One area that we've expanded is the summer jobs program within the public service. We have one that started, I believe with 30 people. The indigenous youth summer jobs program started with about 30 youth, I think three years ago. Last summer, there were over 100 youth. I believe this year we're going to be expanding it quite significantly beyond that. We also have a summer jobs program for young Canadians with disabilities, again creating a more diverse public service, taking down some of the barriers, and learning from these. We're doing more for young people to get into the public service, but we still have work to do.
The Public Service Commission has done some work to reduce the amount of time it takes to do an online application from 40 minutes to 5 minutes. However, from the time a young person applies to join the public service, it still takes over 200 days on the part of the public service. Taking 35 minutes off a 200-day process doesn't strike me as going far enough. We have some work to do in making it easier for young people to join the public service.
We're also hearing from young people that they may not want to come into the public service and spend 20 or 30 years there. They may want to come in, for instance, to help us tackle some of the digital problems, issues, and opportunities, take on a couple of projects, and then get out. We have a fellow who joined us from Shopify, a big Ottawa tech success story—a Canadian tech success story. He joined us at CDS, Canadian digital services, for a period, and helped us take on some projects. He has gone back to Shopify.
With regard to making it easier for people to come in and serve and make a difference, take on some projects, then go out and take their experience, we have to do a lot more to improve that.
I recognize that's something where we have to have more flexibility and less hierarchy within government, but that's a longer conversation.