Alberta government to scrap DEI hiring practices

The province plans to ditch diversity-based hiring practices in the public sector. Premier Daniel Smith says such decisions should be based on who is best qualified for the job over personal characteristics. Albertans expect public institutions to hire and promote the best qualified people and ensure that everyone has a fair opportunity to succeed based on their skills, experience and qualifications. If passed, Bill 33 would stop the provincial government from considering diversity, equity and inclusion factors in staffing decisions. The changes would affect municipalities, school boards, post-secondary institutions, crown corporations and possibly some organizations that receive government funding. It's a priority for us to make sure that the public service is reflective of the people that they serve, but every single person who's been hired can feel confident that they were the best person for the job and that's what we want. So this is now extending that policy that we've had in place for some time to all of the institutions that we govern now the province isn't unique in making a move like this back in May the university of Alberta changed its hiring policy moving away from so-called DEI practices the need for consistent hiring practices across all of our public institutions is absolutely essential the desire for government and public institutions to hire the best qualified individuals is important this is uh a solution in want of a problem as they say the province didn't provide any data showing the number of hires made through DEI initiatives the official opposition says Smith's government is trying to pit Albertans against one another essentially this is a government that is desperate to distract from the fact that they have done nothing in the last five years to act on issues like costs and jobs or health care that are important to Albertans. The province says hiring and promotion decisions will continue to fall under existing human rights protections. Renali Anshun, CBC News, Edmonton.