Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We did recognize that gap, and we are working on many fronts to fill it. One is the work we are doing to recruit. We have also set guidelines on what the core competencies are. There has been some increased funding in departments. We've seen a growth in the number of evaluators available in the government. We're at just over 500 right now.
The Auditor General made an interesting comparison to the work that started with the audit community. We are following, I would say, a similar pattern in terms of identifying what the competencies are, identifying what the governance structure should be, and identifying the nature of the work of the evaluators and the evaluation function.
I think that in departments there is a growing recognition of the need to manage and oversee the evaluations themselves and to sometimes, as necessary, bring in contracting expertise, because not all the evaluators will necessarily have all the expertise necessary to cover the work.
I know that my colleague could speak from departmental experience about what that means, if that's possible.