Government Operations committee  We have our annual report coming out. We are aiming for or working on a date for the first week in the month of October. It depends, of course, whether Parliament is sitting, so we have to be flexible. We are also looking at the appointments in the EX group, which is an audit we

Government Operations committee  The federal student employment program is the summer student employment. There was an audit done three or four years ago that raised a lot of concerns about targeting, not giving students fair access. This audit has gone back to make sure there are improvements. Our strategy is

Government Operations committee  We're quite concerned about all of those things, and I can address some of the issues without starting to pull out all the specific numbers—but we can get you specific numbers. Under the previous legislation, there was the requirement that public service jobs first be posted wi

Government Operations committee  Now you're getting to the really tricky part. Your question is anticipating my next comment a bit. In the past—and we're in a transition now—there was a restriction. There was an ability to restrict the geographic area of competition. So any public service manager could decide t

Government Operations committee  Mr. Kramp, this committee is exactly the kind of process I look for. It is very important for me and my organization that we have the dialogue with this committee, because having members of Parliament ask questions on the record focuses the mind, the minds of all the people, and

Government Operations committee  We have the same issues in the public service that many have. We had large numbers come into the public service in the seventies; they have moved their way through, and they're all beginning to retire at about the same time. In my organization, we have moved from the actual doin

Government Operations committee  That's not to say they will all retire. We see some very interesting patterns in the public service. Human resource management specialists hit 55 and retire. Maybe they know something; I don't know, but they may. A lot of the others leave over a five or six-year period. It depend

Government Operations committee  Okay, I'm relieved, because we've been there for 100 years being non-partisan, and we take that—

Government Operations committee  In the other program, when it's a government outreach to the private sector, no, but in programs where any department is involved in setting up criteria for hiring public servants, absolutely, yes, because we are very preoccupied that those not be biased or introduce bias.

Government Operations committee  The Clerk of the House of Commons and the law clerk.

Government Operations committee  I'm a little puzzled by the explanation that you were given. Maybe we can follow up with your office and get some of the details, because that's not the way the program is to operate, and my understanding is that's not the way it operates. Students apply individually, so there's

Government Operations committee  Yes. When the Public Service Modernization Act was going through, there were a couple of decisions made to strengthen the independence of the Public Service Commission. One was the appointment of the head and the dismissal of the members of the commission. The second one was to p

Government Operations committee  I would like to see an amendment to the Public Service Employment Act. I suggested it be done as part of Bill C-2, the Accountability Act, but since it didn't really deal with the Public Service Commission it was ruled out of order. So that wasn't a vehicle. I'm going to suggest

Government Operations committee  Yes, we have actually a specific charge under the Employment Equity Act to be responsible for removing barriers to employment in the public service. So we have been watching this fairly closely in terms of what kinds of barriers there are and what the numbers are looking like.

Government Operations committee  Just to clarify a little bit, you have the executives. This tends to be your directors, your directors general, your assistant deputy ministers. Your deputies have a different classification. They're DMs. Deputies do not fall under the Public Service Commission, so we're not resp