Article content continued

A big “anomaly” flagged in the report was five sexual harassment complaints.

The government has about 6,000 executives and last year 316 turned to APEX’s counselling service for help, an increase of 49 per cent over the previous year. The number of sessions needed to deal with them rose 114 per cent. Women made up a larger proportion of those seeking help and thorny issues of dismissal and harassment made the list of top complaints, something that has not happened in previous years.

“We are doing a disservice to the public service if we don’t so something concrete to stem abusive behaviour in the workplace,” the report states. “How we treat our workforce has a direct influence on our capacity to attract and retain talent.”

Michel Vermette, APEX’s chief executive, said he doesn’t think harassment or bullying is any worse than in previous years. Rather, he said, the drive to improve workplace well-being has made it easier for people to raise concerns and talk openly about them. For years, executives facing harassment didn’t speak out, citing fear of professional reprisals.

The government has made rooting out harassment in the federal workplace a priority. Last week, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson made history when he apologized and offered $100 million in compensation to hundreds of female RCMP officers and employees who faced bullying, discrimination and harassment over the past four decades.

Canada’s top bureaucrat, Michael Wernick, made a respectful and healthy workplace a condition for deputy ministers and executives to earn their performance pay. Wernick followed the footsteps of his predecessor, Janice Charette, who was the first top-ranking bureaucrat in Canada and abroad to put mental health at the top of the management agenda.