We are referring to the overall cost of implementing the staffing system. You asked earlier who came up with the idea originally. Allow me to remind you that the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada appeared before this committee in 1999. At that time, we raised the issue of staffing as a matter of priority.
The system set up in response did not work then and does not work now. Even although its objectives have not been met, the government continues to throw good money after bad. The agency is unable to fill its vacancies. There is a crying need for auditors in the Montreal office. The competition process has been running for almost 10 months, but, as yet, nobody has been recruited. It is the same in Toronto: a competition for external candidates was launched in August 2005, but nobody was recruited. The agency has vacant positions that it cannot fill. Even within the agency, employees feel that the staffing process makes career progression an upheld struggle.