Public Service Modernization

Background information

June 13, 2001

The Honourable Lucienne Robillard
President of the Treasury Board
L’Esplanade Laurier, 9^th Floor
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0R5

Dear Minister Robillard :

After 18 months and after expending a million dollars of public money, the Fryer Committee has presented its Report to the Secretary of the Treasury Board.

As I understand it, your government considers the Fryer Committee Report to be the property of Treasury Board. As a result, the Report will only be considered by Quail if it is officially forwarded with comments and opinions from Treasury Board. While it is your prerogative not to forward the Report, I believe it is the wrong approach. In my opinion, the Quail Task Force should have to consider the Fryer Report in its entirety.

Moreover, and since the Fryer Committee Report was undertaken with public funds, and is already in the public domain, I believe that it should be tabled in Parliament. As a result, the PSAC’s official response to the Fryer Committee Report calls on you to facilitate a Parliamentary Committee review of the Report this fall.

We have taken this position in the full knowledge that neither your government nor the PSAC are likely to fully support all of the recommendations advanced by Fryer. That said, they provide the basis for a reasoned discussion on public service reform. A discussion that needs to take place under the auspices of parliamentarians, the people ultimately responsible for the establishment of a framework for labour-management relations in the federal public sector.

Sincerely,

Nycole Turmel

National President