Designated Equity Groups

What groups are considered part of the Employment Equity policy?

Equity Group Definitions

• Women
  People who self-identify as women.
• Persons with disabilities
  This group refers to people who have a long-term, persistent or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric, or learning impairment and who either consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment because of that impairment and the functional limitations it causes, or who believe that an employer might consider them to be disadvantaged.
  
  This group includes peoples who have been accommodated in their current job because of their functional limitations (e.g., by means of technical aids, changes to equipment or other working arrangements).
  
  This group does not include those who have relatively minor conditions that are experienced by larger segments of the population – for example, wearing glasses or contact lenses. The determining factor is the severity of the condition and the impact on one’s ability to perform their employment responsibilities.
• Indigenous people
  Included in this category are First Nations (status or non-status), Inuit and Métis people, as well as Native Americans and Alaskan Natives from the USA.
• Racialized people/Visible minorities
  This group refers to people (other than Indigenous peoples) who are non-white, regardless of their birthplace or citizenship. It also refers to those with a mixed racial background who self-identify as a person of colour (i.e., non-white), including those who have a mixed Indigenous and visible minority ancestry.
• Ethnic minorities
  This group refers to people who do not identify as Indigenous or as racialized/visible minority, and whose mother tongue (first language learned and still understood) is neither French nor English.
• 2SLGBTQIA* (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Minorities)
  Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex and Asexual. This group refers to people whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual/straight, and/or those whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth (i.e., who are not cisgendered).