On this issue of visible minority hiring, we've had occasion to look at two separate reports—three, if we include the Public Service Commission report. One is the report of the Canada Public Service Agency tabled recently by the Treasury Board president. For reasons that weren't really explained, two years were squeezed into one report. In other words, the report from the prior year was delayed, so there are two years. The report on employment equity in the public service in Canada was 2006-2007 and 2007-2008.
There is a second report, which has been referred to here, from the Clerk of the Privy Council, Kevin Lynch. We're all familiar with that one. Both these reports are required by statute, as is your annual report. So now we have three reports coming in. The odd thing is that, on the visible minority statistics, the data did not coincide. And I'm absolutely not alleging any bad faith here at all. You have two different organizations, maybe three, generating data different ways.
But the most important statistic I can find here, Madam Barrados, on this issue comes in the report of Kevin Lynch, where, on the matter of visible minority presence, the numbers fall quite short of market availability. Now, if you are correct, the number of visible minorities in the public service is understated, and that may address part of the problem. There is another piece of data, on page 24 of the English version of the same report, that shows a rather heightened level of visible minority hiring, quite significant. This is the 17.3% figure versus 12.4% market availability. That's significant.
So I don't quite understand. We've got data coming left, right, and sideways. Who should the committee be looking to for a resolution of the data problem, and who's got to carry the can on the missed targets?
Just so all members will relate to this, my particular constituency is about 80% visible minority. They actually really do care about this.