Quebec public service

Payscale

Quebec, like the city of Montreal, has a number of job categories under which all its public service jobs fall:

1. Professional
2. Technician
3. Professor
4. Medical doctor
5. Administrative support
6. Trades

The payscale for the professionals will tend to be similar to each other. So for instance, agronomists and architects, both professionals, are on the exact same payscale. Other professionals are paid slightly less, such as translators, while lawyers are paid slightly more, but within a similar range. Same applies for the technicians.

Everyone’s payscale is published on the Quebec treasury website.

Just to mention that the movement between paygrades is not automatic: it has to be approved by the supervisor, but not refusing one is rare.

Also, just to mention that the Treasury has a strange notion of recognizing one’s education level: two years of one person’s PhD weren’t recognized, a master’s degree in a relevant field wasn’t recognized.

Note that the Quebec public service pays less well than other areas of the public service.

Pay raise

Quebec, to its credit, tends to have a larger salary range than most positions in the federal government. For instance, many professional positions start at echelon 1 (bachelor’s degree, no experience), at about $48,000 per year. However, echelon 18 is approximately $90,000 per year. Many jobs in the federal government have a higher starting salary but a lower ceiling. For instance, AS-02 starts at 61,152$ per year but maxes out at only 65,887$.

Quebec’s examination system

For a long time, Quebec had a rather cryptic system of public exams for professional positions. People who passed the exam could be placed in reserve pools for hiring. Quebec would only hire people who had passed the exam, and one had to wait for an examination posting, and then apply to the posting.

It was byzantine.

Fortunately, Quebec is improving this odd system. Now, people who haven’t passed the exam can be hired for a one-year contract, the exam will be administered on work hours. Once the exam has been passed, one can begin earning a pension, vacation and sick benefits, but also must start paying into the Quebec public service’s expensive and meagre employee benefits.

Job types

The Quebec government refers two job types: occasionnel (term) and permanent (avec droit de rappel). I’m still not quite sure what droit de rappel means, but I think it refers to job security and priority rehiring in the case of a downsizing. In the federal government, these are referred to as “casual,” “term,” and “indeterminate” employment. Casual means a contract of less than 90 days (not sure what this is called in the Quebec government). A term appointment or contract is temporary but longer (occasionnel), whereas an indeterminate contract is a permanent position (i.e. hard to fire).

Vacation and sick time

This information is hard to find on the website. The standard vacation is 20 days a year and sick days are 10 days a year, once one passes the exam. If one has a contract for less than a one year, the equivalent is paid out. Unused sick days are also paid upon departure. That’s good!