Friday, October 07, 2005

Opening competition

News comes out of a personnel policy change which should have been made ages ago:
The federal government is planning to end its policy of 'postal code discrimination' when it comes to job applicants.

Many jobs in the federal public service have only been available to people in certain regions.

But, Public Service Commission of Canada president Maria Barrados said Thursday that beginning April 1, 2006, all officer-level jobs will be open to Canadians from across the country.

While a Con MP is quoted in the article trying to make political hay out of the issue, it would be interesting to see just where the practice began - and how many Conservative regimes in the past have played along. The problem seems to be one that's gone far beyond politics. Which is surprising given the lack of any purpose to the policy; it's tough to see how there could ever have been a good reason for the civil service to reject potentially more-qualified applicants simply because of their location.

There are still some serious obstacles in the way of a fully representative civil service. But it's always a plus to get at least one of them out of the way.

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