ARCHIVED - Chapter 3-1 - Participation of English-Speaking and French-Speaking Canadians - Archived Version of 1993

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Policy objective

To ensure that federal institutions provide equal opportunities for employment and advancement to both English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians and that the composition of the work force tends to reflect the presence of both of the official language communities of Canada.

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Policy statement

It is government policy that every federal institution, while respecting the merit principle, ensures that Canadians, whether English-speaking or French-speaking, and regardless of their ethnic origin or first language learned, have equal opportunities for employment and advancement within the institution.

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Application

This policy applies to all federal institutions other than the Senate, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament, and to any other organization when an act or another legal instrument so stipulates it.

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Policy requirements

1. Every federal institution must ensure that English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians have equal opportunities for employment or advancement within the institution. The institution must ensure that:

• the method used to select employees is based solely on merit and that there are no discriminatory practices against, or artificial barriers to, members of either language group;
• its managers take the measures required to attract candidates of both language communities;
• its managers do not set hiring quotas that favour either official language group. Hiring criteria must be based on real job requirements;
• all applicants to positions within departments and agencies subject to the Public Service Employment Act may use the official language of their choice during the hiring process.

2. Every federal institution must aim for the composition of its work force to reflect the presence of both official language communities in Canada, taking into account its own situation (including its mandate, its public and the location of its offices).

• The institution must monitor the composition of its work force. The institution can thus determine discrepancies that need correcting.
• The participation of the two linguistic groups must normally be reflected in all job categories, occupational groups and hierarchical levels, taking into account the availability of possible candidates in the relevant sector of the labour force.
• Every institution must take the measures necessary to reach a more satisfactory linguistic balance when the participation rate of either linguistic community deviates markedly or inexplicably from the overall participation rate of the general population, taking into account the principles set out above.

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Monitoring

The Treasury Board Secretariat will ensure that this policy is implemented through:

• monitoring by either the institution, the Official Languages and Employment Equity Branch, or both;
• agreements on official languages with the Treasury Board, including annual management reports;
• follow-up of the reports and special studies done by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages;
• Public Service Commission data on appointments.

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References

Sections 39 and 91 of the Official Languages Act

Public Service Employment Act

Public Service Employment Regulations

Treasury Board Manual, Official Languages volume, chapter 4-1 on the identification of functions or positions

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Enquiries

Please direct enquiries to the person responsible for official languages in your institution. This person may then address policy interpretation questions to the:

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Appendix A - Guidelines on Equitable Participation

Federal institutions seeking to attain more satisfactory levels of equitable participation for either official language group should find the following guidelines useful. These guidelines indicate measures that are recommended and acceptable and those that are unacceptable.

Recommended measures

1. The following are examples of recommended measures:

• Ensure that language requirements of positions and functions are based on real language requirements for communications with the public and between federal employees.
• Use comparisons between the linguistic composition of the institution and that of relevant sectors of the labour force, when recruiting.

The point of comparison will depend on whether the competition is internal (e.g., promotion from within) or external. If the competition is internal, the comparison is with the availability of suitable candidates; if the competition is external, the comparison is with the appropriate component of the labour force.

The appropriate sector of the labour force to use as a point of comparison will vary depending on whether the area of recruitment is local, regional or national. Since most hiring is done locally or regionally, the work force in the relevant area is the valid point of comparison.

• Advertise vacant positions in open competitions in both English and French.
• Provide opportunities for candidates to use the official language of their choice during the hiring process.
• Know the present composition of the organization in terms of the first official language of employees, by region, hierarchical level and employment category.

Acceptable measures

2. The following are examples of acceptable measures:

• Expand areas of competition, where feasible, to include candidates from both official language groups.
• Adopt special recruitment strategies aimed at one official language group to improve an existing inventory that has an insufficient number of candidates of that group. This might include educational, professional, institutional or similar sources of recruitment.
• Use development or training programs to increase the existing pool of qualified persons where there is an unsatisfactory number of candidates in one official language group.
• Ensure that the linguistic composition of the selection board reflects the linguistic composition of the group of candidates.

Unacceptable measures

3. Reserving positions or groups of positions for candidates of one official language group conflicts with the merit principle and the Official Languages Act and its policies. The following measures would thus be unacceptable:

• Establishing or implementing quotas (numerical goals or targets) that prescribe the number of Anglophones or Francophones or both that shall be appointed to a given number of positions over a fixed period of time.
• Identifying language requirements of positions arbitrarily to favour the recruitment of members of only one official language group.
• Using imperative staffing to achieve equitable participation objectives.

 

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