Legislation

Background

The Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) was enacted as part of the Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA). The PSMA, which received Royal Assent on November 7, 2003, has been implemented in stages, concluding with the coming into force of the PSEA on December 31st, 2005.

This legislation is designed to facilitate hiring the right people, to promote more collaborative labour-management relations, to focus on learning and training for employees at all levels, and to clarify roles and accountability.

Modernizing the Public Service

The PSEA modernizes staffing in the public service by:

• clarifying responsibilities and eliminating inefficiencies in the system, while retaining the core values of merit, non-partisanship, excellence, representativeness, and the ability to serve the public with integrity and in their official language of choice;
• giving a new meaning to merit that moves away from the rules-based concept of "best-qualified" to a values-based approach that allows managers to hire qualified and competent individuals more quickly; and
• creating new mechanisms for staffing recourse, including the replacement of appeal boards by the Public Service Staffing Tribunal (PSST).

Links

(All links below are to the Justice Canada Web site, unless otherwise indicated)

Operating Principles of the Public Service Commission
(Public Service Commission Web site)

Public Service Employment Act

(came into force December 31, 2005)

• Public Service Employment Act
• Public Service Employment Regulations
• Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order
• Public Service Official Languages Appointment Regulations
• Political Activities Regulations

Other relevant legislation

• Public Service Modernization Act
• Financial Administration Act
• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• Canadian Human Rights Act
• Employment Equity Act
• Official Languages Act