Thank you for those comments.
One of the things I need to agree absolutely with Mr. Regan on is the quality of our public service and the work that your department does. I think it's compelling when you say every Canadian, all 33 million of us, will at some point be affected by your department. That is a huge responsibility.
Sure, you make some mistakes. Well, heck, we all do, frankly. But I think you've maintained your standards, and your commitment going forward to those service standards is very compelling.
You said that for the fiscal year 2011-12, some 950 employees who were hired for an indeterminate period will retire and that there will be another 750 who will quit or move to another department. That's not a net 1,700, to be fair. That's 1,700 people who are out of your department. I also heard you say there will be a 3,000-employee reduction due to the termination of the infrastructure stimulus plan. That's three times more than the Parliamentary Budget Officer had forecast. I find that interesting.
I want to make that point because I think it speaks to the issue of where we are going to find savings in various departments. There's no question that the infrastructure stimulus plan had some upward impact on our budgetary situation. I would suggest that we are in a downward spiral of deficit reduction. In the upcoming budget you're going to see a clear plan to reduce that deficit and achieve a balanced budget by the year 2015-16. I think that's extremely important.
You have some 1,700 employees who will retire, move to other departments, or quit, and you have the 3,000-employee reduction as a result of the infrastructure stimulus plan. Do you have a sense of how you're going to replace them? What number might be replaced?