Thank you, Chair, and thank you for your presentation.
I would like to go through the three areas you commented on. I'll start with the first topic you brought up, and that is the politically exempt staff and how that works.
For the record, in fact, I disagree with my friend down the way. I would like to have seen retroactivity in this, particularly when we saw just after this election, yet again, people being dropped into various ministries. I'll tell you, as someone from Ottawa, as someone who represents public servants, it creates within the public service, to put it mildly, a little bit of resentment to watch people cut the line and without merit--we talk about competition, it's about the merit principle here--be able to get positions that other people have to wait for and apply for. That's just a comment.
The other area we haven't talked about is the reverse situation, and that is where people are brought from and seconded to political staff. I'd like you to comment on that. That's happening. There are people in this town, and I've actually talked to some, who--and I'm not sure we know how many--aren't political staff who go into the public service, but they are public servants who are seconded and brought into a political job. I'd like your thoughts on that.
Secondly, we've talked about the fact that we need a fair process, an expedient process, to protect whistle-blowers from reprisals. I'd like to get your comments on the composition. You touched on it and Mr. Cutler touched on it--the fact that maybe we shouldn't just have judges, but maybe others could be involved, and also, as a last resort, that the courts be an option. If so, what kind of support would a whistle-blower have? Should it be beyond $3,000 or beyond $1,500, considering that sometimes whistle-blowers are fighting a department that's fairly well stocked, if you will, with resources?
The final one is about your comments about policy and accountability. I note that in the Gomery recommendations there are various things that could deal with that. When we look at codifying, having a public service charter is part of recommendation 2, but there are also some comments about the length of time a deputy minister serves. There's been a real concern in this town about the fact that deputy ministers aren't around long enough. I can certainly see a problem if you're asking deputy ministers to be more accountable. It's very difficult if you've only been there for six or eight months. How can you be accountable if you haven't been there? I'd like your comments on that, because it was in Gomery and it's been identified by other policy-makers and people who look at policy. They also talked about committees having enough resources, so that the public accounts committee, in particular, can have a deep enough well to draw from to do their job.
I'll stop at that.
Thank you.