Now that I have congratulated you, allow me to raise a more troubling issue. I apologize for not having been here when you made your presentation, but I do have a copy of the text and certain key terms, such as “demographic challenges” caught my attention. You speak about making renewal a priority, and also mention the importance of adequate systems and processes.
If I understood correctly, you said earlier that you have already analyzed, and made progress on, employment equity for women, persons with disabilities, first nations and aboriginal persons. However, you also said that you have not yet acted with regard to employment equity for visible minorities, and this is what I would like to discuss.
Could you tell me how many people belonging to a visible minority are employed by the public service, and what percentage of them remain at the same classification level throughout their career? Is it a higher or lower percentage than that across the public service as a whole? What is the typical career path of a visible minority member in the public service? Is it the same as that of anybody else? Do visible minorities tend to move horizontally, from one department to the next, while staying at more or less the same level? Do they tend to be promoted more quickly than non-visible minorities? In other words, what is the typical career profile of a member of a visible minority in the public service?
I would also like to know why you have not yet addressed employment equity for visible minorities and when you plan on doing so.