Thank you, Chair.
I move this amendment relating to those who are not presently covered by the bill. So Bill C-2, in clause 194, would be amended by replacing lines 2 and 3 on page 127 with the following:
taken against a public servant or researcher, including a student in a post-secondary or research-affiliated institution, because the public servant or researcher has made a protected disclosure or has,
We heard from people who were whistle-blowers. We heard from people who worked in the area of research with post-secondary education institutions and wanted to make sure that the people who are doing research with federal money, or touched, if you will, by federal dollars and federal scope, would have the same kinds of provisions that public servants would have. This just widens the scope a bit to ensure that the protection that is garnered, or will be garnered, for those who are directly hired by the public service will also be there for those people who are researchers, and not just exclusively those people who are public servants.
I think it's really important in terms of what we heard from the people who presented, people who have written individually to me, and people I've spoken to individually, when you take into account that a lot of the work that the government does isn't always in house; it is in fact done by people who are either working in partnership or people who are hired on contract by the federal public service or by federal dollars. So I think what this does is actually tighten up the accountability and the responsibility and provide protection for whistle-blowers beyond the scope that the bill had initially.
Thank you.