Thank you.
As far as the administration's pandemic plan is concerned, we carried out tests on October 6 from 9 to 12. This was a three-hour test. Advisors from Vanguard Emergency Services were present. They had prepared exercises ranging from moderate to high risk. We tested the impact of an absenteism rate of approximately 30%.
We did this exercise around a table. We did not conduct the exercise as EDC had done, when people did not show up for work, but we did in particular examine our IT services, because this is very important. We looked at the delegation of human resources, employees. If ever we did not have employees on a certain service, how are we going to be aware of the absentee rate in the House? Our human resources system will monitor and forward this information.
In addition, we took a look at our communications plans. How will we continue communicating with the members of Parliament, the employees and our partners throughout the House? Everything went very well. It was a tough test, particularly at the end. We discovered, for example, that we need to pay close attention to communications. As for our IT services, we must realize that not everybody can work from home. We do not have enough portable computers, we do not have a network that would allow this to happen. We want to keep the network in good shape, so we have to pay attention. We talked at great length about the impact on the IT plan. The employees sitting around the table held relatively significant positions and we found aspects of the plan that needed to be changed, because this plan is evolving. We are prepared should something happen, such an outbreak in the region.