It is the advice of the Privy Council Office—from the public servants in the Privy Council Office.
The point I want to make essentially is that you have all sorts of circumstances calling for a need to make a change in the deputy minister ranks. There was one example given about the inability of the deputy and the minister to function together effectively. There are unforeseen circumstances, such as retirements; and this fall Jack Stagg passed away. There are different circumstances leading to a need to make changes.
There have been some examples of too much turnover, and everyone recognizes the need to have as much stability as possible. There are other extremes, such as with Mr. Fellegi at Statistics Canada, who has been there for some 20 years. So you have the extremes and you have the average, which is just a bit more than three years. Is that average high enough? Ideally it should be a bit higher, and we're striving to achieve as much continuity and stability as we can in the ranks of deputy ministers, but it's also affected by changes of government that bring about changes in structure. The 1993 reorganization was a massive restructuring that led to huge changes in the ranks of deputy ministers. You have circumstances that are out of the control of the government of the day, and to say there would be some requirement of a minimum three-year term would hamper the ability to deal with those changing circumstances.