The public service sector is defined here as the sum of public-service employment for all three levels of government, as well as education and health-care activities. The map of growth rates for public-service employment between 1986 and 1996 is almost entirely driven by education and health employment, and largely reflects the population growth rate. The combination of all these different activities produces a spatial distribution skewed towards the larger cities that serve as national or provincial/territorial capitals, and/or major education and health centres. During this period, cities in British Columbia grew rapidly, as did the clusters of cities around Toronto and Montréal. The growth was much slower or negative in the eastern Prairie provinces and the Atlantic provinces.