Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that.
This afternoon we've spoken a lot about hypothetical situations and possibilities that might be a result of the decisions that were outlined within the budget. I certainly appreciate your perspectives, assurances, and concerns relating to those hypothetical situations, but I think it's important that we focus on something a little bit different from what we've spoken about. That's the issue of the demographics and how those challenges are going to present themselves. How will that impact the civil service as far as employment is concerned, but also in terms of the services that civil servants will be requested to undertake?
Right now my understanding is that for every retired person there are 15 people in the workforce. Within the next couple of decades we're going to see those numbers change to approximately three people in the workforce for every retired person. Those numbers are staggering and something we all have to address. It's incumbent upon governments, the civil service, the private sector, and the general population of the country to consider them.
Mr. Gordon, you said in quotations in your testimony that we're asking people to do more with less. I think that's the definition of productivity. All Canadians are concerned about how we're going to do more with fewer resources. We've heard testimony from the Clerk of the Privy Council about some of the things the government is doing to try to increase productivity. It isn't a result of people being lazy or not doing their jobs; there are systems that need to be replaced. There's back-office work that needs to be done. Relationships need to be built between departments to try to reduce that.
In an effort to be constructive and try to address this mounting issue of the impending demographic shift and the necessity that we'll all need to become more productive in our society, do you have any suggestions where the government can actually do that? Where can the civil service do more with less? We've heard it suggested by different unions at different times on different issues that we need new programs, such as the payroll system overhaul that needs to be done. Are you hearing about other things like that from your members that would start the process of the government in whole doing more with less, or just doing more with the resources that could be allocated to those efforts?