Court hears injunction request from city agency

Montreal’s official Opposition party wants the city to hire more people from visible and ethnic minorities.

It says one way to do that is to change the way the city fills vacant jobs. When a position becomes open or a new job is created, the city favours hiring existing city employees before looking for new applicants, according to Ensemble Montréal Leader Lionel Perez.

Of the city’s 25,570 employees, 12.9 per cent are from visible minorities and 5.7 per cent are from ethnic minorities, according to the city’s human resources department. One in three people in Montreal identifies as being part of a visible minority.

“If you’re only restricting the pool to existing employees, then you already have a systemic barrier. Unless you open it up to the population at large, that’s going to perpetuate,” Perez said.

Ensemble Montréal will present a motion at the June 18 city council meeting asking the executive committee to take a firm position while negotiating collective bargaining agreements with unions representing municipal workers. Perez said they want the executive committee to push to make job postings open to the public right away, rather than to internal candidates only first.

“We’re not talking about any kind of affirmative action or quota system. It’s a question of ensuring a level playing field to allow the best candidate to find the job. We believe with the pool of candidates that come from visible minorities and ethnic groups, there are very qualified people that are not getting the opportunity to submit their candidacy,” Perez said.

Plante has been criticized for the lack of racial diversity among her executive committee. In March, the city of Montreal said it was giving itself a year to figure out how it will become more inclusive and diverse.