At this point in time we are following the guidance of the Treasury Board, which is the employer. Our employees are encouraged to remain working remotely during this period of time and to abide by the public health guidance.
In Veterans Affairs we kept all of our buildings accessible. While we are continuing to put in physical barriers and follow all of the protocols, we have set a maximum of 10% occupancy on location as these adjustments are occurring. Once we have those conditions in place in accordance with occupational health and safety, we will increase accessibility.
Keep in mind that people who have critical and essential functions have been going to work right from the outset. We could provide you a picture in time, in terms of the number of people in the offices, but it is minimal. It is under 100, and we have a department of over 3,500 employees.
However, what was interesting was to see how quickly we were able to use this digital access across the board so that we have well above 95% of our department fully operational and working. We've been comparing what a normal year looked like in the past, vis-à-vis sick leave and other leaves, to this year with sick leave and special leave. We've actually seen a reduction in sick leave, whereas some folks who are managing the family at home—the kids and all those kinds of things—have had to take the special leave, but I'll tell you that they are so committed that we have even had employees who took this leave because they have pre-school kids at home, no day care and those kinds of things, and they still are being productive across the board.
I'll ask Steven to talk to efficiency and productivity.