Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Yes, and reskilling is an extremely important investment that the government has to make. We know that the labour force of the future is going to be very different from what we have right now, and we have to help our current generation of public servants make that shift. We also have to be more open—again, externally—to get some of that talent that already exists out there in the private sector, and not try to duplicate that inside.

Government Operations committee  Employment equity is different from the priority system.

Government Operations committee  Yes. If you have a qualified vet and you have a position available, that vet must be offered that position first before anybody else. That's the preference provision.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  No. All the jobs for priorities are made available to them. We have a system to share. Whenever a job comes out, before it's advertised, it has to clear the priority system. Therefore, the vet will have the chance to bid for it before it even goes out. By the way, that's one of the fastest ways to staff a position.

Government Operations committee  It's hard to comment on a specific case, but we know that pools are sometimes used quite well, and sometimes they're abused. Sometimes pools are created and managers don't intend to use the pool except for maybe the top one candidate they wanted.

Government Operations committee  Again, human resources would be involved in hiring in any department, but the role they play would be different. I would say that a lot of it comes from the leadership at the top. If a deputy minister sets the tone, you can see progress. I've talked about cases where deputies have decided they are going to reduce the average time it takes and focus the attention on this, and we see the results.

Government Operations committee  I think you are making some excellent points. We are the biggest employer in Canada, but we're also the most diversified employer, and we're one that has a high degree of mobility. I report on the mobility rates in our annual report, which are actually trending up. That means that somebody who starts their career in the public service does not have to stay in the same department, in the same kind of job.

Government Operations committee  We live in a delegated model, and it's not just in the world of HR. It's in the world of finance, contracting, etc. We have been delegating that decision-making authority as close to the front-line manager as possible, and that's obviously where the authority lies. But it has to be done in the context of an overall frame that we set.

Government Operations committee  Yes. You're absolutely right.

Government Operations committee  Yes. Certainly there are some gaps at the executive level in our employment equity groups. For women, the gap has been narrowed. It's down to about 0.5% between—

Government Operations committee  Yes. We do some modelling and of course we look at particular categories. I would say that right now we have a particular focus on persons with disabilities, doing some modelling on what we need to do to increase representation there. We are also just completing a study on the promotion rates for each of the employment equity groups, which we will be releasing in May.

Government Operations committee  Between us and the Treasury Board Secretariat, we certainly work very closely on employment equity objectives. We implement the Employment Equity Act. I want to correct the record a little bit. We have an overrepresentation of women in the public service. Among the candidates for our programs, we have an overrepresentation of women candidates.

Government Operations committee  I mentioned that there are two programs we created with the Treasury Board Secretariat over the last number of years for students, which specifically targeted those populations, and those programs are open right now. We're hoping to increase the number. We reported on the numbers from last year.