Background

The Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA)

The Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA) received Royal Assent on November 7, 2003. The PSMA is designed to facilitate hiring the right people, to promote more collaborative labour-management relations, to focus on learning and training for employees at all levels, and to clarify roles and accountability. The PSMA enacts:

• a new Public Service Employment Act;
• a new Public Service Labour Relations Act;
• amends the Canadian Centre for Management Development Act and the Financial Administration Act.

There will be staged implementation of the PSMA that will take place over two and a half years. These are the major milestones:

• The Canada School of Public Service was established on April 1, 2004;
• A new Public Service Commission established in 2003/2004;
• The Public Service Labour Relations Act and amendments to the Financial Administration Act in 2004/2005;
• Creation of the new Public Service Staffing Tribunal (PSST) in late 2005;
• The rest of the new Public Service Employment Act will come into force on December 31, 2005.

By December 2005, the entire Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA) will have come into force.

A New Public Service Employment Act (PSEA)

The new PSEA will modernize staffing in the public service by:

• clarifying responsibilities and eliminating inefficiencies in the system, while retaining the core values of merit, non-partisanship, excellence, representativeness, and the ability to serve the public with integrity and in their official language of choice;
• giving a new meaning to merit that moves away from the rules-based concept of "best-qualified" to a values-based approach that allows managers to hire qualified and competent individuals more quickly; and
• creating new mechanisms for staffing recourse, including the replacement of appeal boards by the new Public Service Staffing Tribunal (PSST).

In practice, there is an expectation of delegation of responsibility for staffing to deputy heads, while the PSC will focus on the protection of merit and the integrity of the system. This should make staffing processes faster, fairer and more transparent for both employees and managers. This new approach to merit will be maximized by departments which develop comprehensive human resources plans in line with their own operational and organizational needs.

Changes to the staffing system will not happen overnight. The PSEA will come into force on December 31, 2005. Before it comes into force, there is considerable work to be done in terms of developing new staffing policy to reflect the intent of the legislation. The development of staffing policy will be done by the PSC in consultation with stakeholders, including bargaining agents.

There are two main phases of the implementation:

1. Amendments to the current PSEA:

• Establish a new Commission to administer the existing Act and prepare the regulatory/policy framework for the new Act (2004/2005)
  
• Put in place the new regime for political activities (December 2005)
  
• Establish the new Public Service Staffing Tribunal
  

2. Enactment of New PSEA (once policy/regulatory framework is ready)

• Put in place the new staffing regime, including staffing recourse (by end of 2005)
  
• Continue with the newly established PSC/PSST, and new regime for political activities

Legislation

• Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA)
• Public Service Employment Act (PSEA)
• Public Service Employment Act (2003, c. 22) [not in force]
• Public Service Employment Regulations (PSER)

Related Sites

• Public Service Staffing Tribunal
• Public Service Modernization Portal
• Human Resources Council
• PSMA Learning Resource Centre
• Public Service Modernization Act
• Treasury Board Secretariat
• The Public Service Commission Advisory Council
• The National Staffing Council (Publiservice clients only)