This enactment requires the Canada Human Rights Commission to prepare an annual report to the Minister responsible for the Employment Equity Act on the progress of employment equity in the federal public service and requires that Minister to cause that report to be tabled in Parliament.

Preamble

Whereas Canada is a participant in the United Nations’ initiatives for the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024);

Whereas there are disproportionately high unemployment rates among Black Canadians, many of whom are forced to take low-paying jobs with little security and poor prospects;

Whereas the population of Black Canadians doubled in size between 1996 and 2016;

Whereas in the 150 years since Canada was established, a Black person has never been appointed Deputy Minister in the federal public service;

Whereas there is a significant thinning-out of employees belonging to visible minorities at the Assistant Deputy Minister and Deputy Minister levels and a virtual absence of Black women within the executive cadre despite the presence of qualified, meritorious candidates from Black communities in Canada who could fill these roles in the federal public service;

And whereas the Parliament of Canada recognizes that the Government of Canada should systematically address employment disparity for visible minorities, including Black Canadians, in the federal public service;

Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Part III.‍1 

Commission Report

Annual Report

40.‍1 (1) The Commission shall, in each year, provide a report to the Minister on the progress made by the Government of Canada in dismantling systemic barriers that prevent members of visible minorities from being promoted within the federal public service and in remedying the disadvantages caused by those barriers.

Report to Parliament

(2) The Minister shall cause a copy of the report to be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the first 30 days on which that House is sitting after a report is submitted to the Minister under subsection (1).