Chair, I'd like to start out my time by clarifying the record on an exchange I had this morning with Jeannie Baldwin from the Public Service Alliance of Canada. In that discussion I asked a question about sick leave days, public versus private.
I did a bit of research since that time we spoke. There's quite a bit of data out there, but probably the data that is the most reliable would be from the Treasury Board and the labour force survey data. That data show the public service takes off 12.4 days a year versus the private sector at 8.3 days. That's a spread of 4.1 days. The other one, which I think weighs in a little heavier, is the non-partisan research organization, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, because they have no political allegiances. They said their analysis shows the public service took 10.5 days a year and the private sector 6.4. That's a similar spread.
I want to put that on the record, if you don't mind, Chair, because the answer to the question is that there is no difference between the two. These are two respected bodies that serve us here in Ottawa, and they both say there is a significant spread.
I just wanted to clarify that.