This past week was Public Service Pride Week in Canada, where the public service sector recognizes and thanks each LGBTQ2+ person working toward the betterment of the country. While 2020 has proven to be a year of distress amid COVID-19, protests and economic turmoil, data on the number of public service workers in Canada shows the sector entered the year with the most employees it’s had in a decade.
In data collected by the government of Canada, there were nearly 290,000 public service workers in Canada for 2019. That’s the most since 2010, when the country had around 250,000 before taking a noticeable decline.
The number of public service workers in Canada has been steadily rising since 2014, and so has the diversity among staff. Canada’s mission for diversity and inclusion within the public sector has created a welcoming community for LGBTQ2+ employees, and Public Service Pride Week is just one example of many that Canada has introduced to foster inclusion and acceptance.
