Thank you, Mr. Minister.
We aren't talking about a minor reorganization here, simply shuffling around everyone's role. We are talking about tens of thousands of jobs. Thirty thousand people could disappear from the public sector that delivers public services to Canadians and Quebeckers.
How can you assure us that the work will still be done, if these people just disappear overnight? Who is going to do the work in their place?
I want to tell you about something that has happened at the provincial level. Time and time again, we have seen governments lay off thousands of civil servants, workers who were responsible for delivering services. Then governments realized that someone had to do the work, so what did they do? They hired consultants. Too many times, we have seen former public servants return to the public service as consultants doing the exact same job. That's what happened with nurses in Quebec.
The size of the public service shrinks, but not the costs, because someone still has to be paid to do the work.