Windsor writing diversity plan to cover hiring practices

The City of Windsor is in the process of writing a diversity plan to cover hiring practices, its head of human resources says.

Vincenza Mihalo, the executive director in charge of that department, says city needs to do more to attract people from diverse backgrounds.

Currently, there is no baseline for determining whether a candidate comes from a diverse background. Nor do they ask people to self identify.

The city's diversity and accessibility officer and the diversity committee are helping craft a diversity plan which will cover the hiring of all city employees. It will be finished soon, Mihalo said.

Nearly 13 per cent of Windsorites are visible minorities, according to the Ontario government. Only Toronto and and Ottawa have a higher number of visible minorities.

Windsor Fire and Rescue just graduated several new recruits, all of whom appear to be white in a photo the department tweeted last week.

The Windsor Police Service is about to introduce nine new recruits, many of whom come from diverse backgrounds.

The city hires firefighters while the police service does it's own hiring.

"We're trying to go out to the students. We're trying to go to the grade schools, high schools, universities, the colleges. We're trying to make an impact in different community centres," Mihalo said.

Windsor police Sgt. Wren Dosant is the diversity officer for the police service and Ron Jones is a former city councillor and was the second black person to join the fire service, back in the 1960s.

They both agree outreach is the answer.

"The population is out there, it's just a matter of putting the right person in charge of that diversity program and willing to go out there and touch bases with all these different diverse communities," Dosant said.

"I would like to see the fire service, whether it would be public relations or something of that nature, going into the high schools saying, 'you're welcome. We have a job here. Here are the things you need to do,'" Jones said.