Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, am going to be supporting the motion for all the reasons you’ve already heard today.
In addition to that, one of the areas that concerns me is.... I’m of the understanding that the employees who are targeted to be eliminated have been told they stand a really good chance of getting a job with the contractors and that they shouldn’t be too awfully worried about their future because they’ll be working.
That disturbs me. That suggests to me that they aren’t valued by this government. By being removed from the government and sent to a non-government employer, they’ll lose their pensions. We can’t guarantee their salary is going to be the same. They’ve become comfortable with what they know, which is what they get paid. They are earning a pension; they’re long-term employees. If they leave our employ and get a job with a private contractor, that’s great — at least they’ll be employed — but they won’t have the same benefits and advantages they do right now, which demonstrates to me that maybe we don’t value our employees as our most important resource.
In addition to all the other reasons, that’s one of the reasons I’m supporting this motion.