languages, in which appointments are based on the values of fairness, access, representativeness and transparency."[1]

Program Activities

The PSC has set out four program activities that are done to reach its strategic outcome:

Public Service Employment Act

The 2003 Public Service Employment Act (which came into force on December 31, 2005) emphasizes the values of merit, non-partisanship, fairness, access, transparency and representativeness.

Merit refers to the use of merit during the hiring and promotion process. This means that people who are hired and promoted in the public service must possess certain competencies, skills, and experience (merit), rather than based on political connections or partisan affiliations (political patronage). The merit principle requires that every person who is appointed to the public service has met the essential qualifications and requirements established for the position. The essential requirements can include official language proficiency, asset qualifications, operational requirements (e.g., availability to do shift work or work on weekends), and organizational needs (e.g., need to increase the hiring of women) that have been identified by the head of a department or agency.

Non-partisanship means that appointments of people to the public service (and promotions of public servants )have to be made without political influence from Ministers or partisan officials. Although Canadian public servants were disallowed any involvement in political activities in their private time throughout much of the 20th century, in 1967, legislative changes allowed public servants to request permission to take leave without pay to run in an election. In 1991, a Supreme Court decision gave public servants the right to engage in political activities. The 2003 Public Service Employment Act clarified what political activities public servants are allowed to engage in.

Public servants can engage in political activities such as supporting a candidate in an election or taking leave without pay to run in an election, but they have to maintain their political impartiality as public servants. In order to comply with the non-partisanship values in the Act, public servants must only do the types of political activities that do not conflict or impair their ability to fulfill their responsibilities in a politically impartial manner. The type and degree of political activities that a public servant can engage in depends on several factors, such as the visibility of the political activities that the public servant wants to engage in and the visibility of the public servant in their job in the public service.

Historical timeline

Chairpersons and Presidents

References

  1. ^ http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/centres/priorities-priorites-eng.htm
  2. ^ "Civil Service in Canada". Marionopolis College. http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/Civilservice-CanadianHistory.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-20. 
  3. ^ "A Timeline of the Public Service Commission of Canada". Public Service Commission of Canada. Archived from the original on 2007-07-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20070703131234/http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/research/timeline/psc_timeline_e.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-23. 
  4. ^ Roberts, Alasdair. So-Called Experts: How American Consultants Remade the Canadian Civil Service, 1918-1921. Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 1996

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