Judy Foote says feds will spend what it takes to fix Phoenix pay problems

Just two weeks after the price tag to fix the federal payroll system ballooned from $25 million to $50 million, the minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada says the government will spend whatever it takes to get Phoenix back on track.

"If we go over, we go over," Judy Foote told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning on Thursday.

"From my perspective, I need to do what needs to be done to fix the system. We need to make sure that employees get paid for work performed."

After Phoenix launched across the country, employees — particularly students, short-term workers and those on parental leave — began reporting pay problems. By July, the government acknowledged more than 80,000 public servants have experienced some pay problems, with the majority being underpaid, while some have been overpaid or not paid at all.

The backlog is now down to about 57,500 cases.

'What I have to focus on now is fixing the problem'

Asked by host Robyn Bresnahan about not being briefed on one of two independent reports prepared about Phoenix, Foote said she was told a third wave of preparatory rollout, in which both the old system and Phoneix would run simultaneously, would have cost too much.

The government-ordered report by Gartner Consulting, which Foote was not shown, appears to point out a wider range of concerns than the analysis the minister received, including a warning about the "accuracy and timeliness of pay."

It does not say the Phoenix launch should have been stopped, but does offer suggestions to mitigate risks, including slowing down the roll out process.

Foote said Thursday she can't be focused on blame or what happened in the past.

"But now I have the information I need to fix the problem," she said. "What you're talking about is what happened months ago. What I have to focus on now is fixing the problem."

Listen to the entire interview with Foote here.

Lack of training, employees

But as she has in the past, Foote did lay some blame on the previous Conservative government, which made the decision to replace a 40-year-old pay system with the new Phoenix system.

"Nobody would question" that the pay system needed to be modernized, Foote said.

"But the reality is that if you're going to be going down that path, you have to make sure that you have the resources there to enable you to accomplish that vision. You don't take savings out of the system before you've actually accomplished what you set out to do. And that is what happened here," she said, adding that 700 compensation adviser positions were terminated.

"I think the basic problem here is that when the previous government decided to go with Phoenix, the proper training wasn't done, there was a lot of information that needed to be worked on that wasn't and I think the reality is that they tried to implement a system without a sufficient number of employees, without the proper training of the employees who will be doing the work, and we're finding ourselves now in a situation where, instead of trying to save 70 million dollars, which is what the previous government tried to do, we're not going to do that."

Foote also reiterated earlier comments that when it came time to roll out the system, there was no going back.

"This has been in the works for seven years and it was up to the point where, when I was told it was ready to go, I was told everything that could possibly have been done to have a smooth roll out had been done. Will there be challenges? Of course there will always be challenges with a payroll system," she said.

'This all existed prior to Phoenix'

Foote also said that prior to the rollout of Phoenix, the Liberal government inherited a backlog of 40,000 cases of people experiencing the same problems with their pay, specifically with overtime, new hires, job transitions and student hires.

"This all existed prior to Phoenix. Does that make it acceptable now? Absolutely not. And I am hoping that the intent was that we would have a better payroll system once Phoenix was up and running properly," she said.

Asked by Bresnahan whether she sometimes thinks she has the worst job in cabinet, Foote said she likes working on behalf of Canadians.

"This is a job that I relish. I think it's important to do what needs to be done. But what really is heartbreaking for me is when I see individuals who are hurting through no fault of their own."