Thank you for your question.
Renewal of the public service is a priority. It is an integral part of the report recently tabled by the clerk. The clerk strongly recommended that this be done and provided clarifications as part of an action plan that every deputy minister had to produce for the fiscal year that has just ended and will have to produce for the current fiscal year.
The place of official languages is an essential component in recruiting, both to ensure service delivery and representation in the public service. If I may, I will quote an excerpt from the clerk's report:
There is also a need to make improvements in recognizing the place of Canada's two official languages in the workplace. This goes beyond representation of francophones and anglophones at all levels of the public service, where in fact we have been quite successful. Rather it means ensuring that we are operating a public service that uses and respects both official languages in the workplace and in services to the public.
So we are talking about the workplace, recruiting and representation. These aspects are an integral part of our recruiting measures in universities, in accordance with what we call talent management within the public service, namely, when we consider potential, development and career training for employees. Official languages are part of the essential criteria considered.