"I would like to thank the Auditor General of Canada for his report. We take the findings seriously and are committed to implementing his three recommendations. Respect and a healthy workplace are a key priority for me as Commissioner, and this needs to be at the heart of everything we do.
Our 18,000 employees are one of our greatest strengths. They are hard-working, professional and passionate about making a difference in the lives of offenders and ensuring public safety. Correctional work can be challenging and stressful, and the well-being of our staff is essential. Harassment, discrimination or violence have no place in the Correctional Service Canada (CSC).
Since the completion of the audit in 2018, CSC has undertaken several initiatives. These include:
- focus groups with employees that took place across the country to identify needs related to mental health, civility, respect, misconduct and organizational culture;
- the launch of the second year of a Respectful Workplace Campaign;
- the addition of respectful workplace as a standing agenda item at management and labour-management meetings;
- the tabling of the first Workplace Climate and Employee Well-being Annual Report; and
- the addition of robust expectations to performance agreements for executives, managers, and supervisors on effectively managing harassment, intimidation and bullying.
As a next step, and in response to the Auditor's recommendation, we will soon launch our first-ever National Comprehensive Strategy on Workplace Wellness and Employee Wellbeing. This will identify risks and action plans with clear accountabilities and performance measures to track our progress. We are also implementing an Ethical Risk Assessment initiative to identify situations in all our operational sites and workplaces that could lead to ethical risks and their impacts, and implement effective mitigation strategies.
Culture change does not happen overnight. We are committed to making progress and sustaining positive change. I am encouraged by the recent 2019 Public Service Employee Survey results. They show a six percent decrease in employees that indicated they have been a victim of harassment on the job.
While this decrease is a positive step in the right direction, we know there is more work to do and we are working to ensure that respectful behaviour is embedded in our culture.
