That's a very interesting question and a rather complicated one, because under the previous Public Service Employment Act there was a prohibition. Public servants were not allowed to be involved in political activity, until a case went to the Supreme Court in the early nineties. It said this was too severe a prohibition, and that public servants still had rights, and rights to be politically active, but that it had to be appropriate to their job, and it discussed what the risks were for the public service.
That meant those sections of the old PSEA were struck down. Under the new PSEA we have a new section that gives direction on non-partisanship in the public service and that has left it to the judgment of the Public Service Commission. What that means for us is that we have a role in providing guidance. We have little self-administered tests public servants can do.
It's a function of the nature of their job, the profile of their job, and how closely they may be working with the political level. As I tell people all the time, it's actually a very easy test. If you're working with one party that is the government and you have a change in party in government, does it give you a problem? That's the simple test.
So we provide a lot of guidance and a lot of direction. We have a system now that is directional and informative, and we've been doing a lot of training with people. We give advice, but then we also hear complaints. And if there is a complaint of non-partisanship, we can investigate through this administrative review process, and we can revoke and punish.