Reported attestations in the federal public service: COVID-19 vaccination requirement

Attestations by vaccination status

Percentage of employees who have indicated they are:

About the data

Under a policy announced on October 6, 2021, federal public servants in the Core Public Administration (CPA), including members and reservists of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) must be vaccinated against COVID-19. This requirement applies whether employees are teleworking, working remotely or working on-site.

Reporting on vaccination status - vaccinated, partially vaccinated, unvaccinated and requests for accommodation – is being measured against total attestations received to provide the most complete picture possible. This is a cumulative number of all attestations by employees at any time, and may include those of individuals on leave and not yet required to attest.

Requests for accommodation relates to accommodation on the basis of a medical contraindication, religion or another prohibited ground of discrimination as defined under the Canadian Human Rights Act. Requests for accommodation are assessed on a case-by-case basis, i.e. considering facts and circumstances that may be unique to the individual or the workplace, and always in accordance with the associated Government of Canada policy instruments. Requests for accommodation are separate from the counts of fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and unvaccinated.

Data source

Information provided on attestations represents the most recent data on file in the Government of Canada Vaccination Attestation Tracking System (GC-VATS). There are also some public servants who submit their attestation via paper form, and these forms continue to be incorporated into the overall data. Variance in total attestations on this page is a result of departments now replacing hand counts with full data entry of their paper attestations to the government’s secure online platform. We continue to work closely with all departments to ensure the data is reconciled as soon as possible.

The Policy on Vaccination applies to employees in the CPA, which, numbered approximately 268,000 at the time of launch, based on available information. This was a snapshot in time against which attestation data could begin to be tracked as part of the implementation of the vaccination policy.

As with any large employer, there are regular expansions and contractions in the size of the workforce over the course of a fiscal year. Such fluctuations occur with seasonal labour patterns, student employment, employees on paid leave, employees recently hired, employees changing jobs, employees who have recently returned to work following leave and other operational considerations.

Privacy and personal information

All data on employees’ requests for accommodation and their vaccination status are collected in accordance with the Privacy Act, the Policy on Privacy Protection and its related instruments.