Minister, time is of the essence. These public servants have lost faith that your government is going to fix this, so this needs to be urgent.
Minister, the temporary help services supply arrangement limits the government to just three situations in which they can use temporary workers. They are when a public servant is absent for a temporary period, when additional staff are required during a temporary workload increase or to fill a vacant position while staffing action is being completed.
Those are pretty specific directives, yet the federal government is Canada's largest user of temp agency workers. As procurement minister, you have the responsibility to adhere to the HUMA report of 2018, which recommended that the Canadian government immediately work to stop using temp agency workers and hire permanent public servants. This report came from a Liberal motion, and it was unanimously agreed to.
What are you doing to ensure that departments are adhering to these rules and only using temporary workers in these three situations? How much is the government spending on temporary workers? When was the last time you audited the departments' use of temporary workers?