I well understand. That's an excellent question. The question of whether in some way the operating budget freeze would disincent regular staffing and as a consequence foster greater use of outside consultants is often raised. It's important to be alert to the fact that just as public service salaries are part of our operating budget, so would be the costs of outside consultants. Insofar as there would be $8.7 million less in the pot for the Department of Public Works for operating purposes, there would certainly be less money for engaging consultants. In fact, the use of consultants is one of the areas where we plan to be more diligent in the coming years.
As far as what the numbers show regarding our ability to recruit goes, which is at the heart of your question, sir, in the year that just closed, we brought over 1,000 people into our department. We brought in 1,000 people the year before that, the year before that, and the year before that. So we're very competitive. We're able to recruit to our department. We can do that at the same time as we can improve our demographics and close the gap, whether it's with respect to women, persons with disabilities, aboriginal Canadians, or visible minorities. We've met three of those four targets. On the fourth one, we're quite close as well.