Wednesday, July 28, 2010

 Feedback from civil servants latest info to be scrubbed by Conservatives 

Note the reference to "a snapshot of workers' demographics".

Now consider the end of affirmative action hiring.

I'm of two minds on affirmative action hiring -- I see it as unfair and discriminatory but sometimes necessary -- that said, getting rid of demographic information will make it impossible to determine if affirmative action is necessary.

July 28, 2010
The Canadian Press     

OTTAWA—Federal civil servants won't get to fill out a workplace survey because the Conservative government has axed it.

It appears the next Public Service Employee Survey has wound up in the Treasury Board's budgetary crosshairs.

A Statistics Canada official broke the news to colleagues last month in an email obtained by The Canadian Press.

"I regret to inform you that plans for the 2010 Public Service Employee Survey are cancelled," Geoff Bowlby, head of the agency's labour statistics division, wrote on June 2.

"We received notice from Treasury Board secretariat yesterday evening that funding for the project was not approved for this year.

"Please cancel any work that you may have already initiated on this project."

Neither Treasury Board President Stockwell Day nor his department were immediately able to say how much the survey cost.

The government solicits voluntary feedback from its workers every three years to improve programs and services. The survey gives a snapshot of workers' demographics, skills, career expectations and concerns.

9 comments:

Beijing York said...

Thanks for posting this. Another nail in the coffin of public accountability.

thescottross.blogspot.com said...

The proposal was to change a survey that was conducted every 3 years to one that happened once every year. So though it's not happening this year, it's still happening in 2011.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-refuses-proposal-for-annual-civil-service-survey/article1654843/

Anonymous said...

Several points:

1) As usual, the Tories are trying to have it both ways -- panderings to the base by championing that cause, but then announcing the next day that, um, the “Tories insist they still support affirmative action” [google it]

2) By messing up the reliability of the new detailed long form data on the actual distribution of the equity groups in the Cndn. pop., they'll probably be foresaking their leg. requirement to abide by the Employment Equity Act (how will they know they're still meeting their targets).*

3) This public service survey isn't the only StatCan one they've been scrubbing that's useful to good governance, good government, & the economy
as a whole; some other ones they've kiboshed are described here: http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2010/06/30/statistics-canadas-senseless-census-decision/

The WES was a good one for tracking not just compensation packages, but employer sponsored training: something relevant to the productivity gap.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2615&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

* (see http://www.statcan.gc.ca/about-apercu/pia-efrvp/cen-rec-pop2011-eng.htm

and http://datalibre.ca/2010/07/19/uses-of-census-long-form-data-question-justification/

Brent said...

They started by removing equality from the Status of Women's mandate, cutting millions in funding for women's programs and demoting pay equity to a union privilege.

Then they cut gay rights from the immigration handbook and changed the rules for federal funding so Gay Pride wouldn't qualify.

Now they're denying cities, provinces and charities the information they need to organize their social programs, making up excuses to get rid of affirmative action and shutting down a common business necessary for an organization the size of the public service to work. No matter how hard you look, you will never find a competent administrator or businessman who thinks axing employee feedback is a good idea.

The simple truth is, the Conservatives want to make sure that there's no future in the public service for anyone who disagrees with them. After that, who's next?

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:09 again: earlier today, I searched StatCan for "inactive" surveys since mid Jan 2006, and found these other surveys the Con. gov't has cancelled in a seeming attempt to keep us as hewers of wood & spillers of oil rather than on the cutting edge of the knowledge economy:

-- The Register of Postsecondary and Adult Education Institutions
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5075&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

-- The Survey of Earned Doctorates
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3126&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

-- and the Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4225&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

And they're no great friend of the Manufacturing Industry: in 2008, they cancelled the "Business Conditions Survey for the Manufacturing Industries" which is intended to give those poor saps a heads up on upcoming trends (like the recession Steve told them wouldn't be hitting us):
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2152&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

They also stopped tracking steel manufacturing for some reason, in 2006 (the Steel Primary Forms Weekly: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2131&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2 )

Plus there's some environmentally flavoured ones they either discontinued (Shipments of Solid Fuel Burning Heating Products: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2189&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2 )

or farmed off to EnviroCan,*** which probably has less data collection capacity &/or is less likely to get full compliance w. those obliged to turn over the data

*** (the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5081&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

Pass it on!

Anonymous said...

Affirmative action was dealt a blow many years ago in Ontario when Bob Rae introduced it. He was forced to backtrack from supporting gov't ads denying even applying for jobs unless you are of a chosen race. It was repugnant.

One example of the problem was that it implied that a young woman who lived with wealthy parents should get the nod over a young man who lived with a single parent on social assistance.

We see the ugly head of AA entrenched within the Liberal party at its most fundimental level.

Remember the fanfare about quotas for female MP's? The Libs boasted 1/3 female (why not 1/2 ?!) candidates nationwide. The problem was they were largely filled in ridings that were unwinnable. It was pure PR.

All you have to do is look at the leadership of the party look at who advises this current crop as well as that of the last few leaders and you'll get a clear picture of the face of the party. It ain't female,multicultural or for that matter young.

Ignatieff seems to be supporting the 3 decade old philosphy of AA. He has been out of the country too long to recognize that we have moved on.

The move to cut a voluntary survey from the workplace every three years is hardly an outrage.Just look at where the outrage is coming from.

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