Many Indigenous public servants work in just three departments—a trend that is ‘deeply concerning’

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A lack of Indigenous representation across federal government organizations and pay levels is “deeply concerning” and “problematic” according to an academic focused on politics and Indigenous resurgence.

The government’s latest employment equity report shows Indigenous people make up 5.3 per cent of the core public service (compared to 5 per cent of the total population in Canada, according to the 2021 Census). While the government trumpets that this percentage has increased, though only by 0.1 per cent since last year, a deeper look at data within the report reveals many of those employees are concentrated in just a few departments and agencies.

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The organizations with the highest representation were Indigenous Services Canada (28.5 per cent), Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (16.9) and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (25 per cent).

At the same time, there are federal departments and agencies with very little or no Indigenous staff, including the RCMP External Review Committee and the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Academics say this concentration of Indigenous employees in a few federal organizations limits them to roles typically linked with Indigenous-specific issues.

“Such clustering restricts the spread of Indigenous perspectives and expertise across the broader scope of government functions, limiting the ability of Indigenous worldviews to shape policies and programs in areas like finance, health, or international relations,” said Elliot Goodell Ugalde, a PhD student in political studies at Queen’s University, specializing in international relations, Indigenous resurgence scholarship and political economy.

Ugalde said that greater inclusion of Indigenous people in other organizations would foster genuine reconciliation within the federal public service. He added that this dynamic undermines the federal government’s goal of equitable participation across the federal public service.

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“Beyond simply addressing workforce numbers, it is crucial to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing into federal institutions, enriching public service with diverse worldviews,” he said.

And inequities persist when it comes to these employees’ pay and positions.

Compared with the entire core public service, Indigenous employees are over-represented in lower salary ranges and under-represented at higher levels. It’s a problem also found within the other equity groups — women, people with disabilities, Black employees and members of visible minorities.

More Indigenous employees earn less than $100,000 than the average federal public servant. The number of Indigenous people in the salary ranges of $100,000 or more is lower than the average.

According to the report, that’s a problem that keeps growing.

Compared to the previous year, the number of Indigenous employees in the highest pay scale ($125,000 to $149,999) decreased from 4.3 per cent to 4 per cent. The number of employees in the lowest scale, making between $50,000 and $74,999 also increased, from 42.7 per cent to 43.2 per cent. However, the number in the $100,000 to $124,999 range also increased, while the amount of people in the $75,000 to $99,999 range decreased.

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The report shows 5.2 per cent of executives in the public service are Indigenous, below the government’s target of 5.4 per cent.

Ugalde said the imbalance is “problematic” as it “perpetuates systemic inequalities by restricting Indigenous employees’ access to leadership roles, limiting their ability to influence high-level decision-making and policy formulation.”

“Overrepresentation in lower salary levels reinforces economic disparities and points to barriers to career advancement, such as discriminatory practices or a lack of mentorship opportunities,” said Ugalde, who is mestizo and has worked with both governmental and non-governmental organizations across Canada.

Larry Rousseau, executive vice president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said it’s one thing to hire employees in equity groups to “check off a box,” and it’s another to ensure they’re “successfully integrated into the public service” and can reach their full potential.

“There’s nothing that is really obliging a department to meet demographic targets,” Rousseau said, adding that there needs to be a “consistent approach and application” of employment equity mechanisms in order for change to take place and for people to get unstuck from the bottom of the ladder.

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Rousseau said the government has a “considerable amount” of work to do before it can be considered equitable, adding that it must take recommendations from the task force that it created to look at the Employment Equity Act, which requires the federal government to increase representation in its workforce of Indigenous people, visible minorities, women and people with disabilities.

In July 2021, the government launched a task force to review the act. In December 2023, the group released its final report, which raised Indigenous employees’ concerns about self-identifying and highlighted their struggles with career advancement. The act, however, has yet to be updated.

“We understand that, you know, it’s in the drafting, but we haven’t seen anything yet,” Rousseau said. “The New Employment Equity Act needs to be tabled in the house and it needs to be passed now.”

The Ottawa Citizen reached out to Treasury Board president Anita Anand for comment on the lack of Indigenous representation in the public service. Anand’s press secretary, Myah Tomasi said in an emailed statement that the government was “committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive public service that reflects the population it serves” and that it is “addressing gaps” through a number of initiatives.

“While significant progress has been made, there is certainly more work to do, and we are extremely committed to doing that work,” Tomasi said.

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