Thank you, Madam Chair.
That is a good question.
Indeed, right now about 10% of the public service would be considered visible minorities, as one employment equity group. That would be about 2% under a comparable measure of workforce availability. We recognize that there is a gap in our terms, which is an issue for us.
The good news is that we are recruiting at higher levels from that category, upwards of 18%. We have some measurement issues between us in the public service and the Public Service Commission. The president of the commission might say it's above 20%, while our data shows above 18%. At any rate, the main point is that with the accelerated recruitment from that community, we expect to see an increase in the representation of visible minorities in the public service.
The main point is that we're continuing to hire. Just because there is a freeze in operating budgets doesn't mean we'll stop hiring. In fact, we know it's absolutely important that we continue to hire. We can't expect to renew the public service if we don't hire. We absolutely need to do so, especially in view of all the attrition now going on.