Government Operations committee  I'll add something quickly on AI. Our members work in AI. They're data scientists. It is a tool that can be leveraged, but it's not there to replace a public servant.

Government Operations committee  I couldn't say it better myself. When those experts leave, it takes years to.... When I joined the public service, I was a CS-1. I learned from the public servants around me, and I built that expertise and knowledge, not just in my IT background but also in how the Canadian government works.

Government Operations committee  When I speak to my members at the CFIA, there isn't duplication. Those folks are already stretched thin. Look at some of the crises that have happened. The fact that we have thousands of food processors who haven't been inspected for years because there aren't enough inspectors at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is problematic.

Government Operations committee  The experts we have at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency want to make sure the food that we ingest, that our children ingest and that our grandchildren ingest is safe to eat. Listen, our members work hand in hand with the folks at the provincial and municipal levels, and they want to continue to do that.

Government Operations committee  No, but I'd love to have that conversation with the government and with the CFIA, if there's something we can do to help. As I said, we have the experts. There's a gentleman I work with daily who is very involved in our union. He is responsible for a lot of the recalls you see for what you shouldn't eat.

Government Operations committee  I'm an IT security professional. I've seen the complexity of IT. It's exponential. The threats the president of SSC was speaking to earlier are getting more complex and more severe. I'm glad we have all of those public servants inside, but if you start hollowing out those folks....

Government Operations committee  I think we're worse off. Cuts were made at the Public Health Agency of Canada in particular. When the pandemic hit, we depended on these people for vaccines and measures to take to avoid contracting COVID‑19. As I said, I think cuts to health and science are harmful. We have researchers and scientists.

Government Operations committee  It's quite possible.

Government Operations committee  We know AI has bias. They've been working for years trying to get it out. AI is not a perfect thing. It is not a silver bullet. To have that reliance on AI.... I hope AI has not been used to find these cuts—maybe it has. The concern we have is that we have not seen concrete examples of the services Canadians rely on every day, in terms of what's going to be cut.

Government Operations committee  I really appreciate the question. If you look at the public service of the eighties and nineties, per capita we're actually smaller than we were back then. We've actually reduced in size from that. I want to thank the government for investing in the public service over the past decade.

Government Operations committee  I do not. I have a hard time believing that we're going to add 40,000 termination cases to the backlog. There's no way that doesn't affect it. I've seen no indication that they're increasing compensation advisers at the pay centre. There's no way that all of these layoffs are going to be reducing that backlog.

Government Operations committee  I do not. I see it first-hand. My father has been dealing with Service Canada through OAS. He's very frustrated. He had to wait an hour on the phone. When he eventually got to the public servant, it was great service, but to wait on the line for that length of time is inappropriate.

Government Operations committee  You gave Phoenix as an example. The goal was to reduce system-related costs by $400 million, it's costing us $5 billion. The government hired an external contractor, and it's costing us more. I can name other contracts and projects that are costing us more. ArriveCAN is another good example of a project given to the private sector.

Government Operations committee  I think it could have a great risk for service standards. When we contract out, we sign a contract with a fixed term, usually with an outside consultant, depending on what service is being provided. My concern is that those service standards could be affected if there's a transition in that contract and we're not building that expertise inside.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. As public servants, we serve—we want to serve—the people of Canada. You speak about those cuts, and we are a service provider. I look at the pride folks have. I'm going to mention researchers for a second, if you don't mind. We have researchers who have received layoff notices, and some of them are taking a voluntary departure, but they want to make sure that their research is completed.