I think it's important. With respect to whistle-blowers, I think the real win will be if a process is not used. I think the real win will be if a public servant has the confidence to know that they can come forward with no fear of reprisal. That will be the real win.
We had a lot of discussion about Bill C-11. The institute did not want us to scrap it. That was the advice we got from Michèle Demers. So we didn't do that. There was a lot of discussion that we'd be better to just start from a clean slate and build a new regime. The PSAC had significant concerns about the integrity of the whistle-blowing measures.
Time didn't allow me to answer, but the good news is that we have a new government and we have a Parliament that I think is prepared to go farther than Bill C-11, and to strengthen it.
The measures we're proposing for whistle-blowers really are a home run for the public service. They send out a very serious message to any manager who would... they'll think twice before committing a reprisal. It's actually now a crime, and there will be significant adjudicative remediation for any circumstance where that goes on.
For the sake of clarity, the portions of this bill with respect to whistle-blowing are really not new issues for Parliament. In the 38th Parliament I think there was about a year or a year and a half of discussions on them. This, by and large, takes measures exactly from that committee process in strengthening it.
Even most of the union leaders would acknowledge that this is a pretty significant win. I can certainly commit to you, the member for Nepean—Carleton, that we will move expeditiously, when this bill passes, to get this new regime in place as quickly as possible to demonstrate that we're serious about protecting whistle-blowers and going after people who commit reprisals.