I have two thoughts. Obviously if we can get our ministers here as soon as possible, that's wonderful. I think everybody appreciates that's where we need to go with that. But if there are some difficulties during that week period, I have two suggestions.
Number one, I think we obviously need to hear from the Auditor General. There are a number of various topics, and she might potentially be readily available. That might be a fill-in position. If we have difficulty, for the sake of a few days, with picking up a minister, that might be something the committee can consider.
Another point that I would certainly like factored into our agenda here was a result of our meeting the other day with the public service, with Madam Barrados. At the end of the meeting I was honestly blown away when I heard some of the numbers that came out about the turnover rate. This plays right into a number of issues that dovetail with that: why aren't people getting paid, benefits payment clerks, on and on. I honestly had no idea that even in HR there was a 76% turnover of staff in one year. I was astounded.
Between that and 40% in one department and 50% in another, I'm wondering how can a government be efficient and effective? We are government operations. I really believe we have a mandate to find out what the heck is going on that we have that kind of substantial turnover in the federal government. It just should not be acceptable.
There are a number of areas we could go in. We could call in an associate jurisdiction, of one of the provinces—it doesn't matter to me—just as a comparison. There may be a couple of other people. I believe two people were quoted in the actual report. There were a couple of professors locally. There was Mr. Zussman and another one.
These could be potential people, but at some particular point this to me goes right to the crux—as well as our other duties that we are responsible for. There are so many overlapping concerns with this issue of the effectiveness of government. When we have a turnover rate like that, we just cannot be effective. This is something we need to get to the bottom of.