Thank you.
This is a vast and complex situation. We are talking about a very large number of employees and of responsibilities that vary depending on the job description. According to what Ms. Barrados recently told us, the situation is pretty well under control as regards the most specialized jobs. But you are saying that is not quite the case and that there are problems.
I am from the region. I looked at things from a different perspective when I put you, Ms. Barrados, Mr. Gordon and yourself on the other side. I taught at Gisèle-Lalonde, Louis-Riel and Nicolas-Gatineau schools, as well as in Blackburn Hamlet. That is an area where you recruit a lot of people. That may not specifically apply to you, but the fact is that some of your union members come from that area.
I would like to give you a statistic that relates to Ontario, since I taught mainly on the Ontario side. In the region, 20 per cent of men who teach high school are no longer there five years later. Where do they go? Well, they enter the federal public service. They are attracted by the working conditions. I am not saying that the working conditions in the educational field are poor, but in terms of actual tasks and stress, it is very different. Even teachers who had more seniority than I had advised me at the time to leave the field and enter the public service. They told me that I would have easier work, a better job, and so on.
As I understand it, that recruitment doesn't solve the problem in situations—and the Parliamentary Secretary, Mr. Poilievre, pointed this out previously—where a crisis is in the making. You have talked about possible solutions by referring to more flexibility.
Could you provide additional details with respect to a possible partnership between the Public Service Commission and the Public Service Alliance of Canada? I'm talking about a situation where better communication on broader issues would make it possible to attract people and thus fill the void that we will soon be facing. I am really talking about a partnership between your union, which is a very important player in this, and the people who are in charge of recruitment.