Thank you, Liam. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Madam Thompson.
The problem is quite straightforward, really. There are lots of constraints around how contracting is done, but as you realized from your session last week with departmental heads, there are absolutely no constraints around the decision to make or buy. That's a long-lasting practice.
Because there are no constraints around that decision, people tend to buy more than make. There are internal rewards for that practice in terms of taxes, if you overextend your salary-wage envelope. Not only does that have a financial impact on a department manager who is thinking about something that needs to be done, but it also has a psychological impact. If you know that the organization is taxing you if you hire as opposed to contract, then you tend to do what the organization tends to want.
There is a systemic failure there, and that's been brewing for about 20 or 30 years, since new public management came in. It's an ideological problem.