Chair, as I indicated in my opening remarks, we have a great capacity within the Government of Canada in terms of our public servants working in the IT field. In fact, across the government departments, the reaction from employees working in IT is that they are very excited about this undertaking.
We have been briefing all our bargaining agents in order to keep not only employees but also union officials informed of the developments. Senior officials, including the president, have met with the presidents of both the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and five of these high-level meetings have taken place so far. In addition, Shared Services Canada officials have also met with other union officials.
We also held a workshop recently between Shared Services Canada and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada to outline the next steps for working together and supporting employees. This meeting then resulted in a joint transition steering committee and four subcommittees that will work on issues such as staffing and labour relations, communications, and a consultation framework and governance.
Shared Services Canada has identified contact leads for each of the 43 departments and agencies, and mechanisms for regular communication and consultation have been put in place to ensure that all employees are kept informed. There have been many, and will continue to be many, site visits to meet as many employees as possible.
Again, going forward, we are intent on maintaining productive relationships with our employees. They are very talented people who best understand how we can achieve our objectives.
It's important to remember that this is about improving services to Canadians. We do need a modern, reliable, secure infrastructure to provide Canadians with the quality of services they deserve, and, frankly, employees who work in this area know this best, so we are calling on them for ideas. They want to be a part of this transformation. They are excited about it.
Liseanne has been the one working very closely with the unions and with employees, so I will ask her to just make a further comment.