Government Operations committee  Well, thank you very much for the question. I have to say it has been a fascinating five years for me as Clerk of the Privy Council. I think it is one of the best jobs in Canada, if not the best job in Canada, though nobody really knows me across the country, which is also a go

Government Operations committee  First, the Public Service Integrity Commissioner undertook an investigation of Mr. Lynn, and as you know, the appointment of Mr. Lynn was terminated by the minister on May 27. As far as other employees are concerned, I'm not prepared to comment on that for privacy reasons.

Government Operations committee  Again, I'm not prepared to comment on individual cases. I will only say that overall, as I noted earlier, one of the fundamental values of the public service is our merit-based system, that when individuals come into the public service, of course we will ensure that it's non-part

Government Operations committee  I think, Mr. Chairman, just for clarification, that the Public Service Commission concluded on the ACOA cases raised by the honourable member that the appointment process was free of political influence. So I think there is a distinction there between the report from the Public S

Government Operations committee  So, yes, it is a different management model. The other point I would make is that this is not rocket science. Many organizations have done it before. It's not that we're breaking new ground in every area. We're learning a lot as we do it, but we think we can manage the risks. Wh

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm happy to be here to talk about my report to the public service. This was not a subject that I was asked to comment on, but if the committee is willing, we're prepared to follow up on it and see if we can find a response to that point.

Government Operations committee  Actually, what we did as a result of the last deficit reduction exercise, which we call DRAP, was to reduce the number of positions by over 19,000. I believe the number is 19,200. We're well on track to achieve that. We're probably around 3,000 short of our target, so it's aroun

Government Operations committee  Thank you for that comment. Yes, we are coming up with a new management system. I think it's been evolving over the last three to four years. I guess would make a few comments on this. If you look at the public service of Canada, the structure of the Government of Canada, we h

Government Operations committee  Do you have a specific...?

Government Operations committee  Through our DRAP exercise, we saw a reduction in all levels of the rank and file but also some significant reductions at the executive level over the last three to four years.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I just went through the overall approach. Let me run through this again. Under the director of performance management, we are introducing for the first time overall systematic mandatory performance assessments of all our employees. So essentially the key element of thi

Government Operations committee  Essentially what each department will determine first are what are the priorities of the department. So as the deputy of PCO, I will lay out what I think are three or four key priorities and I would expect some of those priorities to be cascaded down to the employees in my depart

Government Operations committee  Again, it depends on the individual. We expect that the bell curve will be achieved, whereby essentially most of the individuals will get threes. If it's a high performer, we will want to focus on the high performer for purposes of succession planning, and determine if the indivi

Government Operations committee  No, in fact that's an important aspect of this particular system. Collaboration must begin with a dialogue at the start of the year on those expectations to ensure that the employee fully understands what those expectations are. Often best practices have a conversation halfway th

Government Operations committee  I think culture is a very complex thing, and I would say that we have many cultures in the public service. Every department has its own history. My first deputyship was in Fisheries and Oceans, which had preceded Confederation. The culture there is different from the culture at P