Historical personnel files collection [textual record, graphic material]

Record Information – Brief
Hierarchical level:
Collection
Date:
1885-1985.
Type of material:
Textual material, Photographs
Found in:
Archives / Collections and Fonds
Item ID number:
184876
Link to this page:
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http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=184876&lang=eng
Context of this record:
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Historical personnel files collection
Record Information – Details
Collection includes:
4895 lower level description(s)
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Date(s):
1885-1985.
Bilingual equivalent:
Click here
Place of creation:
Canada
Extent:
601.7 m of textual records.
4 photographs b&w
Language of material:
English
Added language of material:
English
French
Accession:
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Public Service Commission of Canada collection [graphic material]
Public Service Commission collection [graphic material]
Historical Personnel Files [textual record]
Historical Personnel Files [textual record]
Historical Personnel Files [textual record]
Historical Personnel Files [textual record]
PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF CANADA / COMMISSION DE LA FONCTION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA: HISTORICAL PERSONNEL FILES [sound recording]
Historical personnel files [textual record]
Historical personnel files [textual record]
Historical personnel files [textual record]
Historical personnel files [textual record]
Historical personnel files [textual record]
Scope and content:
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Collection consists of selected personnel files of former members of the federal civil service judged to be of historical value; these records also include personnel files for some ministers of the Crown. The personnel files for individual civil servants were initially created in the department or agency where the person was employed. Each personnel file provides a summary of an individual's employment with a government department or agency. The files contain information concerning an individual's personal characteristics, citizenship, education, non-government employment history, career résumés, promotions and demotions, training and development, periods of employment, classification and superannuation and other benefits along with a variety of other items. The records were created to provide documentation and authorization for government departments on appointments, transfers, promotions, demotions, termination of employment and superannuation on government employees.
Finding aid:
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(Electronic) Finding aid 32-13 is a computer generated file list. The files are arranged alphabetically. 32-13 (90 90: Open)

(Paper) Finding aid is a box of index cards that serves as an incomplete cross reference tool of about 200 names of public servants who have equivalent of personnel files in other RG's. The box can be consulted under MIKAN 3835496 (GAD finding aids). 32-39 (90 90: Open)

Additional information:
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Source of title:
Title is based on the contents of the collection. Individual records of employees were called personnel files for generations. The term "historical" personnel files reflects the application of selection criteria to create the exceptional selection preserved by the National Archives.
Custodial history:
Personnel files for individual public servants are initially created in the department or agency where the persons are employed. Departments, however, only hold files of individual employees as a function of delegated personnel management conventions determined by Treasury Board and the Public Service Commission, not in their capacity as autonomous records creators. The current series of selected personnel files exists in its present form exclusively as a result of National Archives and Treasury Board procedures and authorities governing in the disposition of records as applied on a decentralized basis by individual departments.
Individual personnel files never belonged to a creating agency, but followed the public servant, through his or her career, growing organically as long as the individual was employed in the Public Service of Canada. The collection is comprised of personnel files of public servants serving the Government of Canada since 1867, both those subject to the Public Service Commission or its antecedents and those whose appointment is exempted from such authority. The final set of records is an aggregate created and selected on the basis of a) delegated personnel management, b) Treasury Board decisions and regulations, c) National Archives authorities or administrative procedures, d) initial selections applied by departments on a delegated basis without mechanisms for verification by the National Archives, either under authorities or under administrative arrangement.
The criteria by which the exceptional selection of these files was made has varied over time but in general the criteria for designation as archival have entailed three distinct categories of qualifying factors: i) sufficient rank in the hierarchy (roughly director level or equivalent and higher in recent times); ii) individuals who have attained distinction as a result of activities inside or outside the Public Service such as leadership in a field of endeavour including election to an important public office, competitive sports, individual acts of valour that have received recognition, or participation in a significant public event, or iii) service distinguished by length, by a unique position or status in the public service, or by being killed in action while on duty. Criteria were never fully coherent, nor were they consistently applied. The personnel file for an individual evolved into multiple components, only a portion of which were retained as the archival record of the individual involved. The changing nature of the personnel file under the modern principles of Access and Privacy Legislation (1983) and revised automated reporting structures for human resource management functions fundamentally reduced the content and substance of the file while adding greatly to its bulk; these developments, among other considerations, in turn have prompted the reappraisal that newer files no longer have any archival value and the decision, therefore, no longer to apply any selection criteria to personnel files as they reach the end of their operational retention periods. [This note was originally written as the collection equivalent of an administrative history for a fonds. Due to the inherent nature of a "collection", the distinctions among administrative history, custodial history and scope and content tend to blur. The elements of an administrative history for this collection are all incorporated into this custodial history.]
Accruals:
Further accruals are expected.
Source:
Government
Related control no.:
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(1973-05-23)
113-000006-0
118-000015-8
118-000226-1
1970-0020 MISA
1982-006 NPC
1983-84/001 GAD
1983-84/044 GAD
1983-84/209 GAD
1983-84/240 GAD
1983-84/252 GAD
1983-84/264 GAD
1984-85/383 GAD
1985-86/096 GAD
1986-87/169 GAD
1990-91/015 GAD
1990-91/226 GAD
1995-040 DAP
2002-00755-1
2003-00225-1
2017-00425-1
2017-00481-2
2017-00486-3
85/012
95-027
98/005
98/018
R8113
R8113-0-X-E
RG32
RG32-C-2
Former archival reference no.:
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RG32-C-2
Ordering and Viewing Options
Conditions of access:
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Textual records
[Access 96 Restrictions vary]
Volume [RG32]
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
1--20
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
22--57
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
60--64
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
67--187
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
190--194
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
196--234
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
236--249
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
251--274
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
276--328
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
330--334
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
336--340
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
342--357
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
359--366
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
404
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
411--471
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
473--485
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
537--566
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
568--581
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
592
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
595
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
597--605
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
607--641
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
664--693
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
713--714
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
718
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
783--848
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
850--853
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
857--858
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
1085--1444
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
1451--1686
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
366/A
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
52/A
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
820/A
[Access 32 Restricted by law]
Volume [RG32]
[Access 90 Open]
21
[Access 90 Open]
58--59
[Access 90 Open]
65--66
[Access 90 Open]
188--189
[Access 90 Open]
195
[Access 90 Open]
235
[Access 90 Open]
250
[Access 90 Open]
275
[Access 90 Open]
329
[Access 90 Open]
335
[Access 90 Open]
341
[Access 90 Open]
358
[Access 90 Open]
472
[Access 90 Open]
536
[Access 90 Open]
567
[Access 90 Open]
596
[Access 90 Open]
606
[Access 90 Open]
849
[Access 90 Open]
572/A
[Access 90 Open]
Graphic (photo)
[Access 90 Open]
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Date modified:: 2021-03-16

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Historical personnel files collection [textual record, graphic material]