When the public service shrinks, Carney should spare employees with disabilities | Opinion

Mark Carney eliminated the Minister for Disability and Inclusion position in his cabinet, and he was prime minister when the $200-a-month Canada Disability Benefit was brought in last summer. Photo by ARIF KARTONO /AFP via Getty Images

Article content

Ottawa public servants are understandably uneasy as they await next week’s federal budget and perhaps some clarity about what will happen to their jobs. How will Prime Minister Mark Carney square his demand for a 15 per cent reduction in the cost of government operations with his promise to “cap, not cut” the public service?

Article content

Among those who should be most concerned are the government’s more than 21,000 workers with disabilities. Under the former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the federal government adopted a creative and moderately ambitious approach to increasing opportunities for people with disabilities within the federal government.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Carney has not yet shown any similar interest. He eliminated the Minister for Disability and Inclusion position in his cabinet. He was prime minister when the pitifully inadequate $200-a-month Canada Disability Benefit was brought in last summer.

Article content

Now, public service reductions are expected to fall disproportionately on the departments that have done the most to attract disabled workers. A recent study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives projects that the largest numbers will come in the departments of employment and social development, health and justice.

Article content

The study says 8.3 per cent of workers who lose their jobs will be those with a disability, more than their 7.8 per cent share of the overall federal public service. That share in itself is far short of reflecting the Canadian workforce. According to the Treasury Board Secretariat, 13 per cent of Canadian workers have a disability.

Article content

Article content

The think tank’s report predicts that women, indigenous people and racialized workers will also be disproportionately affected, but the situation of disabled workers is particularly troubling. Depending on its type and severity, a disability can be a significant impediment to employment, despite a person’s skills.

Article content

Article content

That’s why a 2019 federal government plan to give disabled workers a real opportunity made so much sense. The goal was to lead by example and make the federal government an employer of choice for people with disabilities.

Article content

Among other things, the federal plan set a target of hiring 5,000 employees with disabilities by 2025. Given that the federal public service had about 288,000 employees in 2019, it was a modest goal, but it was the way that the government went about it that was impressive.

Article content

The government invited applications from people with disabilities, but it didn’t make the prospective employees try to figure out the hiring maze. Instead, it created a roster of potential recruits and linked them up with hiring managers. The goal was to determine what people could do, not focus on what they couldn’t.