Black federal executives doubled since 2021, still trail

The number of Black executives in Canada’s core federal public administration has doubled since the Clerk of the Privy Council called on government leaders in 2021 to appoint more Black and racialized employees to senior ranks, but Black employees remain less represented among executives than in the workforce as a whole, Treasury Board data show.

As of March 31, 2025, there were 255 Black executives, 3.2 per cent of all executives, up from 128, or 1.9 per cent, in March 2021. Over the same period the number of employees who identified as Black rose to 13,741 from 8,754, and their share of the workforce to 5.1 per cent from 3.8 per cent.

In January 2021 the Clerk’s Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion asked public service leaders to “appoint Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees to and within the Executive Group” and to sponsor high-potential employees for leadership roles. The Clerk wrote that progress would be measured and lessons shared.

In 2021, the Black share of executives was half the Black share of the overall workforce. By 2025 it was about 63 per cent of it. In 2017 there were 73 Black executives, 1.4 per cent of the total, when Black employees were 2.8 per cent of the workforce.

The Treasury Board Secretariat confirmed the percentages and the 2025 count of 255 of 7,926 executives. It said its data covers the core public administration only, meaning the departments and agencies in schedules I and IV of the Financial Administration Act, not the entire federal public sector.

The secretariat said it has no separate availability benchmark for Black employees, and that it cannot separate how much of the increase comes from hiring, promotions, departures or more people identifying themselves. It said it is using the recommendations of the employment equity task force as one source as it rethinks benchmarks.

In 2024-25, the secretariat said, 49 of 943 promotions to or within the executive group went to employees who identified as Black. That is 5.2 per cent by our calculation, close to the Black share of the workforce.

The Privy Council Office, asked whether the Clerk has published a measure of progress and whether there is a target for Black executives, said on Nov. 3 that it was still working on our request and asked for another day. It had not answered by the extended deadline of Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. ET. We will update this story if it does.

The figures rely on employees choosing to identify themselves, and higher self-identification can increase counts without any change in hiring. The data do not show why the gap exists, and do not show that the 2021 call to action caused the increase.

How we did this

Figures come from Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat employment equity tables for members of visible minority subgroups by occupational category, as of March 31 each year from 2017 to 2025. The shares are as published. The comparison of the executive share with the workforce share is our own calculation: 1.9 divided by 3.8 for 2021, and 3.2 divided by 5.1 for 2025.

Edited by Harry Miller.