Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to all of the witnesses for being here today.
I checked National Newswatch this morning, as I do every morning at 6 a.m., and the top story was “Ottawa's pandemic hiring boom adds billions to federal payroll”. Specifically, it mentioned there was a 12% increase in federal employment in two years—35,000 new jobs over the last two years. That's over 5% a year, which outpaces the private sector as well as the economy.
When we look at where those jobs were added, ESDC, which is “responsible for passport processing and Service Canada offices, added 8,500 positions. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which has been dealing with the crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine—along with a huge backlog of visa applications—hired 1,750 people.” We have these incredible expenditures and additional employees.
The CBC article also states that in emailed statements, “PHAC and ESDC both said that more than half of their new hires were non-permanent positions, while the CRA noted that its workforce rises and falls with the tax season.”
Based on the dismal numbers we received this morning on extreme expenditure yet poor delivery of services to Canadians, how should we be using—or not using, in this case—outsourcing to better deliver value for money for Canadians?
I'll start with Madam Carr.
Could you please respond to that?