Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses.
I want to spend a couple of minutes putting this into context.
I've had the privilege in the last few months of working with the president of the Public Service Commission on a project in a developing country. The developing country has the capacity to add probably 30% to its GDP per capita--right now, today, immediately--except that they don't have a professional public service. I want to commend you and the people in the public service for the fact that because we have a professional public service in Canada, we have the ability to take advantage of all of the opportunities we have in Canada, both socially and economically.
I salute your professionalism, and the fact that--and this is not a barbed statement, but the straight goods--when people approach a public servant in Canada, that person sees himself or herself as a public servant--somebody who is serving the public in Canada, somebody whose job is to keep confidences and to make recommendations to the people who are their political masters. The politicians are in charge in Canada, as should be the case in a democracy. The public servants make recommendations, but those recommendations stay behind closed doors. With very rare exception do we find any crossing of that boundary.
Today you have outlined for us the reasons, the background, and your caution on behalf of the people of Canada in terms of maintaining this very important element that we have in our society. Ten per cent of our workforce in Canada, in one way or another, are directly related to the public service or are members of the public service. It is they who make this place go, so I thank you for that.
That doesn't mean we don't have friction from time to time. Of course we do; that's the human condition. Of course we have friction. There's not quite the level of friction that my friends on the other side of the table would like to see, I'm sure.