Budget funding for Black public service workers called 'step in the right direction'

Although he believes it’s short of what is needed, Nicholas Marcus Thompson, executive director of the Black Class Action Secretariat, says he welcomes the federal government’s commitment of more than $40 million to establish a mental health fund for Black public servants, though he has concerns about whether the program will include Black-led leadership, noting that Treasury Board previously failed to include Black workers during the first stage of creating the mental health fund last year.

The 2023 federal budget outlined a handful of initiatives amounting to more than $100 million focused on anti-Black racism and empowering Black federal public service employees.

One major commitment involved $45.9 million allocated over three years, starting in 2023-24, to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to create a long-anticipated Mental Health Fund for Black public servants. Part of that money, the budget said, will be used to establish dedicated career development programs, including preparing Black public service leaders for executive positions.

Thompson, who earlier this week renewed calls for the federal government to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by nearly 1,500 Black public service workers in 2020 during a joint press conference with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Canadian Labour Congress, said plaintiffs in the class action originally filed a motion in the court seeking $100 million to establish the mental health program.

“There’s no serious desire by the Treasury Board Secretariat to address anti-Black racism. I have to say that based on their past behaviour as there are many examples of their actions being performative,” Thompson said.

Thompson said BCAS would have also liked to see an announcement in the budget indicating that the government was committing to settle the class-action claim rather than continuing to try to have it dismissed, especially after a Treasury Board ruling earlier this month found the Canadian Human Rights Commission had discriminated against its own employees.

“We were expecting the government, and we still are expecting the government, to come to the table on this issue,” Thompson said. “Stop fighting workers, stop continuing to hurt workers. Let’s resolve this.”

Larry Rousseau, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said funding provided by the government for initiatives supporting Black workers was recognition that anti-Black racism and discrimination had been deeply embedded in the federal public service.

“That’s a good step in the right direction, but they have to pay now to come up with more,” Rousseau said.

Rousseau said the support for career development programs was substantial given the unequal structure of the public service, which has historically stopped Black workers from being able to advance within the government, particularly due to the ” best-fit system” established in 2004, giving managers flexibility in hiring.

“It’s going to be 20 years now that this system has been in place, and it’s been a monumental failure,” Rousseau said. “It has created problems, not only for Black employees, but for visible minorities, for people with disabilities, for women, for Indigenous folks.”

Other initiatives outlined in the federal budget included:

• $25.4 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, with $0.6 million ongoing, to the Department of Canadian Heritage to continue to support Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy;

• $1.5 million over two years, starting in 2023-24, to the Privy Council Office to create a new Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion Secretariat;

• $25 million, in 2024-25, to Employment and Social Development Canada for the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative;

• and $6.9 million over two years, starting in 2023-24, to Treasury Board to advance a program to empower employees who have suffered harassment and discrimination and to drive cultural change in the public service.

Thompson said the success of those initiatives would depend on how they were implemented.

“We welcome any initiative that will improve the living conditions of Canadians, whether they are Black, racialized, or any underrepresented group. Those initiatives are a step in the right direction,” he said. “The problem is the implementation of these programs as the government has made a lot of announcements and it’s not reaching the Black community. So it becomes a performative measure when nothing is changing in a tangible way for the Black community.”

1. Black Class Action Secretariat, unions call on federal government to settle lawsuit

2. Treasury Board ruling finds the Canadian Human Rights Commission discriminated against its own employees