Taking Up the Work: Settler Colonial Governance, Discretion, and Public Sector Workers.

This article examines how provincial public sector workers (PPSWs) in Alberta's Treaty 6, 7, and 8 territories and British Columbia's unceded Coast Salish territories are socialized to both reproduce and resist White settler colonial structures through the exercise of discretionary power. Focusing on the "helping sectors" of education, health, and child welfare, the study reveals that discretionary power is central to how PPSWs enact, justify, and sometimes challenge settler colonial authority, often protecting state interests by gatekeeping resources, sanitizing language, and disciplining dissent. Indigenous and racialized PPSWs describe the complex tensions of navigating this power, including acts of refusal and resistance, while highlighting the gendered and racialized dynamics embedded in public sector governance. The findings underscore discretionary power as a key mechanism through which settler colonial governance is maintained and contested at the meso-level of public administration.