Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think I'm the last intervenor here, so I'm going to thank the department, frankly, for working from a difficult situation toward some progress, towards the outcome that we all want, and that is to make sure that all the federal public servants are paid properly and on time. Kudos for that, for the work you've done to recover from what, frankly, I think we all agree was a very difficult situation. It came about for a plethora of reasons, as iterated in the reports that we've seen and testimony here before our committee. There was the forced savings of $70 million, the removal of 800 personnel, the lack of oversight, which we see in the most recent report. Some of these behaviours were actually rewarded as innovative, which I don't think is appropriate.
Then, we're moving forward now and trying to get to some resolution, which I think is important, and I commend all of you who played a role in helping us all, as public servants ourselves, to improve lives and the situation. We all empathize and sympathize with employees who are in a precarious situation for pay reasons, if they're not being paid on time or have tax liabilities that put them in a situation in which they're not able to pay their own bills.
On behalf of everyone on the committee, I think it's fair to say that we thank you for the efforts you're making. There's much work to be done, but progress is always good to see. Thank you for that.
I want to go back to the word we've talked about a lot: culture. I don't want to call the culture a scapegoat culture, because when you say “scapegoat”, there is the implication that it's not deserved. The culture, however, is I think blameworthy at least and responsible for some of the shortcomings.
Mr. Ferguson, you're the one who put this word or concept into our committee's deliberations with your second report. How would you characterize the culture that was in place during the eight-year frame of your second report, from 2008 to 2016—if you could characterize it, even?