Political Activity

The new Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) provides a new regime for governing the political activities of public servants, recognizing the need to balance the rights of employees to engage in political activities with the principle of an impartial public service. The Public Service Commission (PSC) oversees the political impartiality of the public service.

The legislation is explicit about the rules related to political activities in the public service and applies to involvement in federal, provincial, territorial and municipal politics. Public servants are permitted to engage in any political activity as long as it does not impair, or is not perceived as impairing, their ability to perform their duties in a politically impartial manner. The political involvement of deputy heads is limited to voting.

The PSC is responsible for the oversight of public servants' involvement in political activities, including:

• granting permission and leave for candidacy in federal, provincial, territorial and municipal elections;
• providing guidance with respect to involvement in political activities; and
• investigating allegations of inappropriate involvement of a public servant in political activities; and taking corrective action when the allegations are founded.

Definition

The new PSEA defines a political activity as:

• carrying on any activity in support of, within or in opposition to a political party;
• carrying on any activity in support of or in opposition to a candidate before or during an election period; or
• seeking nomination as or being a candidate in an election before or during the election period.

The new PSEA applies to political activity at the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal levels. More definitions are available in Part 7 of the Act on the Department of Justice web site.