Review sought into hiring of injured soldiers
Senator worries public sector jobs favour top brass
A Liberal senator is concerned that senior military officers are receiving a disproportionate number of public service jobs available to injured Canadian Forces members and he wants a new accounting of how those positions are being distributed.
Senator Percy Downe said he has received complaints from military members that injured lower ranked personnel are being passed over for federal positions in favour of officers who have been medically released from the Canadian Forces.
Since 2005, those medically released from the Canadian Forces have been eligible for priority employment appointments in the federal public service.
Downe said he has tried to get to the bottom of the issue but has been stymied because the Public Service Commission, the organization monitoring federal hiring, doesn’t keep the needed information.
The PSC says it isn’t feasible to collect such data using its current computer systems.
“Without the transparency of this information, unfortunately, the Forces members who have complained to me will still not know if it’s an ‘urban legend’ or factual that the senior ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces are receiving a disproportionate number of the available positions,” Downe explained.
In December, Downe raised concerns the federal government was not hiring enough injured military personnel.
Just over 25 per cent of veterans who were given priority hiring status in the public service because they were released by the military for medical reasons couldn’t find jobs, according to government statistics.
Five hundred and eightyfive individuals released from the Canadian Forces for medical reasons between 2005 and early 2016 were unsuccessful in finding work with federal departments within the required time, and as a result lost the priority status they had for hiring. “Most departments have a dismal record of hiring veterans,” Downe added.
The bulk of the hiring has been by the Department of National Defence.
Most of those released for medical reasons are corporals or privates.
PSC president Patrick Borbey recently wrote Downe to acknowledge that the organization does not track the ranks of medically released military personnel who have a priority entitlement for jobs. Not only is it not technically possible with the current computer system, but Borbey noted the criteria for those selected for jobs is not rank, but skills.
But tracking such data could come in the future.
“We are planning the next generation of our information technology systems and will consider, in consultation with VAC (Veterans Affairs) and DND, building military rank into the information we collect with respect to veterans with a priority entitlement,” Borbey noted.
Downe said he doesn’t intend to let the matter drop and believes gathering such information isn’t a difficult task.
“Obviously, I am disappointed, particularly with the inference that they seem to be taking their advice on this matter from officials at Veterans Affairs and DND, who may be the very people benefiting from not having the ranks of people hired disclosed,” Downe explained.
Downe noted that Veterans Affairs Canada has hired 34 individuals — or 2.6 per cent of those medically released — while the Veterans Review and Appeal Board had only hired one individual, or 0.1 per cent. Many other federal departments have .1 per cent hiring figures as well.
WITHOUT TRANSPARENCY ... THE FORCES MEMBERS WHO HAVE COMPLAINED WILL STILL NOT KNOW IF IT’S AN ‘URBAN LEGEND.’