President meeting with Christine Hogan, Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada December 16, 2019

Introduction

Deputy Head

Ms. Christine Hogan was appointed as the Deputy Minister, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on September 30, 2019.

Ms. Hogan is exercising the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) authority for the first time as Deputy Head (DH). A copy of the New Direction in Staffing (NDS) highlights for DHs is attached as Annex A.

Deputy Minister University Champion

Ms. Hogan has not been identified as a Deputy Minister University Champion. However, please note that Martine Dubuc, Associate Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change, is the champion of L’École Polytechnique de Montréal.

ECCC is very active in job fairs, promoting jobs within their organization and hiring students. More specifically, the PSC is currently working with ECCC to organize a career fair with multiple departments and universities. This event is to be hosted in the Montreal area. The objective of the fair is to quickly identify resources to staff positions in the science and technology field while encouraging labor market representativeness within participating departments. ECCC will host an interdepartmental speed staffing event that engages multiple universities in the Quebec region. Communications associated with this event will promote and encourage persons with disabilities, visible minorities, women and aboriginal peoples to participate and apply. The fair is planned for February 2020.

Organizational Context

Mandate

ECCC is the lead federal department for a wide range of environmental issues. The department addresses these issues through various actions including the implementation of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change; engaging with strategic partners including provinces, territories and Indigenous peoples; monitoring science-based research; policy and regulatory development; and, through the enforcement of environmental laws. The department's programs focus on minimizing threats to Canadians and their environment from pollution; equipping Canadians to make informed decisions on weather, water and climate conditions; and conserving and restoring Canada's natural environment.

Priorities

In 2019-2020, ECCC will continue to implement its action plan to promote equity, diversity and inclusion work towards addressing areas of under-representation in its workforce.

To respond quickly to new priorities and expectations, ECCC will continue to recruit and develop a skilled workforce, particularly in the area of highly specialized personnel and focus on retention.

Experimentation

ECCC is continuously looking for innovative approaches in staffing. For example, along with eight other federal scientific departments and agencies, ECCC advertised a process on jobs.gc.ca and twitter (#iwantasciencejob) to staff positions for various entry level scientific positions across Canada. ECCC received over 3,700 applicants for this process and are currently at the assessment stage.
Following this initiative and in order to recognize their innovation and their efforts in relation to this project, the ECCC human resources (HR) team received the Michelle C. Comeau Award in 2019.

Population and Staffing Activities

Population

ECCC is a large organization that has a population of 7,291 employees (as of March 31, 2019).

Staffing Activities

In 2019-2020, ECCC proceeded with a total of 4494 staffing activities:

Please refer to Annex B for additional details on staffing activities.

Time to Staff

ECCC has a median time to staff of 202 days for internal appointment processes. This is higher than the median time to staff for the public service standing at 176 days.
ECCC has a median time of 195 days for external appointment processes. This is also higher than the median for the public service standing at 186 days.

Staffing Framework

New Direction in Staffing Implementation

ECCC has put in place the requirements related to the NDS for April 1, 2016. 
ECCC’s staffing policy includes all of the PSC’s Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument (ADAI) requirements including:

All sub-delegated managers have received training on NDS and have signed the required attestation form. ECCC has also shared their appointment framework with the PSC. It should be noted that ECCC’s Appointment Staffing Policy encourages sub-delegated managers to engage their HR Advisor in strategic discussions concerning their staffing needs, discuss key points of considerations and obtain expert advice in articulating the decision for selection of candidates.
With the coming into force of the NDS, ECCC has revised its staffing sub-delegation instrument.  However, with the arrival of a new Deputy Minister, the revision of the instrument may be required.  The question is currently being analyzed with corporate staffing.
Another ongoing improvement is to promote the use of the staffing manual which was recently developed to help support managers with the development of merit criteria; rating guides and identifying values-based considerations for various staffing options, amongst other things.

Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument Annex D Reporting

Use of the Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order and the Public Service Official Languages Appointment Regulations

ECCC reported that the organization made no use of the Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order. However, 6 cases were reported on the use of the Public Service Official Languages Appointment Regulations for the periods of April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019.  ECCC HR Services is monitoring these cases while following-up with managers and employees on a case-by-case basis.  For the moment, no action is required by the PSC.

Approved Deputy Head Exceptions to the National Area of Selection Requirements for External Advertised Appointment Process

ECCC reported that the DH approved 1 exception to the National Area of Selection. The positions to staff are EG-03 Junior Technologist, Monitoring/Data Services. The advertisement is published for continuous intake until September 24, 2020 with the following area of selection: AREA 1: "Persons residing or employed in Stony Plain (AB) and within an 80 kilometer radius of Stony Plain (AB), extending to, amongst others, Westlock (AB), Bruderheim (AB), Wetaskiwin (AB), Entwistle (AB)." AREA 2: Should an insufficient number of applications be retained from Area 1, applications received from "persons residing in Canada and Canadian citizens residing abroad" (Area 2) will be considered.
No appointment has yet been made from this ongoing advertised process.

Results of Organizational Cyclical Assessment

As per the ADAI requirement to submit a cyclical assessment report every five years at a minimum (first cohort due by May 1, 2021), ECCC is presently drafting their organizational cyclical assessment report to be submitted to the PSC in May 2020.

Inquiries and Trends

Since the implementation of the NDS, ECCC has consulted the PSC on a variety of topics, mostly regarding assessment, legislation interpretations (Public Service Employment Act (PSEA)), monitoring and reporting- more specifically with regards to cyclical assessment reporting.
ECCC has demonstrated openness and willingness to share their staffing tools with the PSC and other requesting organizations. The Staffing Support Advisor (SSA) is often invited to participate in meetings with human resources advisors to answer staffing questions and to provide updates on PSC projects and initiatives.

Oversight

Audits

In 2017, ECCC conducted a collaborative audit with the PSC on staffing. The resulting conclusions or observations were that most key elements for the organizational staffing framework were in place and the sampled appointments under review were generally in compliance with the PSEA and other statutory and regulatory instruments.
Recommendations were made in the following areas:

The organization was one of the 15 organizations covered by the Horizontal Audit on Credential Validation. The final report for this audit was published in May 29, 2019. ECCC is also among the 30 organizations selected for the Audit of Employment Equity Representation in Recruitment that is currently underway.


Investigations

Over the last three years (from September 23, 2016 to September 23, 2019) the PSC received 13 cases requesting an investigation for ECCC, one of them being referred to the PSC by the organization.
During the same period in question:

Table 1 - Investigations

Nature of Issue

Cases Received

Cases Referred by Organization

Closed – Not Accepted

Completed Unfounded

Completed Founded

Ongoing

s.66 External Appointments (Merit, Error, Omission, Improper Conduct

9

0

9

0

0

0

s.67.2 Internal Appointment – Deputy Head Request

0

0

0

0

0

0

s.68 Political Influence

0

0

0

0

0

0

s.69 Fraud

1

1

1

7

19

0

s.118 Improper Political Activities – Employees

2

0

0

0

1

1

Total

12

1

10

7

20

1

Note: The numbers may not add up as discontinued cases, cases resolved via early intervention and rare cases (s.119, s.67.1) are not included in this table.

Note: Each column is an independent calculation of the others. Cases received are cases received in the time period, cases completed are those completed in the period, not necessarily cases completed out of those received.

Although the number of founded cases appears to be high, there is no issue or problem to report. All situations were addressed by corrective measures, including training, recommendations regarding the assessment and the appointment process and, in cases of fraud, revocation. Please note that the 13 cases received do not add up to the numbers of closed and completed cases since these closed and completed cases were not necessarily received in the same period.

Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey Results

Overall, ECCC’s Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey (SNPS) results are similar in comparison to other large organizations and the overall public service.
Below are key findings from ECCC’s 2018 SNPS results:

Diversity Profile

Employment Equity (EE)

The statistics from 2017-2018 reveal that ECCC was above public service workforce availability for persons with disabilities and visible minorities. However, gaps were identified for women and aboriginal peoples. More specifically:

The representativeness of the four designated groups will have to be reviewed once the new data on the Public Service Work Force Availability are released in 2019.

Table 2 - Employment Equity

Designated Group

Public Service
Work Force Availability (WFA)

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Representation across the  Public Service of Canada

Women

52.5%

48.9%

54.8%

Aboriginal Peoples

3.4%

3.0%

5.1%

Persons with Disabilities

4.4%

4.6%

5.3%

Members of Visible Minorities

13.0%

16.7%

15.7%

Source:Employment Equity in the Public Service of Canada 2017- 2018Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Strategies

The following array of solutions may be useful as ECCC continues to build a representative and diverse organization:

Priority Entitlements and Veterans

Since the coming into force of the Veterans Hiring Act, the Priority Information Management System data indicates that ECCC has appointed 6 members of the Canadian Armed Forces released for medical reasons, of which 3 were released for reasons attributable to service and 3 released for reasons not attributable to service.

Table 3 - Priority Entitlements and Veterans

Period

Attributable To Service (Statutory)

Not Attributable To Service (Regulatory)

Total

2015 (July 1) - 2016

0

1

1

2016 - 2017

1

0

1

2017 - 2018

2

0

2

2018-2019

0

2

2

2019-2020
(September 30)

0

0

0

Total

3

3

6

Source: PSC Priority Information Management System

Non-Partisanship in the Public Service

Since April 1, 2015, the PSC has received 14 candidacy requests from employees:

The PSC's 2018 SNPS results indicate that most ECCC employees (80.3%) understand their rights and obligations for engaging in political activities, as compared to 79.4% in similar size organizations and 80.1% across all organizations in the federal public service.

Public Service Commission Initiatives

ECCC participated in the PSC Anonymized Recruitment initiative.  The PSC is in the midst of reviewing the Public Service Employment Regulations.  ECCC is a key stakeholder as they are one of the departments that staff positions using Incumbent-Based processes. Consultations with organizations on these proposed changes will be conducted in January 2020.

Recruitment Programs

ECCC participated in different employment opportunities for students:

Staffing Support

Public Service Commission Representatives and Organizational Contacts

The SSA assigned to this organization is Caroline Fortin-Beaudry.
The primary organizational contact is Annie Létourneau, Manager, Corporate Staffing and Official Languages Solutions. Annie is also the co-chair for the National Staffing Council.
The Head of HR for this organization is Sylvain Paradis, Chief Human Resources Management Officer. Mr. Paradis was a Michelle C. Comeau Award nominee last year.
Prepared by:

Annexes:

Annex A

A New direction in Staffing – A merit-based system that is effective, efficient and fair

Appointment Policy

New focus on core requirements to provide sub-delegated persons greater discretion in making an appointment

Delegation

All PSC monitoring and reporting requirements now found in the Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument

Monitoring and Reporting

Monitoring built by organizations, targeted to their needs

PSC Oversight

System wide-focus

This document should be read in conjunction with the Public Service Employment Act, the Public Service Employment Regulations, the PSC Appointment Policy and the PSC Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument.

Annex B

Figure 1 - Population by tenure as of March 31
Text Alternative
Table 4 - Public Service Employment Act population by tenure as of March 31

Year

Indeterminate population

Term population

Casual population

Student population

Total population

As of March 31, 2014

5 673

183

313

372

6 541

As of March 31, 2015

5 711

265

292

324

6 592

As of March 31, 2016

5 514

338

271

343

6 466

As of March 31, 2017

5 659

383

332

366

6 740

As of March 31, 2018

5 816

341

399

396

6 952

As of March 31, 2019

6 106

343

430

412

7 291

Figure 2 - Population by language requirements as of March 31, 2019
Text Alternative
Table 5 - Public Service Employment Act population by language requirements of the position for fiscal year 2018 to 2019

Linguistic requirements of the position

Population as of March 31, 2019

Percentage of population as of March 31, 2019

Bilingual

2 592

44%

Unilingual

3 294

56%

Unknown

1 405

0%

Figure 3 - Population by occupational group as of March 31, 2019
Text Alternative
Table 6 - Top occupational groups, as a percentage of the Public Service Employment Act population for fiscal year 2018 to 2019

Occupational group

Population as of March 31, 2019

Percentage of population as of March 31, 2019

PC – Physical Sciences

1 299

19%

AS – Administrative Services

898

13%

EG – Engineering and Scientific Support

831

12%

EC – Economics and Social Science Services

630

9%

Other

3 221

47%

Figure 4 - Population by region as of March 31, 2019
Text Alternative
Table 7 - Distribution by region, as a percentage of the Public Service Employment Act population for fiscal year 2018 to 2019

Region

Population as of March 31, 2019

Percentage of population as of March 31, 2019

National Capital Region (NCR)

3 186

44%

Non-NCR

4 103

56%

Unknown

2

0%

Figure 5 - External indeterminate hires by occupational group, 2018-19
Text Alternative
Table 8 - External indeterminate hires by top occupational groups, for fiscal year 2018 to 2019

Occupational group

Number of indeterminate hiring activities

Percentage of all indeterminate hiring activities

PC – Physical Sciences

71

18%

EC – Economics and Social Science Services

55

14%

AS – Administrative Services

54

14%

EG – Engineering and Scientific Support

41

10%

Other

179

45%

Total

400

100%

Figure 6 - Staffing by region
Text Alternative
Table 9 - Percentage of staffing activities in the National Capital Region compared with all other regions by fiscal year

Fiscal year

% of staffing activities in the National Capital Region (NCR)

% of staffing activities in all other regions (Non-NCR)

2014 to 2015

43%

57%

2015 to 2016

43%

57%

2016 to 2017

53%

47%

2017 to 2018

53%

47%

2018 to 2019

54%

46%

Figure 7 - Staffing by process type
Text Alternative
Table 10 - Number and percentage of staffing activities by type of process and fiscal year

Fiscal year

Non-advertised processes (excludes unknowns)

Advertised processes

% of Non- advertised processes

2014 to 2015

324

614

35%

2015 to 2016

293

441

40%

2016 to 2017

318

554

36%

2017 to 2018

543

789

41%

2018 to 2019

739

975

43%

Figure 8 - Staffing by appointment type
Text Alternative
Table 11 - Staffing activities by appointment type and fiscal year

Fiscal year

Promotions

Lateral and downward movements

Appointments to the public service (includes casuals and students)

Acting appointments (excludes appointments of less than 4 months)

Total

2014 to 2015

463

464

1 848

428

3 203

2015 to 2016

471

408

1 534

321

2 734

2016 to 2017

603

576

1 850

167

3 196

2017 to 2018

786

662

2 021

286

3 755

2018 to 2019

951

741

2 484

318

4 494

Figure 9 - Staffing by tenure
Text Alternative
Table 12 - Staffing activities by tenure and fiscal year

Fiscal year

Indeterminate staffing activities

Term staffing activities

Casual staffing activities

Student staffing activities

Total staffing activities

2014 to 2015

1 465

224

538

976

3 203

2015 to 2016

1 245

226

490

773

2 734

2016 to 2017

1 456

270

574

896

3 196

2017 to 2018

1 923

290

734

808

3 755

2018 to 2019

2 359

352

885

898

4 494

Key findings - Staffing and non-partisanship survey (2018)

Figure 10 - Student program hires
Text Alternative
Table 13 - Student staffing activities by recruitment program and fiscal year

Fiscal year

Federal Student Work Experience Program

Post-Secondary Co-op/Internship Program

Research Affiliate Program

Total

2014 to 2015

206

755

15

976

2015 to 2016

200

572

1

773

2016 to 2017

238

654

4

896

2017 to 2018

197

593

18

808

2018 to 2019

228

654

16

898

Figure 11 - External indeterminate and term hiring activities: Post-Secondary Recruitment Program and former student hires
Text Alternative
Table 14 - External indeterminate and term hiring activities: Post-Secondary Recruitment Program and former student hires by fiscal year

Fiscal year

Post-Secondary Recruitment Program hires

Hiring of former students

2014 to 2015

11

132

2015 to 2016

1

95

2016 to 2017

22

175

2017 to 2018

30

197

2018 to 2019

36

239

Hiring of former students includes indeterminate and term hires with experience in a federal student recruitment program within the last 10 years.

Figure 12 - Internal time to staff - Public service median = 176 days 2018-19
Figure 13 - Internal time to staff - Environment and Climate Change Canada = 202 days 2018-19
Text Alternative
Table 15 - Internal time to staff

Number of calendar days

The number of internal appointments for which the TTS-IA was within the specified number of calendar days for organizations subject to the Public Service Employment Act

The number of internal appointments for which the TTS-IA was within the specified number of calendar days for the specified organization

0 calendar days

0

0

0 to 29 calendar days

15

0

30 to 59 calendar days

130

3

60 to 89 calendar days

277

12

90 to 119 calendar days

391

19

120 to 149 calendar days

367

20

150 to 179 calendar days

322

10

180 to 209 calendar days

278

19

210 to 239 calendar days

241

22

240 to 269 calendar days

165

10

270 to 299 calendar days

134

6

300 to 329 calendar days

107

4

330 to 359 calendar days

77

4

360 to 389 calendar days

61

2

390 to 419 calendar days

53

5

420 to 449 calendar days

51

2

450 to 479 calendar days

42

2

480 to 509 calendar days

40

2

510 to 539 calendar days

32

4

540 to 569 calendar days

24

2

570 to 599 calendar days

21

2

600 to 629 calendar days

11

0

630 to 659 calendar days

19

2

660 to 689 calendar days

3

0

690 to 719 calendar days

13

1

720 to 749 calendar days

6

2

750 to 779 calendar days

5

0

780 to 809 calendar days

8

0

810 to 839 calendar days

4

0

840 to 869 calendar days

10

0

870 to 899 calendar days

4

0

900 to 929 calendar days

5

0

930 to 959 calendar days

5

0

960 to 989 calendar days

3

0

More than 990 calendar days

23

2

Internal time to staff is calculated as the number of calendar days between the opening date of the advertisement and the date of the first notification.

Internal time to staff for fiscal year 2018 to 2019

The median internal time to staff for the public service (organizations subject to the Public Service Employment Act) for fiscal year 2018 to 2019 is 176 days. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s median internal time to staff for fiscal year 2018 to 2019 is 202 days.

Figure 14 - External time to staff - Public service median = 186 days 2018-19
Figure 15 - External time to staff - Environment and Climate change Canada = 195 days 2018-19
Text Alternative
Table 16 - External time to staff

Number of calendar days

The number of external appointment processes for which the TTS-EA was within the specified number of calendar days for organizations subject to the Public Service Employment Act

The number of external appointments for which the TTS-IA was within the specified number of calendar days for the specified organization

0 calendar days

0

0

0 to 29 calendar days

49

1

30 to 59 calendar days

82

0

60 to 89 calendar days

124

4

90 to 119 calendar days

160

3

120 to 149 calendar days

181

4

150 to 179 calendar days

179

8

180 to 209 calendar days

160

6

210 to 239 calendar days

139

5

240 to 269 calendar days

84

2

270 to 299 calendar days

73

2

300 to 329 calendar days

61

2

330 to 359 calendar days

41

1

360 to 389 calendar days

43

2

390 to 419 calendar days

49

1

420 to 449 calendar days

35

2

450 to 479 calendar days

22

2

480 to 509 calendar days

27

1

510 to 539 calendar days

1

0

540 to 569 calendar days

7

0

570 to 599 calendar days

15

0

600 to 629 calendar days

14

1

630 to 659 calendar days

12

0

660 to 689 calendar days

7

1

690 to 719 calendar days

5

0

720 to 749 calendar days

7

0

750 to 779 calendar days

11

0

780 to 809 calendar days

3

0

810 to 839 calendar days

7

0

840 to 869 calendar days

2

0

870 to 899 calendar days

2

0

900 to 929 calendar days

0

0

930 to 959 calendar days

3

0

960 to 989 calendar days

1

0

More than 990 calendar days

0

0

External time to staff is calculated as the number of calendar days between the opening date of the advertisement and the date of the first estimated external hire.

External time to staff for fiscal year 2018 to 2019

The median external time to staff for the public service (organizations subject to the Public Service Employment Act) for fiscal year 2018 to 2019 is 186 days. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s median external time to staff for fiscal year 2018 to 2019 is 195 days.

Technical Notes:

Sources:

Page details

Date modified: