Thank you for the question.
When senior departmental officials plan to hire consultants, it is often to train public servants for a new service. It is a way of developing the expertise internally.
In many cases, we use outside resources on a short-term basis if we need help meeting tight deadlines, for instance.
One of the current initiatives that warrants the use of outside resources is all aspects of digital government. I can assure you that a lot of work is being done, and that we are also training public servants at the same time to do the work internally.
One of my team members might wish to add something in this regard.