Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a number of areas I would like to make some remarks on. One is the number of employees we have cut. When we do that substantial amount of elimination of employees, I have not really seen our government eliminate any programs, and it places a great deal of stress, when you downsize by the percentage we have, on the rest of the employees to carry on with the programs. I am concerned we are continuing on with all the programs we once had, and we have not eliminated any thing. The other area I am concerned with is employee morale. There is still, and always has been, and it's continuing, an employee morale problem. The employees are facing an unknown. I guess they are saying to themselves, "at what point do we find out whether we have a job or not?" There is job insecurity.
Also, there are the southern hires. Several senior positions have been filled by people from southern Canada, and to me, that does not express a great deal of confidence in our existing staff to be promoted from within.
Now that we have combined departments, how do we know that we are running efficiently? For instance, in the RWED, who is keeping tabs as to whether this is working, whether this is working efficiently.
The item of division has always been of concern to me, and the concern is the speed at which we want to transfer over to Nunavut, all the programs and the people. And I am concerned about security for staff, and whether they will have jobs, whether the people in Nunavut will have jobs.
Also, the ongoing relationship when division takes place. Affirmative action is an area of real concern to me, because many people in my constituency have raised, week in, week out, question with regard to when we are going to deal with it. There is criticism of the program, and I think it is good that we bring it forward.
And I am looking forward, with enthusiasm, to the job strategy program. Thank you.