Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Drouin. You brought up two very important things. Let me quickly summarize them. First, we owe a very great debt of gratitude to public servants, since their personal conditions during the crisis also affect them and because their professional

Government Operations committee  It's a very good question. I know some of the answers. However, I would prefer to turn to Nancy for more complete answers.

Government Operations committee  If I may, I will step in. As Nancy has said, and as you seem to be agreeing to, Mr. Green, we are going to need to look after students and our youth in the weeks and months to come, because they are going through very difficult circumstances. Today's announcement, by the way, a

Government Operations committee  We are not only, as you say, quite mindful of the importance of maintaining the integrity of the government—

Government Operations committee  In that case, I will turn to Francis, who would know a lot more about the various measures that have been taken.

Government Operations committee  Before I turn to Francis, I will say that I know the public service quite well and can assure you, Mr. McCauley, that they do all they need to do to preserve the integrity of the system. For more details, perhaps Francis would want to step in.

Government Operations committee  That is a very good question. I will let Mr. Bilodeau answer it.

Government Operations committee  Yes, this will be a very short answer: it is an important issue that we will certainly want to consider after the crisis.

Government Operations committee  As you already know, and it's worth repeating, we are extremely grateful—and “we” includes all Canadians—for the hard work that public servants do all the time, particularly in the context of the difficult crisis that we are living through. There are currently 35 agreements sig

Government Operations committee  For the precise answers to your questions, which I believe you deserve to get, I will turn to Nancy for the length of time that we have been engaged in discussions, dating to when those agreements expired, and any other related matters.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mrs. Vignola. I will give you a broad idea. The majority of employees are working from home. Ms. Chahwan will be able to give you the exact percentage across the Treasury Board, if it's available. Let me remind you that the Treasury Board Secretariat gives guidelines

Government Operations committee  Ms. Chahwan, do we have that percentage?

Government Operations committee  Mr. Bilodeau, do you have any specifics about the costs?

Government Operations committee  I would like to add that, not only has this capacity increased extraordinarily fast, but we also expect it to be useful after the crisis, when work habits will be different.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your patience and for your guidance. Thank you for that very good question, MP Weiler. I think you make allusion to a broad context, in which we have to both provide the benefits and services that Canadians absolutely require in this emergency situation as well as