We looked at the act that was passed in 2003, and one of the main objectives was to provide more flexibility and to resolve many of the issues that existed under the previous human resource management regime.
Some members who have been around for quite a while will perhaps remember that our office did an audit in the late 1990s, I think, which indicated that in the human resource management system at that point there were something like 70,000 rules. The system was very cumbersome, very difficult, and there was a lot of concern around this merit principle, which at that time was interpreted to mean that you had to have the very best person from a competition.
The rules have changed now to say that you have to have someone who meets the criteria, who is qualified, and you can also look at the availability of people. I think that was one of the main issues, that the very best person may not have been immediately available to fill a position. Now there is more flexibility in that. You still have to ensure that people meet all the criteria, are meritorious in having that position, but you don't have to go the extra step to say this is the very best person coming out of a competition.