Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank Ms. Warner for being here today. This is an important study about outsourcing, so I appreciate hearing her perspective.
I've been on this committee for a very short time. It's been a bit of a steep learning curve, as we've had a number of issues before us. We know that money spent by the government on outside contracts in the category of professional and special services has nearly doubled since 2006 to $11.8 billion, as my colleague pointed out earlier. We also saw an increase of 116% in spending on IT consulting between 2011 and 2018, a 115% increase in spending on management consulting and a 78% increase in spending on temporary help.
We learned recently through our study of the ArriveCAN app, which you may or may not be aware of, that IT firms may charge between 15% to 30% for their service over and above the service that's being provided. I've also learned that the current government likes to use outside contractors, such as large consulting firms, which charge exorbitant fees, to give them answers that may be clear to Canadians already, such as not buying IT support from despotic regimes.
Do you have any concerns that the government is creating a shadow public service in which staffing firms—which do none of the work but are taking large cuts—are increasing the costs of the work being done and paid for?