Mr. Speaker, our government is working hard to re-establish a culture of respect for Canada's fine public service. We will negotiate in good faith with our public service and we will respect the independence of those negotiations. Unlike the Conservatives, we will not toxify those negotiations by attacking the public service on a continual basis gratuitously.
There is an opportunity to modernize sick leave benefits in a way that is fair to members of the public service in a time when we have inherited a tough fiscal situation from the previous government.