The Civil Service Commissioner for Ontario has the honour to submit his Report for the year ending October 31, 1918. By Proclamation, The Ontario Public Service Act, 1918, became effective on September 5, 1918, and the Order-in-Council appointing the Civil Service Commissioner was passed the following day. This Report, therefore, covers a period of about seven weeks only, from September 5 to October 31, 1918. This brief period has been occupied mainly in investigating the qualifications of applicants and nominees for appointment and promotion, interviewing administrative officials, and in making a preliminary study of the present organization of the several Departments. EMPLOYEES. According to the returns received from the Departments, the total number of employees in the Ontario Public Service at present, apart from seasonal workers and others whose employment is purely temporary in character, is approximately 4,000. Of this number, over 900 are in the Inside Service, about 700 of whom are on the Permanent Staff. Of those in the Outside Service, about 2,000 are employed in connection with Public Institutions under the Departments of Education, Agriculture, and of the Provincial Secretary. The number of Outside employees under the Department of Lands, Forests and Mines and the Department of Public Works, including its three Branches, Public Highways, Game and Fisheries, Trades and Labour, is at present approximately 600, but this number fluctuates to a considerable extent with the seasons, and with the projects under way. During the period covered by this Report, 29 employees left the Civil Service, according to the information received from the several Departments. Of this number 13 were on the Permanent Staff and 16 on the Temporary Staff. APPOINTMENTS. As indicated in the Tables in Appendix A of this Report, the appointments to the Public Service, made under the Certificate required by the Act, between September 5 and October 31, 1918, were as follows: Permanent, 33; Temporary (new), 17; Temporary (renewals), 70; total, 120. Of the Permanent appointments, 9 were new; 3 were promotions from one permanent position to another; 13 were promotions from the Temporary Staff, and 8 were due to readjustments in salaries, departments, or territories. The average length of time in the Civil Service of the 70 employees, whose temporary employment was renewed, is slightly less than two years. The comparatively large number of temporary employees in the Inside Service is due, to some extent, to the fact that a great many of them are taking the places of employees who enlisted for service Overseas. There are also many on the Temporary Staff whose employment, due to the extension of work in the different Departments, is in effect permanent. Many of these will, no doubt, be promoted in due course to the Permanent Staff. CLASSIFICATION. It is anticipated that a classification of the Service, based on the duties and responsibilities of the employees, will be undertaken in due course. It is felt that a proper classification will tend to make possible the standardization of salaries and the application of improved methods of organization and administration. SALARIES. A preliminary study of the salaries of employees in the various Departments discloses some inequalities, which are due chiefly to the absence of grading, and of salary schedules based on a proper classification of the Service. Where employees in one Department or Branch of the Service receive higher salaries than employees in another Department or Branch, for the same class of work, discontent and dissatisfaction arise, resulting often in deterioration in the quality of the service rendered. Further, it is difficult to secure an equitable system of promotion where there is no standardization of salaries. RETIREMENT. There appears to be a growing tendency at present, to which the war has given emphasis, on the part of Governments, the larger urban municipalities, financial institutions, and industrial organizations, to adopt superannuation systems in order to insure permanency in the personnel of the service, to keep open the avenues of promotion, and to provide an adequate retiring allowance on account of old age or incapacity. In the interests of both Government and employee, consideration of the adoption of an adequate retirement system would seem to be desirable. Such a system would create an incentive to capable men to enter and continue in the Service, tend to standardize salaries, and to contribute to improved administrative methods. There are in the employ of the Ontario Government many who have rendered long and efficient service, and who perhaps would be glad to retire if satisfactory provision were made for their retirement. THE ACT AND ITS PURPOSE. The Ontario Public Service Act, with amendments to 1917, is printed in Appendix B, and The Ontario Public Service Act, 1918, in Appendix C of this Report. The purpose of The Ontario Public Service Act, 1918, as declared in its title, is to provide for the better regulation of the Public Service. Careful selection of candidates for positions in the Service and the maintenance of high standards are of first importance. It is only through the well-directed efforts and the active and sympathetic co-operation of all concerned that high-grade Public Service is possible. Respectfully submitted, J. M. MCCUTCHEON, Civil Service Commissioner. |