Pace of federal employee firings increasing

Treasury Board of Canada figures show 67-per-cent increase in dismissals for misconduct in past decade

Pace of federal employee firings increasing
Canada's Treasury Board President Scott Brison speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, Feb. 1, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

There has been a sharp increase in the number of federal government employees fired for misconduct or incompetence in the past decade, CBC News is reporting.

Between 2005 and 2016 – the most recent year for which the Treasury Board of Canada has released figures – the government dismissed 1,316 full-time public servants. Of those, 726 were for misconduct and 590 for incompetence or incapacity, with another 862 probationary employees let go before then end of their probationary period.

A closer look at the numbers CBC News obtained from the Treasury Board show that the year-to-year total of dismissals has been rising. In the 2005-06 fiscal year, 55 federal employees were fired for misconduct and 49 for incompetence or incapacity. By 2015-16, those numbers rose to 92 and 77, respectively. Though only a small part of the more than 260,000 federal public servants nationally, the pace of these dismissals is picking up.

And there’s no telling how many more federal employees were disciplined, but it’s a lot more, Chris Aylward, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada – the largest public service union – told CBC News.

The increase in dismissals has been attributed to a new performance management system implemented in 2014, as well as improvements in technology that leave evidence trails for employee misconduct, according to the CBC News report.

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