Thank you for that.
In terms of whether the delegation system is the way to go, whether it is appropriate, I think you can ask a lot of questions about the appropriateness of delegation. We went through a big change in the legislation with the Public Service Modernization Act and changes to the Public Service Employment Act, and we went for a delegated model. We're one year into that model. I think we have to give it a go. We have to try to make this work before we start tinkering with it.
An important part of the delegated model, the way we have structured it--and I believe there is only one country that comes close to how we've done it--is that we have given the authority to appoint and revoke to the Public Service Commission. We delegate. The legislation encourages delegation. But the Public Service Commission can remove the delegation. So if the performance isn't good or there are really big problems, we can remove the delegations or condition the delegations, and we do that. Every time we do that we report on it.
I think we have to keep at it, but we have to watch it very closely, and that's why I have a preoccupation about having the monitoring and the audit capacities in this delegated system.
In terms of the question about the flow between public servants and ministers' offices, this is a worry. It has been an ongoing worry for me. If you look at a province like Ontario, they have a much clearer approach. Their approach is that their public service commission gives permission, so there has to be a request for permission. They monitor and they have a policy framework around it that is very strict. So it says if you're an executive, you cannot work in a minister's office as exempt staff for more than six months, so to help short term in the transition. Otherwise it is two years. You're allowed two years and that's it--one time for two years and no more.
I have suggested that we go that way in terms of a policy solution. There's been some reluctance on that. I haven't really had any uptake on that, but we certainly will continue to monitor it within the ambit of what we can do, because there are limits as to what we can do at the Public Service Commission. But in the ambit of what I can do within the statute, we will continue to watch this and report on it.