Workers are getting us through the pandemic, they shouldn’t have to pay for it
If you’ve experienced grocery store sticker shock recently, you aren’t alone. Feeding your family now costs you 20 per cent more than it used to, and news headlines are filled with soaring numbers and their impact on Canadian pocketbooks. The latest number-crunching in Canada’s Food Price Report is sobering. Grocery bills are set to rise […]
Six decades later, we are overdue for a study of the public service
KAMOURASKA, QUE. – Happy New Year from chilly rural Quebec. To start the year off right, there was an announcement from the PMO, which most Canadians missed: a major shuffle of senior public servants. A total of 18 changes were made, moving 13 men and five women to leadership positions. I have a high regard […]
Politics This Morning: 140 million rapid COVID tests coming to provinces and territories
Good Thursday morning! Yesterday, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU delivered his first COVID-19 update of the year, alongside Health Minister JEAN-YVES DUCLOS, Chief Public Health Officer THERESA TAM, her deputy, HOWARD NJOO, and Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND, who participated virtually. During yesterday’s press conference in Ottawa’s Sir John A. Macdonald Building, Trudeau announced that 140 million rapid COVID tests will […]
‘We need fairness, we need equity’: striking workers at AG’s office call on feds to implement wage grid
On strike for two-and-a-half weeks now, more than 160 employees in the Audit Services Group working at the Office of the Auditor General are calling on the government to address pay equity issues and establish a wage grid that would bring them in line with comparable groups within the public service. The group, which is […]
Can public procurement change the world?
Canada’s federal government recently took decisive action against modern slavery in China. Last month, the Canada Border Services Agency seized two large shipments of clothing linked to forced labour in China and blocked them from entering the country. Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) also recently stopped sourcing personal protective equipment (PPE) from a major […]
Contrasting pre- and post-pandemic public service survey results
While the public service suffered less than many others during the pandemic, the May release of the Public Service Employee Survey diversity and inclusion tables allows us to assess the impact on the different visible minority and Indigenous groups and take steps to address the disparities between them. Overall, remote work seems to have been […]
It’s time to double down on Canada’s aerospace industry
The past 20 months have been devastating for Canada’s aerospace workers. Analysts agree that even though air traffic is slowly filling the skies again, the aerospace industry isn’t in the clear yet. Not by a long shot. The sector relies on a delicate ecosystem of careful long-term planning by governments and businesses to ensure a […]
‘No one-size-fits-all approach’: federal public servants’ return to workplace still a work in progress
Most federal public servants are continuing to work from home more than 20 months into the COVID-19 pandemic that saw physical workplaces in the National Capital Region and across Canada close to all but critical workers. But there has been some movement towards some employees returning to the workplace recently. Only a few weeks into […]
Peace Tower bells soon to fall silent as Centre Block reno reaches high-heritage spaces
Demolition and abatement work inside the Centre Block building has passed the halfway mark and reached the building’s high-heritage spaces, with the Peace Tower’s bells set to fall silent as early as January. “When I see the building coming apart, I see it as a positive thing and I see it as progress, and I’m […]
Canada’s Public Service Employee Survey: using advanced data analytics to focus workplace culture change
Since 2005, summaries of overall Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) results have been posted on the Government of Canada open portal. The summaries of overall results have facilitated the analysis of shortcomings in the culture of the workplace by human resource personnel, internal auditors, and researchers. Notably, two researchers, Andrew Griffith and Jake Cole have […]
