I will happily speak to the issue of the orientation of new GIC appointees. I should say initially that when we say “new”, they're not always necessarily new to a role as a GIC appointment. We provide orientation whenever somebody receives a GIC appointment. Their welcome letter indicates that there's an expectation, in fact, that they participate in an orientation process. That orientation process is organized according to a menu, essentially, so that it's tailored to the particular needs of the individual and the organization they're in.
The senior personnel secretariat, one of my colleague secretariats within PCO, would make available to them a list of secretariats within PCO, within Treasury Board, and within other entities within government--a list of resources, essentially, and of assistant secretary and senior level individuals who are available to provide briefings to them, and substantial briefing materials in many cases, in a whole range of areas.
That ranges, for example, in the case of senior personnel itself, from explaining the terms and conditions of employment and their conflict of interest responsibilities to, in the case of the machinery of government secretariat that I'm part of, understanding where their organization fits within the larger framework of government, understanding the way that system works, and understanding things like portfolio coordination and the nature of a public servant's responsibilities in dealing with elected officials. There's a whole scope of things like that, as well as other areas such as management and control and oversight, that are offered by TBS.
There is a whole range of things. Individual GIC appointees do have some capacity to choose themselves what they need, because many of them.... You may have a seasoned public servant who knows a lot of these things or you may have somebody from outside the public sector who is not familiar with all aspects of this and may want more orientation--
