About Designated Diversity Groups

Designated Groups are the groups who have experienced employment disadvantage in the past and are currently under-represented in the workplace. These groups include, but are not limited to:

Aboriginal Peoples: An Aboriginal person is a North American Indian or a member of a First Nation, Métis, and Inuit. North American Indians or members of a First Nation include status, treaty or registered Indians, as well as non-status and non-registered Indians. Status Indians are persons of Aboriginal ancestry who are registered as Indians according to The Indian Act.

• Non-status Indians are Indian people or those who are descendants of Indian people, who have lost the right to be registered as Indians defined by The Indian Act, but who identify with the Indian community culturally and/or linguistically.
• Métis are people who have Aboriginal ancestry, those who self-identify as Métis, and those who are recognized by the Métis Nations.
• Inuit are the Aboriginal inhabitants of Northern Canada.

Members of visible minorities: Members of visible minority groups are persons other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-white in color/race regardless of place of birth. They are a diverse group. Examples of these groups include those whose ancestry is: African, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, West Asian, Pacific Islanders, East Asian, South/Southeast Asian, and Latin American. This policy will guide departments and agencies in removing barriers faced by designated groups, and ensure equality of treatment within the civil service. It will help to raise the understanding and awareness that individual differences contribute to the overall value of the public sector workplace.

Persons with Disabilities: A person with a disability who has a long term or recurring condition or health problem which limits the kind or amount of activity that he/she can do in the workplace; or believes that he/she is perceived by others as limited in the kind or amount of work which he/she can do because of a physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment.

Women in Leadership and Management, and Women and Men in Non-Traditional Occupations: The distribution of women and men in the public service generally reveals a pattern of women working in support and services roles and men in leadership and decision making roles. Participation in occupations reveals similar clustered patterns of men and women in certain technical and professional careers. Both these conditions are the result of stereotypes about the kinds of work thought to be appropriate for women and men.