Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Letter on Implementation of the Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion

Summer 2021 update

Dear Ms. Charette,

In response to the January 22, 2021, Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service and my February 26, 2021, letter detailing early efforts on this front, I am pleased to update you on some key initiatives at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard to become a more representative, diverse, inclusive, accessible and respectful workplace.

First, I want to thank you for continuing to advance the Call to Action as Interim Clerk and for publishing these letters, as you are creating transparency and supporting interdepartmental learning. I know that building diversity and inclusion into our workforce is a shared responsibility and I can tell you that our organization has been building on many efforts already underway and leveraging initiatives taken in other departments.

To date, our organization has made much progress building infrastructure for learning, as well as for recruitment and sponsorship of candidates from employment equity (EE) and equity seeking groups.

As part of the department’s Learning Strategy, our executive cadre has now completed three Canada School of Public Service online courses on understanding and overcoming unconscious bias, with a 99% completion rate, and has been engaged in ongoing dialogue on this very important subject.

Guided by our Talent Acquisition Framework, we have collected benchmark data to address employment equity gaps, set annual recruitment goals, and developed recruitment strategies to meet our representation objectives over the next four years. The number of new hires, departures from, and promotions of designated employment equity groups members within the department will be monitored closely (Data Annex, Table 1). In addition, we are equipping hiring managers and human resources professionals with tools, training, and resources to promote increased flexibility around the recruitment of EE group members.

We have also launched the National Indigenous Recruitment, Retention and Development Strategy and Action Plan and created a Surge Staffing Team who are leading EE focused talent hiring strategies to support growing our workforce. I am pleased to note that the recent, measurable impacts of the National Indigenous Student Recruitment Initiative have led to the appointment of 41 Indigenous students across the Department in 2021-2022.

We are dedicated to providing increased support for career development and talent management to employees who identify as belonging to EE or equity-deserving groups, including women in non-traditional occupations. By the end of fiscal year 2020-21, there were 302 talent management plans in our organization with 241 of these targeting members of the various EE groups (Data Annex, Table 2).

I am also very happy to report that our department is participating in the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Mentorship+ Learning Lab. This year, we have focused our efforts on the sponsorship component of the program. Nearly two dozen participants were selected from EE groups, while we explore the scalability of an organization-wide mentorship program. Senior leaders in our organization have stepped up and volunteered to mentor these individuals, and we are currently working to match protégés with a sponsor.

At the same time, a dedicated team has started reviewing our existing mental health and wellbeing support systems to ensure they are culturally sensitive and adequately tailored to address issues of racism, discrimination and hate in the workplace. Our Office of the Ombudsman has developed documents to provide information on the topic of micro-aggressions, alongside examples of ways to react to and address different types of micro-aggressions. These documents will better support a safe workplace for employees facing racism or experiencing discrimination. This information was shared with employees in April, and several Asian History Month learning events followed in May 2021, highlighting the role micro-aggressions play in the discrimination of Asian Canadians.

Our designated Senior Official for Diversity and Inclusion has also played a critical role in supporting this important mandate by working closely with our Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Champions and senior management. This senior official has also provided the necessary leadership to ensure that we stay focused on our collective goals, with a particular focus on facilitating long-term sustainable cultural change. The success of the response to the Call to Action will depend largely on the ability to mobilize employees and have widespread engagement at all levels. The relationships that we are presently forging with the employee networks, champions and regional teams will be critical in connecting with, and evaluating the employee response. This year’s departmental strategies and efforts aim to address the ways in which communications, learning and engagement can be reinforced.

We, as decision makers, enablers and influencers, play a crucial role in ensuring our people management practices reflect the values of equity, respect and excellence. As such, the Commissioner, Associate Deputy Minister and I have made our expectations clear, and I know we can count on our organization’s collective leadership to advance our very ambitious agenda. Through dedicated efforts and support, I am committed to meet, and indeed exceed, many of the targets that we have set for ourselves.

This is an exciting time to be in the public service. I look forward to working with you and my colleagues on making our workforce not only more representative of the population we serve, but also inclusive.

Sincerely,

Timothy Sargent
Deputy Minister

Data Annex

Table 1. The number of new hires, departures from, and promotions of designated employment equity groups within Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard in the 2019-2020 fiscal year as compared to the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

Note: Data excludes students, terms less than 3 months and casuals. Data showing less than 5 employees are showcased as <5.
*Departure data for Persons with Disabilities for 2019-20 was not available in PeopleSoft.

Table 2. The number of talent management plans completed by end of fiscal year 2020-2021, by employees within designated employment equity groups in Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard.

Note: Data excludes students, terms less than three months and casuals. Data as of April 28, 2021, with a margin of error of approximately 5-10%.

Table 3. The national employment equity representation and associated gaps by occupational group as of March 31, 2021. The Department is under-represented primarily in three of the four EE groups: Aboriginal people, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities.

Note: Data exclude casual workers, students, terms < 3 months and minister's office staff. Gaps are calculated using the estimated 2019 national workforce availability based on the 2016 Census and the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD). A negative number confirms there is under-representation.