Government Operations committee  We're here together, Madam Chair. I'll be giving a statement and then my colleagues will be assisting me with questions as they come up.

Government Operations committee  First of all, I want to thank you for inviting me to participate in this hearing. I have with me today Lisa Addario, an employment equity officer, and David Orfald, our director of planning and organizational development. The PSAC represents over 160,000 workers, the vast maj

Government Operations committee  Not at the moment.

Government Operations committee  Given the opportunity, I think people would rather ease into retirement. That flexibility gives an opportunity to government as an employer to ensure that the transfer of knowledge takes place in, I guess, a better way. So yes, I believe our membership are looking for opportunit

Government Operations committee  We aren't there yet.

Government Operations committee  With regard to backdoor opportunities, they have a lot of people coming in as casuals and terms who then end up in some pools, but not as indeterminate employees. Then 65% of the staff in indeterminate positions come from those pools. But in fact if you open up the employment opp

Government Operations committee  The whole idea that they're managing well in the public service is not borne true by the demographics that were shown in the survey that was brought forward last year. It's just not happening. The plan was to assist it, but it didn't happen. It needs a direct intervention of al

Government Operations committee  We're just entering into collective bargaining, and so far so good.

Government Operations committee  There are two parts to that. I don't know that it would have been on the apprenticeship front; it would have been on the equity front. I think what's happening is that people are applying to come into the public service. The numbers are there. It's just that in terms of equity th

Government Operations committee  That's for Lisa.

Government Operations committee  In terms of recruitment and retention in the public service, our view is that people are applying in great numbers, but they're not getting in. They're getting into temporary and casual positions, but they are not given long-term opportunities. What we're seeing is that 65% of th

Government Operations committee  It seems to be a deterrent.

Government Operations committee  To take you to the point where you can find it, you'll find it in the public service employment survey, 2002 to 2005.

Government Operations committee  It's certainly not to suggest there should not be a strategy. It would be folly. We're saying what appears to be before us is that hiring people in temporary or casual positions is not necessarily a good long-term solution to the problem. If you're going to have that as your stra

Government Operations committee  There's nothing wrong with term employment in the federal public service, in terms of the purpose of term employment. In large part, people come into positions on a term basis, and you see them lasting in term positions for many years in some instances. To me, if it's the hiring