Public Service leaders have a key role in fostering a culture in the workplace in which employees feel comfortable in using their official language of choice. Together, we have to improve our efforts, including the provision of needed training, to ensure that there is a large enough pool of EXs who have attained the CBC level to sustain our obligations to Canadians and to our employees.

The innovation agenda requires creative, innovative ideas to achieve excellence in policies and services. One avenue for achieving this excellence is to promote a greater diversity of backgrounds, linguistic and ethnic heritage among our employees. We must, therefore, strive to be representative of the Canadian population, with special emphasis on Visible Minorities, where we face a very significant representation gap. In this regard, the government made a firm commitment to the recommendations and spirit of the Embracing Change report, which continues to guide and provide benchmarks for success.

As part of Canada’s knowledge society, the Public Service must be a learning organization that values knowledge and new ideas. Fostering a culture of learning and of sharing knowledge should be part of how we work, how we attract and retain talent, and how we achieve the highest level of performance in serving the government and Canadians. Learning plans and activities for all employees should be important objectives for us all.

We need a more holistic approach to achieving high quality results for Canadians by integrating the principles of modern comptrollership into the overall management of your business lines, including the management of human resources. Building on progress to date, continued personal leadership and attention are needed to further strengthen management practices within your department by achieving demonstrable improvements in:

• linking financial and non-financial information and ensuring integrated performance information is used in decision-making and reflected in reporting to Parliament;

• identifying, assessing and managing corporate risks, with a focus on proactive management of areas of highest risk;

• acting on reviewing, assessing and instituting appropriate systems of control as needed and ensuring delegations of authority are appropriate;

• ensuring employees are supported and reflect a rigorous approach to public service values and ethics in the conduct of their work.