The Canada Council
for the Arts
2006
Employment Equity Narrative Report
1)
GENERAL OVERVIEW
The Canada Council for the Arts was created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 as
an arm’s length agency to foster and promote the arts. The Canada Council is
celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2007.
The Canada Council provides a broad range of grants and services to professional
Canadian artists and arts organizations in music, dance, theatre, visual arts,
media arts, writing and publishing, interdisciplinary work and performance art.
The Council also promotes public awareness of the arts through its
communications, research and arts promotion activities.
All Canada Council programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists and arts
organizations as well as artists and arts organizations from diverse cultural or
regional communities of Canada.
Integral to the Council’s operations are:
 The Canadian Commission for UNESCO
 The Public Lending Right Commission
 The Art Bank
We have our own staffing and human resources systems, distinct from those of
the Public Service of Canada.
The employees and official headquarters of the Council are located in Ottawa.
2)
Quantitative Information
a-
Form 3C will not be part of the Council’s Statistical Report since the
Council’s temporary employees represent a small percentage of our
workforce. (less than 5%)
b-
The Council’s workforce analysis was carried out using the data based on
the 2001 census.
c-
The Council’s workforce is divided into seven (7) Employment Equity
Occupational Groups (EEOG).
d-
The purpose of our analysis was to determine if designated group
members are under-represented at the Council. The results of this
analysis allows us to revisit our goals and make changes that will ensure
we obtain an equitable workforce.
e-
The availability rates were taken from the overall national workforce data
for all employment equity occupational groups (EEOG’s) except for the
Administrative and Senior Clerical Personnel and the Clerical Personnel.
The candidates for these two groups are recruited from the Ottawa-Hull
region. Candidates are recruited nationally for all the other groups.
Employment Equity Occupational Group
Distribution
SemiProfessionals &
Technicians 4%
Supervisors 1%
Professionals
44%
Clerical
personnel 34%
Adm. & Clerical
personnel 7%
Middle & other
Managers 7%
Senior Managers
3%
Women
External Availability 47.3%
Year
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Internal
representation
73.5%
72.4%
69.3%
72.6%
71.8%
70%
72.3%
69.4%
Our findings: The chart above indicates that the Council has maintained the
internal representation of Women since 1999. The internal representation of
Women at the Canada Council in 2006 is 69.4% (145 employees). This
percentage is well above the national and local availability rates. Women are
well represented in all occupational groups .
Our analysis indicate that women in senior roles in our organization (Senior
Management and Middle management group) are very well represented - 42.9 %
Objectives for 2007:
Maintain level of representation.
Aboriginal People
External Availability 2.6%
Year
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Internal
representation
1.3%
3.8%
4.8%
6.1%
6.4%
6.3%
6.5%
6.7%
Our findings: The overall representation of Aboriginal People is 6.7% (14
employees), 4.1 percentage points more than the Canadian availability rate of
2.6%. The analysis reveals no under-representation of Aboriginal People in the
organization. It is also important to mention that the Aboriginal People are
mainly represented in the two largest employment equity occupational groups at
the Council.
For example:
i)
the internal representation of Aboriginal People within the
Professional Group at the Council is 11% (the external availability
rate is 1.5%), 9.5 percentage points more than the Canadian
availability rate.
ii)
the internal representation of Aboriginal People within the Clerical
Personnel is 4.3% (the external availability rate is 1.8%) 2.5
percentage points more than the Canadian availability rate.
iii)
Combined, these two occupational groups represent 77% of the
Council’s workforce.
Objectives for 2007:
Maintain level of representation.
Members of Visible Minorities
External Availability 12.6%
Year
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Internal
Representation
7.4%
9.7%
9.5%
11.2%
9.6%
11.1%
10.4%
10.7%
Our findings: Although we have slightly increased the internal representation
of this group, Visible Minorities remain under-represented at the Canada
Council. In the two largest occupational groups at the Council, members of
Visible Minorities represent 13.2% of Professional staff (external availability rate
is 13.8%) and 8.6% of Clerical Personnel (external availability is 9.7%).
Objectives for 2007:
1)
2)
3)
Increase representation of Visible Minorities within the Professional and
Clerical Personnel groups.
Should staffing occur within the Senior Manager Group and SemiProfessional group, special efforts should be made to increase
representation within these groups.
Maintain representation within the Middle Managers group,
Administrative and Senior Clerical groups.
Persons with Disabilities
External Availability 5.3%
Year
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Internal
Representation
0%
3.2%
3.7%
4.6%
4.8%
5.3%
5.5%
4.8%
Our findings: Persons with Disabilities are slightly under-represented within
the Canada Council’s workforce: a gap of .7%. The expected external availability is
5.3%.
The under-representation of Persons with Disabilities is mainly within the
Professional group. Persons with Disabilities are well-represented within the
Council’s other occupational groups.
Objectives for 2007:
Special efforts to be made to increase representation
within the Professional Group.
3)
Qualitative Measures:
a)
Prevention and resolution of harassment in the workplace:
In support of the Council’s harassment policy, new employees were
offered training sessions on prevention and resolution of harassment in
the workplace. The sessions were also made available to regular employees
(most of whom had taken the training in 2005) as a refresher. All
employees are required to participate in at least one training session on
workplace harassment.
b)
Discussions between Human Resources and Equity Office:
Informal discussions between the HR Advisor responsible for employment
equity and the Canada Council’s Equity Office (which deals with equity
issues related to the Council’s arts funding programs) revealed the need to
have a Council Equity Committee that would address issues of employees
across all divisions of the Council. The meetings are scheduled every three
or four months and one has already taken place. The committee members
appreciate the opportunity to discuss openly their specific and common
concerns.
c)
Lunchtime event with Aboriginal artist Rebecca Belmore:
On January 29, Canada Council staff were invited by the Council’s InterArts section to a pizza lunch with Aboriginal performance, media and
visual artist Rebecca Belmore. Staff had an opportunity to view a video of
Belmore’s work and participate in a question-and-answer session with
Belmore, who represented Canada at the 2005 Venice Biennale in Visual
Art.
d)
International Women’s Day
On March 8, the Employment Equity Committee celebrated International
Women’s Day by honoring our female employees. An invitation was sent
to commemorate the historical fight for women’s equality. Council
employees were also invited to find out more about the history of
International Women’s Day through links from the Council’s Intranet site.
e)
Crocus campaign: Again this year, the Canada Council supported the
Canadian National Institute for the Blind by promoting its 17th Annual
Crocus Sale. This fundraising activity raised $210.00 for the cause.
f)
The TTY line: an employee has been appointed to verify our TTY line on a
monthly basis to ensure that it is in working condition.
g)
The Employment Equity Committee met on several occasions in 2006 to
discuss upcoming events. Committee members also consulted via e-mail
to discuss the Council’s Employment Equity report and the
Accommodation Policy. The committee is comprised of two Ex-Officio
members: the Equity Coordinator and the Aboriginal Arts Coordinator
along with a union representative, a staff association representative, a
Senior Communications Manager and the Human Resources Advisor
responsible for Employment Equity.
Internal communications
a)
The updated Employee handbook was delivered to all staff and the
“Employment Equity” component was updated.
b)
The 2005 Employment Equity Report was published on our Intranet site.
External communications
a)
The Canada Council issued a news release announcing the appointment of
Melinda Mollineaux as Equity Coordinator.
b)
The Canada Council issued a news release announcing a new program
aimed at funding artistic exchanges between Aboriginal elders and youth.
c)
The Canada Council makes a concerted effort to highlight the
achievements of Visible Minority and Aboriginal artists supported by the
Council’s funding programs. In 2006, these included:
o architects Katzuhiro Yamazaki (Governor General’s Medals
in Architecture), Siamak Hariri (Governor General’s Medals
in Architecture) and Jack Kobayashi (Professional Prix de
Rome in Architecture);
o musicians Soo Bae, Yi-Jia Susanne Hou, Judy Kang and
Kerry DuWors (Musical Instrument Bank competition
winners);
o Interdisciplinary artist Robin Brass (Victor Martyn LynchStaunton Award);
o dancer Santee Smith (Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton
Award); and
o writers Rawi Hage, Dionne Brand, Drew Hayden Taylor,
Afua Cooper, André Alexis, Leo Yerxa and Dany Laferrière
(Governor General’s Literary Award finalists and/or
winners).
Equity Environment
Equity is an integral part of our lives at the Council. The Council’s research team
tracks statistics relating to the Council’s funding of Aboriginal and culturally
diverse artists and arts organizations. The Council’s three Information Officers
travel to different parts of our country in order to do outreach, promote and
inform artists and arts organizations about the Council’s grant programs, with a
particular emphasis on under-served communities, including Aboriginal
communities.
Training and Development
The language training budget was increased by $20,000. This increase has
allowed the Council to offer additional hours of training to individuals on a group
basis as well as individual training sessions.
We believe that additional language training will allow more employees the
opportunities for promotions or career development.
Promotion
The Canada Council continued to offer its employees the opportunity for
temporary assignment this year. Four employees were promoted within the
Canada Council. All four are women and one employee was from the visible
minority group.
Retention & Termination
Exit interviews continue to be an informative process that allows Human
Resources the opportunity to ensure that practices and processes are well
understood and respected. The interview also becomes a positive tool to
promote changes where they need to occur. An example of this is the “Telework
Pilot project” that management and the union both agreed to try out for a one
year trial in the Dance section.
Thirteen employees left the organization in 2006. Twenty three percent left to
pursue other opportunities, fifteen percent retired, fifteen percent returned to
school, fifteen percent relocated to another city and thirty-two percent were for
personal reasons.
Reasonable accommodation
The accommodation policy is in its final stage of being approved. The
Employment Equity committee is presently reviewing the policy before seeking
the approval of our senior management team. That being said, the Council
offered accommodation to 4 individuals this year.
Constraints
The constraints are basically the same every year; some individuals choose not to
self-declare on their employment equity form.
Future Strategies:
1)
In 2007, HR will be hiring an expert to help us create a new employment
equity plan for 2008 – 2011 (3 year plan)
2)
A review of our practices and processes to ensure the elimination of
systemic barriers.