29th Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada

Letter to the Prime Minister

It is my pleasure to submit to you the Twenty-Ninth Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada, covering the period from April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.

It was a sincere honour to be asked last year to fill in for my friend and colleague, Ian Shugart. Ian served Canada with distinction for over 42 years. I know I speak for the whole of the Public Service when I thank him for his leadership and his dedication. We all wish Ian and his family the very best.

It has been a privilege to lead the Public Service during this time and to continue with the priorities Ian set in his report to you last year, namely, to learn from our experience supporting Canadians through the Government’s response to the pandemic and to tackle racism and build inclusion within our institutions.

As I reflect on the past year, I am struck by how “unprecedented” events have apparently become our normal. On top of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Canada has experienced natural disasters in the form of floods and fires, and disruptive domestic demonstrations and blockades. Canada has been affected by international political crises stemming from events such as the collapse of the Government of Afghanistan and Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine. Clearly, this is another example of a year that can be characterized as one unlike any other.

This year has also been painful for many across the country. The finding of unmarked graves at former residential schools is a raw reminder of the historic and current injustices that exist in our society. Incidents of hate against religious and other minority communities are still all too common. Indigenous peoples, Black and other racialized individuals, members of LGBTQ2+ communities, members of religious minority communities and persons with disabilities continue to face racism, discrimination and barriers.

We have tackled a lot together.

Leadership is what we make of the circumstances we face, and I have been awed by the leadership that I observed at all levels across the Public Service this year. “How can I help?” has been the overwhelming refrain. For some, this meant leading a new project, transferring to a new team to help with a priority file, showing up to offer front-line service to Canadians, thinking about how to improve delivery of a program to Canadians, providing critical advice to inform government decision-making on an emerging issue, or simply checking in with a colleague to let them know that they are not alone.

This willingness to step in and step up where needed is one of the reasons the Public Service was able to deliver so much this year, at a time when Canadians needed us most.

But I know that operating at an unrelenting pace has had some costs. Like so many Canadians across the country working in different sectors, public servants have been giving much of themselves to their jobs. Our employees are our strength. We have to make sure that we support them so they can thrive and feel able to do their best work.

The annual Clerk’s report is an important inflection point to pause and to recognize all that public servants have achieved for Canadians. Canada’s Federal Public Service is exceptional, and it is a continuing privilege to work with such dedicated and professional public servants, as we collectively work to implement the Government’s agenda and serve Canadians.

Canada and Canadians have weathered many challenges this year. As I look forward, it is clear to me that the Public Service needs to continue harnessing the lessons we have learned during this past year to deliver on the Government’s priorities and be ready to support the needs of Canadians, whatever comes next.

I am so proud of all that has been accomplished over the past year. I am grateful and humbled that you have asked me to continue in this role. I am committed to working with public servants to build on this record as we face new challenges and new opportunities.

I know that, together, we can and will chart a new path that blends the best of our traditions with emerging approaches to deliver the best results for Canadians.

Janice Charette
Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet

Introduction

If there was one word that marked the past year, it was “uncertainty”.

The Public Service continued to move forward on supporting Canadians through the Government’s response to the pandemic and tackling racism in our institutions, while responding to complex emerging challenges. It seemed that every time one crisis was under control, another was waiting around the corner. Despite this, Canada has weathered the challenges of the last year better than almost any other country. Still, we face some of the same complex challenges as other countries, such as supply chain disruptions, concerns about the cost of living, increasing prevalence of misinformation and disinformation, and complex international relations.

More than ever, Canadians relied on their Federal Public Service. In the face of uncertainty, the Public Service remained a steady and dependable force, while demonstrating creativity and flexibility to respond to the evolving needs of Canadians during the pandemic.

The Public Service’s accomplishments in serving Canadians during this challenging year are truly impressive. At the same time, this has been a time of learning. Public servants are starting to unpack the lessons they have collected and are beginning to use them to shape the Public Service of the future.

Delivering through uncertainty

Like all Canadians, public servants lived and worked through a pandemic year. Again.

While the pandemic was ever-present and seemed to touch all aspects of our professional and personal lives, it was not the only factor behind the constantly changing circumstances to which public servants adapted this year. A number of complex issues and emerging crises required rapid and ongoing delivery of Public Service support to meet the needs of Canadians and protect Canadian interests. When the demands were high, public servants delivered at home and abroad.

• Canada was able to get more than 3,700 evacuees out of Kabul between August 4 and September 3, 2021, thanks to efforts by the Canadian Armed Forces (under Operation AEGIS); Global Affairs Canada; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; Canadian allies; and Afghan nationals.
• The Public Service rapidly put in place special measures to resettle Afghans in Canada, including those who closely assisted Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, extended family members of former Afghan interpreters, and vulnerable Afghans, including women leaders, LGBTQ2+ people, and human rights defenders.
• Despite enormous challenges and an evolving situation on the ground, the work continues to bring at least 40,000 Afghan nationals to Canada, with 10,000 having arrived as of March 30, 2022. This whole-of-government response includes assistance from staff across Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, such as the network of visa officers who process applications remotely and digitally.
• Meanwhile, Global Affairs Canada provided support to Canadians who remained in the country and significantly increased its humanitarian assistance contribution to Afghanistan. All of these departments continue to support the response to the crisis and help Afghan citizens find refuge in Canada.

This is only a small sample of all that public servants working in teams have delivered this year.

How we delivered

By reflecting on not only what we have accomplished, but also how we delivered these results, we can harvest the best practices, build them into our models of working and continuously improve.

Taking care of health and well-being

This starts with our people.

Behind everything the Public Service has done over the past year, people were working hard with so many making personal sacrifices, as have others working across all sectors. This period has been a reminder of how critically important it is to take care of our employees so they can be healthy and contribute to the best of their abilities.

This has not been an easy time for Canadians, including public servants.

Many employees are reporting high levels of stress and heavy workloads. More employees than ever are finding that they need help, and an increasing number are already in crisis by the time they ask for it.

Mental health is deeply personal. What is a difficult situation for one person may seem quite manageable to another. What seems easy one day can feel impossible the next.

Education and awareness are a big part of this. As well, training is available to help employees and their managers understand the recent shift to preventing harassment and violence that came from the changes to Part II of the Canada Labour Code and the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations.

To help manage mental health, public servants have access to supports like the Employee Assistance Program and resources like those shared by the Centre of Expertise on Mental Health in the Workplace at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

Slowly, stigma is being reduced and awareness is growing. Public servants are having honest conversations with each other about mental health and wellness and creating opportunities to learn.

All of this work has set the Public Service up well. But, like all Canadians, the amount of change that public servants have had to manage has tested their resilience.

To cope with this, public servants have been trying new things.

• Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada created a new COVID Mental Health Response Unit to support employees who have been at the forefront of the pandemic response. This unit has launched a number of supports, including a Decompression Program pilot project that allows front-line staff to temporarily de-operationalize, process, rest and recover.
• Indigenous Services Canada looks after employee well-being by ensuring that a specialized program is available 24/7 for nurses working for the department in northern communities. The program offers support following critical incidents and includes a dedicated prevention component.
• The Canadian Innovation Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace, managed by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, delivered 130 events featuring leading-edge speakers who covered themes such as leadership, nurturing a growth mindset, communications skills, resiliency, self-care, and workload management, all with a particular focus on the impacts of COVID-19. These events had almost 62,000 registrants, with 87% saying they were satisfied with the sessions.
• Following the tragic and continued finding of unmarked graves at former residential schools, the Knowledge Circle for Indigenous Inclusion held a series of 27 Talking and Sharing Circles with the support of Indigenous elders, that included over 350 participants, reaching out to 250 Indigenous employees. Given the high volume of demand for these Circles, the Knowledge Circle engaged members of its National Advisory Circle of Elders and Knowledge Keepers to train 15 Indigenous employees as facilitators to support the ongoing delivery of such Circles.
• To support the distinct mental health needs of Black employees, Public Safety Canada’s Black Employee Network organized learning sessions with experts on Black mental health between October 2021 and February 2022 to provide safe spaces for employees to ask questions and share experiences.

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  Correctional Service Canada’s Connecting Spirits, Creating Opportunities is a wellness and networking initiative for Indigenous employees with a focus on career planning, networking and support through cultural and employment-related activities. Elder Dan Ross at National Headquarters holds regular talking circles for participants, offers one-on-one support sessions, and provides guidance for the direction of the initiative.

We cannot stop now.

The only way we will be able to deliver for Canadians is by taking care of ourselves and each other.

Confronting racism and becoming more equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible

Retaining the confidence of our employees requires us to take seriously the need to stamp out racism and discrimination of all types in our workplaces and make the Public Service inclusive, accessible and representative of the population it serves.

Departments are trying to work differently and do better.

• The Office of Indigenous Initiatives at Employment and Social Development Canada is leading an innovative whole-of-government apprenticeship program to improve the representation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in the Information Technology (IT) community. This co-developed program aims to address systemic barriers to employment through the combination of on-the-job work experience with formal training and mentorship to deliver fully qualified IT-01 (CS-01) employees at the end of two years.
• Shared Services Canada, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, the Public Service Commission and the Office of Public Service Accessibility within the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat launched a pilot recruitment initiative to hire neurodivergent candidates into the Public Service. This initiative was co-designed with people with lived experience in disability, and recruitment experts specializing in neurodiversity helping to ensure that the hiring process is accessible at every step, from recruitment to assessment through to onboarding.
• The Canadian Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Armed Forces have all moved towards more gender-inclusive uniforms for their members. The Canadian Coast Guard also added the hijab and turban as approved headgear.
• Parks Canada supports Indigenous employees’ professional development through its Indigenous Employee Training Fund. Indigenous employees can apply for funding to access valuable opportunities such as official language training for personal and professional development.

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  The Mosaic Leadership Development Program, launched by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Centre on Diversity and Inclusion, is a new, targeted leadership development program that aims to address the underrepresentation at the executive level and increase diversity in leadership positions. The program welcomed its first cohort in fall 2021.
• Departments are seeking out accessibility tools and services from Shared Service Canada’s Accessibility, Accommodation and Adaptive Computer Technology team to help ensure employees with disabilities can fully participate in all events and meetings and are equipped to do their jobs.

Employees are also taking action. They are proactively starting new interdepartmental networks and leveraging existing networks to represent and support specific communities within the Public Service.

Networks and communities are leading initiatives to advance Public Service priorities. The Network of Asian Federal Employees, for example, launched a Return to the Workplace Survey to inform departments and central agencies of the considerations and perspectives of diverse federal public service employees on returning to the workplace.

Government, employees and Canadians are watching this priority. They have high expectations that the Public Service will make meaningful, long-term change, and they want to see real results.

So do I.

Implementing the Call to Action

Just over a year since the launch of the Call to Action, public servants are increasingly stepping up to make change and their efforts are generating positive momentum.

Learning from serving through the pandemic

Transformation has been underway in the Public Service for some time. Renewal is constant.

Even so, this year has felt different. The pace of change started and stayed high.

Perhaps more than ever, we truly lived Public Service renewal in real time and brought to life the key themes of Beyond2020 at the heart of renewal: agile, inclusive and equipped.

That is not to say that everything we did worked perfectly. And that is okay. Experiences varied widely across the Public Service and even within departments. The high level of change was also tiring and impacted employee well-being.

As we do this, we must be steadfast in our core values as a non-partisan public service dedicated to providing fair, timely and effective services that respect and promote Canada’s official languages. These values do not keep us from stepping into the future. They anchor and guide us as we embrace new ways of thinking and working.

Looking ahead

As we emerge from this period of uncertainty and look toward the future, I know there is more change on the horizon.

I am excited by the opportunity and obligation we have to chart a path forward that prepares the Public Service to deliver through whatever changes come next. By building on what we learned during the pandemic and blending the best of our traditions with emerging approaches, including a combination of in-person and remote work, we will create a new hybrid workplace that delivers the best results for Canadians.

I see three areas for action that, taken together, will position us to make the most of this moment.

1. Make anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility everyone’s priority. When we say we are going to do something, as we did in the Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion, we have to do it. Everyone can and must be a leader in this area. Hiring managers must contribute by hiring more persons with disabilities, Indigenous people, and Black and other racialized individuals at all levels. They must consider the full range of talent available in their teams and embrace the role of promotional opportunities in advancing this priority. We need to improve access to professional development including second language training and invest in preparing employees for leadership positions. We have to provide opportunities for employees to heal from past incidents of racism and discrimination in our institutions. Public servants have to create environments where everyone feels included and is comfortable coming to work with all of their interconnected dimensions of identity, such as race, ethnicity, Indigenous identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. By fully including the talents of all employees in our work, we will design and deliver better programs and services for Canadians.
2. Recruit with intention. The Public Service, like all employers, is facing a competitive labour market. We must adopt a more assertive and faster recruitment approach. We need to identify the skills and experience we need today and act on what we will need tomorrow. Managers must be thoughtful and creative about attracting and retaining people who add value and help us meet our diversity priorities. This includes actively recruiting to fulfill our commitment to hire 5,000 persons with disabilities by 2025. We can recruit from across the country and use our experience during the pandemic to bring voices from across Canada into our teams. With a job vacancy rate of 4.9% (up from 3.1% at the beginning of 2020), we need to think about what sets the Public Service apart and how we can promote our mission of serving Canada and Canadians to appeal to the talent we need. I am confident that new recruits will be attracted by the opportunity to serve their country and make a difference in the lives of Canadians. To retain them, we must foster flexible, safe and rewarding workplaces and excel as a learning organization that prepares public servants for new challenges.
3. Deliver results for Canadians. We have clearly shown the Public Service’s ability to step up and overcome every obstacle to get things done and deliver real results for Canadians. We have proven what we can do during times of crisis and we have learned much from this. But this has also disrupted our usual lines of work. Now, we must apply what we have learned to how we approach everything—from delivering core programs and services to responding to unexpected challenges. We must build on our enhanced capacity to deliver digitally while holding true to the importance of providing in-person support, to ensure every Canadian gets the service and results they need in a timely manner. Public servants should feel empowered to ask how things could be done better, and they should be supported in taking thoughtful risks in how we implement to achieve results for Canadians. The lessons we learned from the pandemic will help us get there.

Conclusion

I am extremely proud of all that the Public Service has delivered this year, and I am grateful and humbled to have served as Interim Clerk during this period.

This is an exciting moment for the Public Service. We are building our future together. We know the Public Service of tomorrow will not look or operate as it did in 2021, but it would be a missed opportunity if we went back to the way things were in 2019.

I look forward to seeing all that a renewed Public Service can be.