Madam Speaker, I appreciate again the question from the hon. member. As a matter of fact, the government was very concerned that perhaps the selection process was too restrictive. More than a year ago the Public Service Commission broadened the area of selection for all senior officer level jobs to Canadians residing anywhere. It also launched a series of pilot studies to determine how these changes would affect costs, workload and other aspects of the selection process.
The commission briefed parliamentarians this past November on the result of its projects and on its planned course of action with regard to systematically moving away from geographical based areas of selection. The government is concerned about the process and has undertaken the pilot projects with the hope that it would be able to broaden its selection area from coast to coast to coast.