Thank you to both of you.
As my colleague has kindly agreed to share his time with me, I'll go ahead with a question.
Here's my question. Whether it be Public Works or various other ministries, when you look at these estimates, the costs for external consultants and professional services that are not in the public service are increasing at a rapid rate. This has been going on under this government for some time. At Public Works and Government Services Canada, it's a 100% increase.
Now, about this transformation exercise you're talking about at the public service, it's a little bit difficult for Canadians to understand why you're cutting jobs in the public service while you're giving money to external consultants by the boatload.
Is this transformation really an exercise in the privatization of our public service?