I think it was straightforwardly explained in my introductory remarks, but for the sake of clarity, McKinsey was engaged in 2018 and 2020 for particular kinds of work, first to assess the processes internally on how we deal with cases that come through the department and to help develop a strategy that would allow us to move towards a digital system. Subsequent to the initial work that was performed, McKinsey was retained again to help build capacity within IRCC so that we could do the work ourselves going forward to implement a digital transformation that they helped develop the guidelines around the process for.
What's important is that we understand it's ordinary for federal departments and public servants at different levels to engage consulting firms, but it's really also important to understand that this is not a displacement of the work that the public service does. When you want to deal with a time-limited initiative without expanding the overall size of the public service, that could be one reason to think about using an external group.
The other reason, which I think is essential to understand, is that it's appropriate to do so when you could use additional skills that may not currently be present within the department. There are tremendously talented public servants who have digital skills, but the retention at McKinsey actually helped us grow that pool of talent to position us better as we migrate from a largely paper-based system towards a digital system. We're starting to see certain digital features roll out, and over the next few years, we'll have a fully digital system at IRCC.