Technical Issue Affecting Canadian Armed Forces Personnel Government of Canada Jobs Accounts

Due to a technical issue, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members and Veterans who applied for a Government of Canada Job may not have been identified for preference and mobility entitlements.

Technical Issue Found

The Chief of the Defence Staff and Deputy Minister of National Defence, along with the Public Service Commission of Canada, released statements on March 21, 2024, regarding the discovery of the “technical issue with the data transfer process.”

“The PSC discovered a technical issue with this data transfer process from November 13, 2020, to January 19, 2024. This issue may have led to a number of Veterans and Canadian Armed Forces members not being properly identified for preference and mobility entitlements. The data transfer process has since been re-established,” read the Public Service Commission of Canada statement.

What is an Entitlement

Due to a change in the Public Service Employment Act on July 1, 2015, access to employment opportunities in the federal public service increased for members and Veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

Known as mobility entitlement, the change in the act allows CAF Regular, Reserve and Special Forces personnel with at least three years of service to apply for all advertised and internal appointment process jobs for five years after the service member retires.

“We are writing to advise of a technical issue affecting Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members who created a GC Jobs account, within the past three and a half years, to apply to jobs in the federal public service. During this period, members may not have been able to see and apply to internal jobs listed on GC Jobs,” General Wayne Eyre, CDS and Bill Matthews, Deputy Minister, stated in the message.

Those Affected Notified

PSC noted that those affected by the technical issue were notified in writing. To mitigate the issue, PSC is offering information sessions to CAF members and Veterans affected by the problem to provide more details and the next steps.

“The PSC determined that this technical issue had no impact on the priority entitlements of medically released Veterans, as these entitlements are captured in a different system,” noted the PSC statement.

An audit with departments and agencies will be conducted by the PSC to determine who was affected, and the results will be communicated to those individuals who were impacted by the issue.

Those Affected Encouraged to Log into Account

The CDS and Deputy Minister encouraged those affected to “log in to their GC Jobs account here and check that the job search page here includes a separate tab called “Internal jobs” in the” Search results” section.”

If the Internal Jobs tab is not visible once logged in, they advised that the Contact Us form be completed and sent.

“We are working closely with the PSC to address this issue and to implement solutions in a transparent and timely fashion,” noted General Eyre and Deputy Minister Matthews.

Public Service Act

The Public Service Employment Act supports eligible Veterans and Canadian Armed Forces members to find federal public service jobs through three mechanisms:

• Preference Entitlement: Eligible veterans who meet the essential qualifications for jobs open to the public are appointed before other Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
• Mobility Entitlement: Eligible veterans and Canadian Armed Forces members can apply for internal jobs.
• Priority Entitlement: eligible medically released Canadian Armed Forces members are to be appointed before all others when they meet the essential qualifications (not affected by this technical issue).

Mechanisms Affected

Two of the three mechanisms were affected. The data transfer issue occurred in the PSC’s Public Service Resourcing System (GC Jobs), which supports preference and mobility entitlements.

With support from a different system, priority entitlements were unaffected by the issue. People with questions or concerns can contact the PSC here. To learn more about accessing public service jobs, visit here.