Senator Donald Oliver

The Honourable Donald H. Oliver, Q.C.
Senator, the Senate of Canada

at

the Award Ceremony of the
7th Symposium and National General Meeting of the National Council of Visible Minorities

September 9th, 2009
Toronto, Ontario

 
Merci  pour ces gentils mots.  Je suis ravi d’être ici aujourd’hui pour célébrer le dixième anniversaire du Conseil national des minorités visibles de la fonction publique fédérale.  Je suis honoré et touché d’accepter ce prix.  Je suis ému ce soir à cause du respect que j’ai pour le CNMV.  En une décennie, le CNMV a littéralement changé le visage de la fonction publique grâce à son travail et son dévouement.

Il est difficile de croire que ça fait déjà dix ans.  Il me semble que c’était juste hier que 250 minorités visibles venues de différents départements et agences du pays se sont rencontrés à Ottawa pour la conférence inaugurale du CNMV.  Ce fut marquant de voir des leaders de la communauté des minorités visibles travailler ensemble pour avancer leur cause.

Since its creation, it has been involved in making the Public Service more diverse and inclusive in so many ways.  For instance, it has:

- Contributed to the development of policy initiatives on employment equity;
- Contributed in making deputy heads and senior managers aware of the shortcomings in their hiring, retention, training and promotion of Visible Minorities; and
- Continued to organize meetings, conference and symposiums, such as today, and to publish articles and documents making Visible Minorities ever-so present in the media.

For this, I commend you and I thank you.

DIVERSITY IN CANADA
Canadians, like the Public Service of Canada, are increasingly sensitive to the fact that our highly developed societies age at a rapid rate and are not being replenished through our own population growth.  One of the most efficient ways to satisfy this talent crunch and labour gap is through the arrival of temporary foreign workers and stepped-up immigration.

Today, immigration is the most prominent factor in our population growth.  Between 2001 and 2006, more than 1.5 million immigrants made Canada their home.  75% of them belonged to a Visible Minority group. The Visible Minority rate of growth was 27.2%.  This is five times faster than the 5.4% increase for the population as a whole.

What is more telling is the fact that between 2001 and 2006, more than 50% of recent immigrants had a university degree compared to only 20% of Canadian-born citizens.

These significant changes have transformed Canada’s overall demographics. The 2006 national census shows that there are nearly 5.1 million Visible Minorities in Canada.  This represents 16% of our population.  In 8 years, it is projected that Visible Minorities will account for close to 21% of Canada’s population with over 7.1 million people.

However, despite this Diversity imperative, our actual acceptance of integration and our understanding of the benefits that Diversity can bring, has been slow in coming.

HOW FAR HAVE WE GONE?

Today’s symposium has been entitled: “How far have we gone?”.  In accessing the progress made in the last 10 years, I know our situation is not perfect, but I believe we have made considerable progress in just a decade.  Consider this:

Ten years ago, Visible Minorities accounted for only 5.9% of Public Service employees. That’s 10 600 Visible Minorities for a workforce of over 168 000 people.  This is only 1 Visible Minority for every 16 employees.  Meanwhile, Canada’s Visible Minorities represented approximately 12% of Canada’s entire population.

According to the latest report to Parliament by the Treasury Board Secretariat on “Employment Equity in the Public Service of Canada”, members of Visible Minority groups made up 9.2% of the Public Service workforce in 2007-08.  This is an increase of 0.4% from the previous year, and a 3.3% increase in 10 years.  The report also states that “salary levels for employees who are Visible Minorities compare favourably with the levels for all employees in the Public Service”.

More importantly, the Report said, for the first time ever, the representation of Visible Minorities in the Executive category actually met the workforce availability estimate for this category.  That really surprised me!

You will recall that in April 2000, the Action Plan of the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service entitled “Embracing Change”, set out the goal of hiring one Visible Minority for every 5 persons from external recruitment.  I have spoken to Prime Minister Harper of the “1 in 5” goal that I strongly support that arose from Dr. Perinbam’s report.  Lewis Perinbam was a powerful influence in encouraging the Public Service of Canada to accept Diversity.  This goal has not yet been met. 

But, last summer, the Honourable Kevin G. Lynch, recently retired Clerk of the Privy Council, ordered departments to target Visible Minorities in hiring another 4,000 new university and college graduates.  This order was part of the Privy Council’s 2008 “Action Plan” to renew the Public Service. 

Ms. Maria Barrados, President of the Public Service Commission, appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights on March 23rd of this year.  She explained that based on new information, the recruitment rate for advertised processes for Visible Minorities was 15.6% in 2006-07 and 17.3% for 2007-08.  These statistics represent 72% of all appointments in the Public Service.

This notable achievement couldn’t have happened without committed people like Kevin Lynch and Maria Barrados who have heard, loud and clear, the message the NCVM has been advocating for the last ten years.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Last year, I had the honor of appearing before the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on Public Service renewal.  This committee was chaired by the Right Honourable Donald Mazankowski and the Honourable Paul M. Tellier and established to provide advice to the Prime Minister and the Clerk of the Privy Council on the renewal of the Public Service.  I offered the committee various suggestions to overcome the fact that, of the four target groups, Visible Minorities are the most under-represented in the upper ranks of the FPS.

In a fifty minute address, I suggested that “Embracing Change” be implemented immediately.  I recommended the establishment of a new Diversity Secretariat to ensure compliance with government stated policies of representation. In addition, I proposed that a Commissioner of Diversity modeled on the Commissioner of Official Languages be created. It would be a creature of Parliament reporting to Parliament with the same powers and privileges as the OL Commissioner.  Its purpose would be to hold Deputy Ministers to account on issues of representation.

I also strongly recommended the establishment of an External Visible Minority Advisory Committee. It would be national in scope and should meet four times a year in Ottawa for two full days at a time with the power to summon Deputy Ministers and ADM’s to appear and account.

The Advisory Committee understood the urgency for greater equality and greater opportunities for Visible Minorities within the Public Service.  Its February 2009 report to the Prime Minister called for a Public Service that is inclusive and representative of people from all parts of Canadian society, including at senior levels.  It also recommended that Public Service renewal, including continued program of new entry recruitment, should remain a top management priority.

PRIME MINISTER
I have had the opportunity to speak with our Prime Minister about Public Service renewal.  As you know, Prime Minister Harper is a strong supporter of Diversity and Equality.  Last year, he said: “Pluralism is essential to our civil society and economic strength.  It evolved out of our foundational values: freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”  Adding that “Generations of immigrants from all over the world have found peace and prosperity (in Canada).  They have found equality of opportunity, appreciation for differences, and openness to change.”

COMMITTED LEADERS
The good news is that many other people have acknowledged the importance of this Diversity.  In the last year, I have had the opportunity to have one-on-one discussions with many senior executives from different federal departments and agencies, namely from the Department of Justice, Canada Post, CSIS, Canada Revenue Agency as well as with President Barrados. 

I have also spoken to managers and employees at different departments such as National Defense and CSIS to share with them some crucial steps their organizations can take to be more diverse and inclusive. 

One of the most disturbing statistics remains the gross under-representation of Visible Minorities in senior executive cadres. On the leadership front, most Western nations – and their corporations and government – have not gone far enough.  Through no fault of their own, the number of Visible Minorities in leadership positions in business and government remains scandalously low.  White leaders must wake up and shake off their narcissistic sense of complacency.  They must develop uncompromising plans for advancing Visible Minorities.  They must move toward an aggressive “make-it-happen” strategy.  They must be prepared to become champions for Diversity.  This level of personal commitment is critical. 

COMMITTED CHANGE
Some departments are making real change.  For instance, Deputy Minister Sims at the Department of Justice recently appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights.  He said that in the last year, his department has launched a department-wide mentoring program and provided mandatory Diversity training for managers to raise awareness.  He said: “We are devoting enormous energy, focus and senior level leadership to making the Department of Justice diverse, welcoming and equitable… We are strengthening, reinforcing and trying to drive these values more deeply into the organizations.”  Such training helps people to recognize their own cultural biases and prejudices and to act upon them accordingly. 

The Department of Justice is on the right path.  I have met with Deputy Minister Sims and his team of Executives to discuss employment equity.  They know they have some work to do, and they are committed to getting it accomplished.

Ms. Barrados has also indicated that the Commission has had several staffing initiatives to increase representation of Visible Minorities in the executive group. She said before the Human Rights Committee: “In February 2008, 27 prequalified Visible Minority candidates were placed in executive positions.  Building on that success, the commission launched a second external appointment process establishing a pool of 30 qualified Visible Minority candidates at the EX-1 level.”

Elsewhere, CSIS has made definitive progress on the Diversity front.  For example, the number of Visible Minorities in its feeder groups and within the executive ranks is on the rise.  The Service has also increased the percentage of Visible Minority employees from just over two percent in 1989 to 11 percent today.  They have a Diversity Recruitment Coordinator on board, with more than 11 percent of the Service’s recruitment officers being Visible Minorities.  This is proof that our message is being heard.

The Canada Revenue Agency has also been producing some impressive numbers.  For example, out of the 40 025 employees of the CRA as of March 31, 2006, over 5500 were Visible Minorities which represented 13.9% of the total workforce.  This is a good result given that the Labour Market Availability for Visible Minorities was 12.5%.  Visible Minorities’ participation on management development programs has continued to surpass the 20% goal set in the CRA Strategic Direction for Employment Equity.  This strategy should produce increasing numbers of Visible Minorities at the Executive Cadre.

In many departments across the Public Service, contributing to Diversity has become an essential component of how executive performance is evaluated.  The increasing numbers of Visible Minorities in these different departments are laudable and necessary achievements.

HOW FAR ARE WE GOING?

Earlier, I mentioned that the theme of today’s symposium was “How far have we gone?”.  Now, my question is: “How far are we going?”.

Though we have seen some laudable progress in the Public Service, we cannot rest on our laurels.  There is still substantial work to be done to make the Federal Public Service fully representative of Canada’s population.

More than ever before, as the Visible Minority population continues to increase, the NCVM will be an important player in pushing for social justice and making Canada’s biggest employer accountable.  Continued dialogue between the NCVM, members of Visible Minority groups, and senior public servants must be kept open.  By working together, we can drive Diversity and Inclusiveness into the mainstream.

CONCLUSION
As I stand before you this evening, I think of a famous anonymous quote that says a lot about the practice of tolerance:

“We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colours.  But they all have to learn to live in the same box.”

Canada is like this same box of crayons – people from all walks of life and of different backgrounds co-exist peacefully.  The Public Service is on the right path to making its workforce as colourful and as diverse as Canada.  As long as the NCVM continues to fight for the rights and interests of Visible Minorities.  And as long as there is a commitment from departments and their employees at all levels to make their work environments more inclusive and diverse.

Finally, I congratulate the NCVM for an incredible first 10 years. And I wish you even more success in the next 10 years.  Keep up the good work!  Thank you.