Let's talk about morale because you heard my numbers. You almost have a 60% contractor-run organization. We talk about Defence and its mandate, and it needs to be able to have operational readiness and to be prepared at any time. I'm going to use an example of medical services.
Our armed forces need to have access to medical care. However, that in itself has been contracted out long-term to Calian. Those services that our members are relying on are less transparent. They are paying market rates to the contractors, plus Calian, the overhead, which makes our employees feel less valued.
We talked about the pandemic. During the pandemic, our members received zero pandemic pay. Provinces and territories gave pandemic pay to frontline workers. However, Calian provided lots of bonuses to work for the Department of National Defence during the pandemic, and also bonuses for working over Christmas and other holidays. When you talk about morale, basically, the employer is saying “I value a contractor more than you as a public servant”, and that has detrimental affects. That is across the board in research, engineering and IT work. I give you Calian as the biggest example.