Health committee  With regard to the nature of shortages, if we compare the study of 2007 and the shortages today, the actual requirements with regard to filling indeterminate, permanent public service positions haven't changed, partly due to how departments are opting to deliver their service, such as the example you raised within Veterans Affairs.

Health committee  As I indicated in my opening remarks, we have in fact moved forward on all six of the recommendations. The first one was with regard to compensation and classification. As Madam Bax mentioned, we are in a situation of fiscal restraint, and so the work the office is undertaking right now is to prepare for collective bargaining in the future.

Health committee  I apologize for my misunderstanding. Every year the federal health care partnership puts out an annual report. We have available the annual report for 2008-09. It highlights the work that the office has undertaken and describes how it's meeting and fulfilling the recommendations.

Health committee  Madam Chair, as Madam Bax has indicated, the severity of the shortages was documented in the 2007 federal health care partnership study on the recruitment and retention of federal physicians and further revealed in a PCIS, a physician classification information survey, in 2008, which indicated that National Defence had a vacancy rate of 25% of their nursing positions, the correctional services had a vacancy rate of 35% in their psychology positions, and National Defence was, among its indeterminate public servants' positions, grappling with a 90% vacancy rate.