If you look at the public accounts, there's about $300 million used for these temporary firms. The largest use is in the national capital area. About 90% of it is in the national capital area. It's not used very much in the regions. About 60% of that is for clerical support staff, which is what you would expect. Forty per cent of it is used for other levels. There are policies around it, so Public Works and Government Services has standing offers that deal with the use of these firms. Some of the material I've been seeing is that they're actually putting a transfer price on some of these things, so if you employ somebody from a private firm into the public service, there's a fee that has to be paid.
On June 18th, 2009. See this statement in context.