Government Operations committee  Thank you for your comments. Yes, we are in a period where the baby boomers are in the process of retiring. The rate of departures due to retirement is holding. The retirement rate is currently 3.7%, which has remained almost the same for the past five years. The retirement rate

Government Operations committee  Yes, that's a concern. I am not responsible for training within the public service. We are now entering a period of budgetary cuts. During that period, we will have to try to use the priority program to fill vacant positions by first recruiting public service employees with the

Government Operations committee  Essentially.

Government Operations committee  If they do change, you have to start again.

Government Operations committee  The way we operate in the public service is that the language requirement is an essential requirement. Whatever the requirement of the job, it has to be an essential requirement. If you don't meet the language requirement, you don't get the job.

Government Operations committee  We are not responsible for the Governor in Council appointments. In the five-year assessment that the Public Service Commission did of the legislation, we put forward the views of the last commission on where we thought there was potential for change and improvement. One of the

Government Operations committee  You are correct. The proportion of public servants in the national capital is now around 40%. In the nineties, I think we were at about 30%. I'm not sure I can pin down the dates, but I will get back to the committee and give you the numbers as to what the proportions were over

Government Operations committee  Well, it's a challenge. We want a representative public service, we want a public service that reflects the total population, and so I'm concerned about employment equity. We want to make sure that we represent the whole country in everything we do. It is government that decides

Government Operations committee  We don't look at seniority per se. In the merit statement, the statement of what is expected, we expect people to make a statement about the kind of experience they might expect to see. That would be the only way we would deal with seniority.

Government Operations committee  We have done an assessment of the act, and I am satisfied that this is a good tool. We don't have quite enough experience yet with making it work; hence, my comments about areas I think should improve. I think we have to do a lot more work with it before we start changing it.

Government Operations committee  It was the first time in 10 years.

Government Operations committee  We make a special effort to bring people in at the entry level, so it's a function of how many jobs there are at that entry level. Because people in the public service tend to spend their careers there—though not necessarily in the same job—it's very important that we keep that f

Government Operations committee  I will get Hélène to add to this. Yes, there is uncertainty with it. We had a Supreme Court ruling that said that public servants, as citizens, still have rights to be politically active, but that they must do it in such a way they don't compromise the non-partisan nature of th

Government Operations committee  The issue that I raise in this report is the lack of awareness. There are two parts to part 7. One is the process if you want to become a candidate and run for election; the other is for other political activity. In other documents, I have questioned whether the definition is p

Government Operations committee  The set-up of the Public Service Commission—which is very unusual, in that we don't take directions from ministers on the appointment process—is meant to keep ministers out of the appointment processes. So we operate through our audits and our monitoring, and we take complaints.