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The next “golden age” of Canada’s public service will be led by millennials, says Treasury Board President Scott Brison, and that means the federal workplace must change to attract highly valued workers under age 35.

“We are really well-served by an excellent public service, but we have a lot of work to do in engaging millennials more fully, in terms of transforming our public service to be open, more accountable, more transparent and less partisan,” said Brison.

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Canada’s aging population poses challenges for the federal government to ensure it employs enough skilled people of all ages. The public service is emerging from an era of spending restraints and cuts with a smaller, older workforce of employees 18 to 65-plus.

In briefing books for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is also the minister of youth, bureaucrats say the average age of new hires is now 37 and warn not enough young people are being hired permanently. In fact, in the final years of the Tory tenure, the number and proportion of permanent employers under age 35 decreased.