Senior Planning, Policy and Program Advisor

Important messages

We are committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free work environment, starting with the hiring process. If you need to be accommodated during any phase of the evaluation process, please use the Contact information below to request specialized accommodation. All information received in relation to accommodation will be kept confidential.

Assessment accommodation

All information must be provided through the “apply online” application process. Do not fax, mail, email or drop-off a hard copy application as these will not be accepted. To apply in an alternate format due to disability, you must contact the email address indicated in the "Contact information" section below PRIOR to the Closing Date.

APPLICATION PROCESS:
Please note when submitting an application to this selection process, you will be prompted to answer questions concerning the essential education and experience qualifications and, if applicable, other (essential and nonessential) qualifications.

INSTRUCTIONS:
It is NOT sufficient to only state that the qualifications are met or to provide a listing of current or past responsibilities. Rather you must clearly demonstrate HOW, WHEN, and WHERE the qualification was met through substantiation by examples. Information on your described skills, experience, etc. provided in the screening questions should be supported by your resume. Failure to provide the above information in the format required may result in your application being rejected from the process. Candidates may not be solicited for incomplete or possible missing information.

When recording your examples, be sure you:
• Provide concrete, specific examples of actions that speak directly to the experience sought.
• Choose examples with sufficient complexity, impact and degree of difficulty that will allow you to illustrate to what extent and depth you have shown the behaviors expected for each qualification.
• Focus on what you did. In referring to an experience achieved in the context of a team, set your role apart from the role(s) of others.
• Please describe the achievements in the past tense. This will help to ensure that you are providing concrete examples, rather than making general statements (e.g. instead of saying “I work well within a team….” you can say “I worked well with a team when….”).
• Use action verbs when describing your experience i.e. lead, managed, organized, planned, prepared, informed, determined, etc.
• Provide all examples in sentence format.
• Each example must include when the example took place, background of each situation, what you did, how you did it, what your role was in the situation, and what was the outcome.
• Resumes may be used as a secondary source to validate the experience and education described in the screening questions.

Intent of the process

The intent of the process is to staff one (1) indeterminate position and to establish a pool of qualified candidates which could be used to staff similar or identical positions with various tenures, various language requirements, and/or various security clearance levels across Canada. All federal organizations listed in Schedules I, IV and V of the Financial Administration Act may use this selection process to appoint a candidate to its organization in an identical or similar position.

Positions to be filled: 1

Information you must provide

Your résumé.

In order to be considered, your application must clearly explain how you meet the following (essential qualifications)

Education:
ED1 - Graduation with a degree from a recognized* post-secondary institution OR an **acceptable combination of education, training and/or experience.

*A "recognized post-secondary institution" is a public or private institution that has been given authority to grant degrees, diplomas, and other credentials by a public or private act of a provincial/territorial legislature or through a government-mandated quality assurance mechanism. For greater certainty, also included are institutions authorized to grant specific academic credentials for specific academic programs.
**An acceptable combination of education, training and/or experience is defined as:
• A secondary school diploma and;
• Two (2) years of work experience relevant to the position(s) being staffed.

Degree equivalency

Experience:
EXP1 - Recent* experience in leading teams.
EXP2 - Experience providing briefings to Senior Management** for decision-making purposes.
EXP3 - Experience in researching, analyzing and synthesizing information from a variety of sources.
EXP4 - Recent* experience preparing correspondence or contributing to the development of materials such as briefing notes, memoranda, business cases, and/or presentations for Senior Management** or a Ministerial office.

* Recent experience is defined as having been acquired within the last three years.
** Senior Management is defined as Executive Level Director General (or equivalent), or above.

The following will be applied / assessed at a later date (essential for the job)

Various language requirements
• English Essential
• Bilingual Imperative BBB/BBB
• Bilingual Imperative CBC/CBC
• Bilingual Imperative CCB/CCB
• Bilingual Imperative CCC/CCC

Information on language requirements

Competencies:
COMP1 - Adaptability and Flexibility
COMP2 - Judgement and Analytical Thinking
COMP3 - Cooperation and Collaboration
COMP4 - Values and Ethics
COMP5 - Effective Interactive Communication (Oral & Written)
COMP6 - Focus on Quality & Detail

Definitions of Competencies at the following link :https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/professional-development/key-leadership-competency-profile/effective-behaviours.html#manager

The following may be applied / assessed at a later date (may be needed for the job)

Asset Experience:
AEX1 – Experience as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces.
AEX2 - Experience applying legislation, regulations, policies or procedures.
AEX3 - Significant* experience in dealing with Veterans to determine eligibility for VAC programs, services and benefits.
AEX4 - Significant* experience providing guidance OR recommendations to management** on business OR operational matters relating to legislation, policies, regulations, programs, projects, etc. (e.g. proactively identifying issues and formulating creative solutions).
AEX5 - Experience in project management and implementation of initiatives.
AEX6 - Experience planning, coordinating, executing AND participating in horizontal or interdepartmental working groups, conferences, advisory committees OR roundtables as a representative of your group/office/sector.
AEX7 - Experience developing memoranda to cabinet, Treasury Board submissions, investment proposals OR business cases.
AEX8 - Experience mentoring OR assigning work to team members in a work environment.
AEX9 - Experience in managing and planning ministerial or high-profile conferences and/or events.
AEX10 - Experience in drafting official responses to various types of queries (including parliamentary questions, management action plans following audits, etc.).
AEX11 - Experience in leading the development or delivery of programs/services.

* Significant experience is understood to mean the depth and breadth of experience normally associated with having performed a broad range of activities related to this task, which are normally acquired over a period of at least two years .
** Management is defined as immediate supervisor level and above.

Organizational Needs:
In support of achieving a diversified workforce, consideration may be given to candidates who self-identify as belonging to one (1) of the designated employment equity groups under the Employment Equity Act: women; Aboriginal peoples; visible minorities; persons with disabilities.

Conditions of employment

Operational Requirements:
Depending on the position to staff, operational requirements could apply such as:
OR1 - Availability, ability and willingness to work overtime on short notice, as required.
OR2 - Availability, ability and willingness to carry a communication device AND respond after working hours AND weekends, as required.
OR3 - Availability, ability and willingness to travel in Canada at the request of the employer, as required.

Conditions of Employment:
Various security requirements:
Reliability Status security clearance or Secret security clearance.

Other information

The Public Service of Canada is committed to building a skilled and diverse workforce that reflects the Canadians we serve. We promote employment equity and encourage you to indicate if you belong to one of the designated groups when you apply.

Information on employment equity

COMMUNICATION:
It is the candidate’s responsibility to inform the Departmental contact involved in this selection process of any change of contact information during the selection process and during the validity period of the pool.

Candidates must provide a valid email address as communication for this process will be conducted by email. It is the responsibility of the candidate to ensure accurate contact information is provided and updated as required. Candidates who apply to this selection process should include an email address that accepts email from unknown users (some email systems block these types of email).

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE:
Persons are entitled to participate in the selection process in the official language of their choice. Applicants are asked to indicate their preferred official language in their application.

Official language proficiency: due to its unique character, this essential qualification could be assessed and required solely upon appointment. It is therefore the candidate’s responsibility to inform the person in charge of the selection process if he/she obtains the linguistic requirements after the pool has been established. Also, a person who initially failed linguistic testing could be introduced into the pool of qualified candidates during the pool’s validity period if he/she is assessed again through another selection process or following linguistic training.

ASSESSMENT:
When you apply for this process, please keep in mind that an exam and an interview may be administered and reference checks may be sought. The Assessment Committee reserves the right to contact references other than those provided by the candidates (within the Public Service only) in order to adequately assess the candidates.

All communication relating to this process, including email correspondence, may be used in the assessment of qualifications.

VOLUME MANAGEMENT:
The hiring board reserves the right to use a volume management tool to allow them to effectively and efficiently deal with the number of applicants in an appointment process. Such tools may include ranking (top-down selection) or random selection. Education and/or Experience factors in the asset qualifications may be used for screening. Applicants should clearly demonstrate on their application if they meet any of the education and/or experience asset qualifications. One or more asset qualifications may be used during the screening to manage the volume of applications.

Please note that achieving the pass mark on any of the assessments used does not mean you will move forward in the selection process. Management may decide to use a score that is higher than the pass mark on any of the evaluations used throughout the selection process.

OTHER INFORMATION:
Candidates must meet all the essential qualifications to be appointed to a position. If you have a Personal Record Identifier (PRI) please include it on your application.

Indeterminate employees at the same group and level or equivalent may be considered for assignment, deployment or secondment opportunities before other candidates. An assignment/secondment or an acting appointment requires approval of your supervisor.

You must provide proof of your education credentials. If you were educated outside of Canada, you must have your certificates and/or diplomas assessed against Canadian education standards. For more information please click on “Degree Equivalency” in the Education section above.

The Public Service of Canada is committed to building a skilled, diverse workforce reflective of Canadian society. As a result, it promotes employment equity and encourages candidates to indicate voluntarily on their application if they are a woman, an Aboriginal person, a person with a disability or a member of a visible minority group.

The Public Service of Canada is also committed to developing inclusive, barrier-free selection processes and work environments. If contacted in relation to a job opportunity or testing, you should advise the Public Service Commission or the departmental official in a timely fashion of the accommodation measures which must be taken to enable you to be assessed in a fair and equitable manner. Information received relating to accommodation measures will be addressed confidentially.

Preference

Preference will be given to veterans and to Canadian citizens, in that order, with the exception of a job located in Nunavut, where Nunavut Inuit will be appointed first.

Information on the preference to veterans

We thank all those who apply. Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.