Government Operations committee  For a process involving only five people, on average, it takes half the time. In my opinion, it is too long. That is an average. Sometimes it takes less time, and sometimes it takes more time. We have to carry out an evaluation on processes that took place before the act was amen

Government Operations committee  It is discretionary; it's left to the commission. I haven't talked about all of that in my list of responsibilities, but what was added in the new legislation was the responsibility for non-partisanship, specific direction in the legislation about public servants being candidates

Government Operations committee  This is a process we are currently reviewing. Mr. Lemaire may be able to give you further information on the $6 million amount.

Government Operations committee  Among things we have done to date in the kind of strategy we've followed, one is that there obviously has to be a lot of information, so we did a lot of work initially to provide information on availability of people and on how to apply, and in working with groups to encourage th

Government Operations committee  That's right.

Government Operations committee  That's a very interesting question and a rather complicated one, because under the previous Public Service Employment Act there was a prohibition. Public servants were not allowed to be involved in political activity, until a case went to the Supreme Court in the early nineties.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, and good morning. I have with me, from the Public Service Commission of Canada, Linda Gobeil, senior vice-president, policy; Mary Clennett, vice-president, audit; and Donald Lemaire, vice-president, staffing and assessment services. I am here today to disc

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. The issue of funding is not an issue we looked at directly, but in fact we raise it indirectly. The comment about not having sufficient systems is actually a funding-related issue. In order to modernize the systems that support HR, there will be a r

Government Operations committee  On the entry level, we have done better. But we still have this phenomenon that we talk about in the report as “drop-off”. In terms of applications to the public service--and I mentioned there are high numbers of applications, there's a lot of interest--we're seeing a higher prop

Government Operations committee  That's right, or it's how we pose the questions or do the screening. If those things are occurring, we have to remove them. With respect to targets, the government had a target of bringing in one in five visible minorities. This was a catch-up target. We've seen an increase, bu

Government Operations committee  In terms of the backlog in training, I'm no longer responsible for training. The Public Service Commission was at one time; it is now the Canada School of Public Service. I understand there is quite a backlog. I'm not sure exactly—

Government Operations committee  It's pretty close. But there are alternatives. You can get training through the Canada School, but your department can also send people out to private schools. If I can't get people in my own organization through the Canada School, I send them to private schools or have in-hou

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for your comments, Ms. Thibault. I am going to ask Linda to help me with the technical questions regarding EX positions that require bilingualism. It is possible that people are being appointed to acting positions who do not meet all the requirements of the

Government Operations committee  I didn't answer the other questions.