Comme je l'ai dit, sénateur, le gouvernement voulait réduire ses programmes, les ministères ont vu leurs budgets réduits d'un montant donné et nous devions trouver un moyen de réduire la masse salariale afin de permettre aux ministères d'atteindre ces objectifs. Nous avons conclu que l'érosion des effectifs ne suffirait pas.
As I said, senator, the key was that the government had program reductions, departments had their budgets reduced by a set amount, and we had to find a way to ensure that the wage bill was reduced in time to allow the departments to achieve those objectives, and the conclusion was that natural attrition would not accomplish that.