Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his questions.
The reality is there are all kinds of factors and forces within our economy. Needless to say in the public sector there are public sector unions. They have signed contractual obligations with the Government of Canada and the Public Service Alliance is also involved with the provincial governments.
The bottom line is that some bummer contracts have been negotiated over the years. The government has been very judicious at trying to reduce the civil service by way of attrition. It is not working in the sense that it is not working nearly fast enough for what we need to do to make us more efficient.
We have to look at all aspects of government spending. This is very much on the government's agenda, that is not necessarily rolling back public sector wages but to negotiate with the unions a more effective and efficient civil service.