Evidence of meeting #2 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was positions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
It's up to the minister to decide how he picks his people.
4:55 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
It's the minister's choice. It's not up to me to tell the minister how he needs to pick his staff.
4:55 p.m.
Bloc
Robert Vincent Bloc Shefford, QC
No, but this was a question. There's no competition to obtain the position—
4:55 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
Public servants are non-partisan, but the work they do in a minister's office is often highly partisan. A minister's office is partisan by definition. To my mind, it's important that we be careful with the type of work that they will have to do when they go back to the public service, and the way they go back.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
You know, Mr. Vincent, you will have an opportunity to put the question to the President of the Treasury Board, because he will appear before the committee. Perhaps you can ask him those questions, if you're interested.
Are there any more questions?
I'm going to end with my payroll problem.
You were before the committee at some point and said you were recruiting large numbers of people to work in the pay and benefits sections. Subsequent to that we heard from others who said they really didn't hire very many people in that area.
I don't know if you've followed through on whether we are getting enough new people in these areas and what more we can do to recruit and to keep additional people. I think the other big challenge in that area is retention.
I'm going to keep coming back on this. I really find it's a challenge for those who are trying to offer that service, and there's more than one problem in the area.
4:55 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
I'm not sure their retention is unique when you've seen the turnover we've had in other groups.
I know we assisted in doing a collective pool. There were over 6,000 applications. We ended up with 110 candidates who were fully qualified and ready to go, but I can't tell you how many were actually given jobs.
5 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
Okay, thank you. I'm going to pursue it, because I think it's a particular problem for public servants. They have to be paid, and they have to be paid in a timely manner, or else the whole system will break down.
Thank you very much.
To the committee, we haven't been able to get any guests for Wednesday. I suggest that we have our meeting on Wednesday at 3:30 to discuss future business. There are a few things we have to do, but there are other things we should be doing. I'll ask all parties to come with ideas for things they want us to consider, and we'll get the clerk busy on getting us candidates for our committee.
I'll call the meeting to an end.