Thank you, Mr. Oliphant.
As you noticed, we didn't make a specific recommendation on resource allocation. It is really up to the government, the minister and the department how you want to do that.
I referred in my remarks to the 10-year dearth of new hires. As a result, you have the average age of a foreign service officer at 47—in my previous life, I started in my 20s—so it's very difficult to build a career or to focus on a generalist or specialist thing. Moreover, because there were no new hires, there were a lot of hires who were brought in as temporary or in different occupational groups other than foreign service officers, who were basically doing foreign service officer work at headquarters. However, when it came time for an assignment overseas, they were overlooked, because the first priority was always for foreign service officers.
What has been created and what we heard from witnesses is a type of caste system within the department. It's complicated as well, in that there are three occupational groups, so there are three unions representing people working in the department at the professional officer-type level. That is a difficult thing.
On generalists versus specialists, you have niche expertise such as trade negotiators, for example. You have the development specialists, who would have been separate in—