The People’s Service: Deputy Ministers in the Ontario Public Service

The Ontario Public Service (OPS) has had moderate success in recruiting employees from minority groups into the organization. An area of ongoing difficulty, however, is the hiring of people of colour to leadership positions. While women make up over 50% of the current deputy minister cadre, there are only four people of colour amongst their ranks. Allegations of discrimination and racism people of colour within the organization illustrates that there is still progress that needs to be made. As such, this paper will analyze the race and gender disparities in the OPS’s senior leadership between 1948 and 2020. It will do so by examining the composition of the Secretaries of Cabinet from 1948 and the deputy minister cadre from 2016. It will do so in the hopes of proving that the recruitment of racialized people to deputy minister positions either failed or succeeded in making the OPS an inclusive organization.