Yes. I commend you to my report and all the speeches I've given on this topic. We definitely have to move on the culture. I would recommend the committee look at the incentive and disincentive structure within which people operate.
I go back to my opening remarks. If the diagnosis is wrong, you will prescribe remedies that could do great damage.
You alluded, Mr. Chair, to rapid turnover of deputy ministers. The facts speak otherwise. I have the evidence for that. The Auditor General left an impression that is factually incorrect, and you can correct that with evidence. The way to measure deputy ministers' tenure is how many years they were in the job from start to finish. If you look at the 33 deputy ministers whom I have some influence over, and the last three terms they completed—not the snapshot of the ones that are in now and haven't run out their clock—you see that's 99 deputy terms. Thirty-three ministers completed terms, and three.... Forty-nine of those were for more than three years, which is the benchmark this committee suggested in previous reports; 27 were in their jobs for more than four years; and 16 were in their jobs for more than five years. The median and the average are both greater than three years, so my view is we don't have a pervasive, generalized problem with deputy turnover.
They have a cumulative experience, on average, of about 20 years of experience as an executive in some form or another. I have worked hard to bring in other skill sets and talents. I have hired two provincial cabinet secretaries. We have brought in the chief of the defence staff as a deputy minister, and we have brought in people who have been private sector CEOs and have run think tanks. We are always trying to improve the leadership cadre that runs the public service.
Officers of Parliament have their role and have their opinion, but they are outside observers. The important thing for Canadians to understand is that all of these were designed to ensure Canada is well governed. All in all, Canada's public service is free of nepotism, free of corruption, and free of partisanship. There will be errors and exceptions to that, but they are detected, corrected, and remedied.
It's important in this day and age that Canadians have some confidence in their public institutions, and I am committed to making them better as we go along.
We have an annual survey now. The letters and the emails from constituents are an important feedback loop, and I understand that, but they are the people who are motivated to write to you, so we have tried to go to an annual comprehensive survey. The results of that survey, not all of which are flattering, are in my annual report. It's on the Internet.