Our challenge is that regardless of how we think of separate agencies as being independent, arbitrators and third parties, like public interest commissions, see us as one employer. Essentially, the “fence” is the pattern that was set for 99% of the public service. The jobs at the Office of the Auditor General are very similar to jobs in the core public administration. The financial pressure that could have been created by breaking that pattern could indeed have been catastrophic from a financial perspective.
