I may answer that question by providing a little more background on what public service renewal is. I think the question about mobility will be in better context in that circumstance.
I think people use the term “public service renewal” without actually knowing how broad it is. First and foremost, it's actually about dealing with the business of government and having government get better at delivering results for Canadians. It's not a time-limited program or project. It's not an HR initiative. It's an ongoing process of the senior leadership and the whole of the public service to adapt to the 21st century and to have a public service that is relevant, dynamic, and excellent at what it does, capable of providing high-quality advice to government and excellent services to Canadians.
I think Madam MacPherson made a couple of the points in her presentation, but I think there's a need to explain the rationale for public service renewal in a little more detail.
It is clear from the Prime Minister's advisory committee on the public service that a country that has a strong public service is going to be a more prosperous and healthy country. They said, “In this [economic] context, there is no doubt that a strong and innovative Public Service is more important than ever.”
We believe that to make the public service better, we should continue our efforts on renewal.
We also have some pretty serious demographic challenges. We are a little bigger than we were in 1983, but we have actually aged considerably as a public service compared to other sectors in the Canadian economy. In 1983, 42% of public servants were over 40. Today, 66% are over 40. That's a significant number.
We also have a couple of alarming statistics, in that one-quarter of public servants will be eligible to retire, without penalty, in 2012. That's 25%. And 50% of our executive cadre will be eligible to retire in 2012. We have some work to do to bring the next generation forward and have them ready to replace the baby boomers when they go.
There's one other complicating factor, which is that during the recession of the 1990s the government did not hire and did not recruit. There is a missing generation of leaders, who we are now realizing we don't have.
On the public service renewal, a good part of it is about reaching into the public service and attempting to bring forward the next generation of leaders.