IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2025-05
Overview on Pay and Benefits
Minister’s Office Exempt Staff
Corporate Services Sector
May 2025
Overview
Introduction
- What does it mean to be exempt staff?
- Minister’s Offices Funding Model
Human Resources Management
- Hiring
- Salary
- Employee Benefits
- Leave
Termination
- Post-employment obligations
- Severance Pay
- Separation Pay
- When a minister ceases to be a minister
- Mobility
Introduction: Minister’s Offices & Exempt Staff
- Ministerial staff are hired by the Minister to support them in their role as part of the executive branch of government.
- They are classified as “exempt staff” because they are exempt from certain Treasury Board policies and regulations, including normal appointing procedures under the Public Service Employment Act.
- In addition, unlike public servants, ministerial exempt staff are not subject to the same limitations regarding non-partisanship or participation in political activities outside of regular work hours.
- That said, during work hours, exempt staff support the Minister in delivering on government’s commitments and cannot use government resources to further objectives of a political party.
Operating in the Minister’s Office
- The Treasury Board provides ministers with budgets for exempt staff, a budget for operating their offices and a budget for departmental staff assigned to a minister's office.
Components of Mino Budgets
- Ministers' exempt staff personnel costs budgets ("exempt staff budget");
- Ministers' other operating costs (i.e., non-personnel) budgets ("other operating budgets"); and
- Ministers' departmental staff personnel costs budget ("departmental staff budget").
The Policies for Ministers Officesconsolidates the various financial, personnel, and administrative rules and regulations that govern expenses incurred by ministers and their exempt staff when they perform duties.
Ministers’ Offices & Exempt Staff
Conflict of Interest
- As a condition of employment, ministers' exempt staff are subject to provisions of the Conflict of Interest Act.
- Ministers' exempt staff working less than 15 hours per week are subject to the Ethical Guidelines for Public Office Holders Accountable Government: A Guide for Ministers and Ministers of State.
Security
- All individuals, exempt staff, departmental staff, students, contractors, working in or for a minister’s office must obtain a secret security clearance prior to their appointment.
Health and Safety
- Ministers’ offices must comply with the Canada Labour Code.
- Workplace harassment, violence, and discrimination are strictly prohibited and will not be tolerated, ignored, or condoned.
Conflict of Interest: Summary of Rules for Reporting Public Office Holders
Human Resources Management – Hiring
- Exempt staff are appointed pursuant to section 128 of the Public Service Employment Act by the Minister. They are employees of the Minister.
- Only the Minister has the authority for hiring exempt staff. This authority cannot be delegated.
- Ministers have the flexibility to configure the complement of exempt staff in their own offices (their workforce) but must respect some conditions, including (but not limited to) the following limitations:
- Maximum one chief of staff
- Maximum one director per function (e.g., Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, etc.)
- Maximum one regional affairs director per region, if applicable.
- DMO Corporate Services is responsible for onboarding new hires and ensuring they have the tools for their role, with support from Executive Resourcing units (EXR). EXR’s main role is to provide support to Deputy Minister’s Office (DMO) Corporate Services by revising letters (letters of offer, termination, etc.) as well as ensuring data entry in the human resources (HR) system.
Human Resource Management – Salary
- Ministers have the flexibility to determine salary on hire, within the provisions of the Policies for Ministers Offices (“the Policies”).
Only the Minister has the authority to determine salary, award salary increases, and acting salaries-this authority cannot be delegated.
Salary maximums for exempt staff are equivalent to the Public Service groups and levels (EX, AS, IS, and CR). An exempt staff member may be paid the maximum salary only if it can be fully justified by their experience and qualifications.
Salary maximums cannot be exceeded, without prior agreement from the Prime Minister’s Office and the President of the Treasury Board and approval from the Treasury Board.
Current salary information for the Public Service can be found at Rates of Pay (for excluded and unrepresented employees) and Rates of Pay for the Public Service of Canada.
Human Resource Management – Employee Benefits
- Minister’s exempt staff can participate in the following benefits plans:
Compulsory
- All exempt staff
- Subject to the normal eligibility requirements
- Employment Insurance plan
- Public Service Superannuation Plan
- Provincial health insurance plans
- Supplementary Death Benefit
- Canada or Quebec pension plans
- Long-term Disability insurance (under Public Service Management Insurance Plan)
- Public Service Dental Care Plan
Automatic (Goverment paid)
- Public Service Management Insurance Plan
- Public Service Health Care Plan
- Basic life insurance equal to twice the adjusted annual salary
- Extended Health Care Coverage
- Accidental death & dismemberment insurance of $250,000
- Hospital Benefit Level III
- Dependants’ insurance
Optional
(member paid)
Human Resource Management – Leave
- Leave provisions for exempt staff follow the terms and conditions of the Public Service occupational group to which their salary maximums are equivalent.
EX Occupational Group
- Current leave provisions of the Public Service Executive Group can be found in the Directive on Terms and Conditions of Employment for Executives, as amended from time to time.
AS, IS & CR Occupational Groups
- Current leave provisions of the Public Service Program and Administrative Group can be found at Program and Administrative services, as amended from time to time.
- Exempt staff are subject to the mandatory cash-out of vacation and compensatory leave where excess leave is automatically paid out annually.
- Vacation leave should be recorded in advance before such leave is taken.
Unless specifically exempted, ministers and exempt staff are subject to Treasury Board policies and regulations and use the same leave and pay systems as other employees in the public service.
Leave system Peoplesoft: Read more here: Leave (ci.gc.ca)
Pay System Phoenix: Read more here: Your pay (ci.gc.ca)
Post-Employment Obligations
- As soon as they are known, the Minister, or his or her delegate, is responsible for communicating to the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner (OCIEC) the names and titles of all exempt staff members whose employment has terminated or who have left the Minister’s office.
- The OCIEC will communicate with all exempt staff members regarding their post-employment obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act.
- DMO Corporate Services is responsible for the offboarding and transition of MinO staff members with support from Executive Resourcing units (EXR). EXR’s main role is to support DMO Corporate services by revising termination letters as well as ensuring data entry in the HR system, as required.
- Refer to the Conflict of Interest Act or this Summary of Rules for Reporting Public Office Holders for more information.
Severance Pay
- Employees have a right to severance pay when they end their services voluntarily, are dismissed, are deceased, or are laid off owing to lack of work or discontinuance of a function.
- In all cases, severance pay is calculated at the rate of two weeks’ pay (based on salary at termination) for each year of service as an exempt staff member.
- There is no ceiling on the maximum number of weeks to be paid.
- Calculations are pro-rated in respect of part of a year’s service.
- Earned but unused vacation is cashed out at termination of employment.
Separation Pay
- Separation Pay is intended to compensate for possible loss of earnings resulting from an often unpredictable and, at times, abrupt termination of employment.
- Separation pay may be awarded within the prescribed limits:
- Maximum four months’ pay for service of less than four years, or
- Maximum six months’ pay for service of four years or more.
- It should not ordinarily be provided to an employee who:
- voluntarily terminates employment and who is commencing alternative employment immediately, or
- is dismissed for cause.
When a Minister Ceases to be a Minister
- When a minister ceases to be a minister or changes portfolio and does not take a member of the exempt staff to the new portfolio, affected employees continue to draw salary for 30 calendar days, in accordance with section 128 of the Public Service Employment Act. If a minister authorizes separation pay, the payment begins at the end of this 30-day period.
- When ministers cease to hold office due to a Cabinet shuffle or a general election, members of their exempt staff who are not rehired by a minister or in the Public Service are to be deemed to have been laid off at the end of the 30-day period for the purposes of the Public Service Health Care Plan and the Public Service Dental Plan.
Mobility
- Former exempt staff who have been employed for at least three successive years as exempt staff in a minister’s office, in the office of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, or in the office of the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, may be eligible to participate in internal advertised appointment processes open to all employees of the Public Service.
- This mobility provision is effective for a period of one year after the person ceases to be employed as ministers’ exempt staff.
- As a participant in internal advertised appointment processes, former ministers’ exempt staff also have the right to make a complaint to the Public Service Staffing Tribunal.