Thank you for your invitation to appear today. Our president, Chris Aylward, sends his regrets.
PSAC has several recommendations for the 2019 federal budget, which were outlined in our written submission.
The Phoenix pay system is still a matter of great concern to our members and everyone who works in the federal public service. We are in ongoing discussions with the government about damages, among other issues. However, the 2018 federal budget failed to provide a plan to allocate its funding commitments related to Phoenix into the future. What is more, the funding was insufficient to ensure that federal workers are paid correctly, and to compensate them for the damages Phoenix has caused.
The 2019 budget must include sufficient funding for proper compensation. It must include funding for the development and thorough testing of any new system, and funding for the human resources needed to support the current Phoenix system and any new system going forward.
Another big concern is the use of public-private partnerships, or P3s, for federal services and infrastructure. Evidence shows that P3s do not result in cost savings or reduced risks because the public has to pick up the pieces when the private partner fails. The Phoenix disaster tells that story very well. Around the world governments are moving away from the P3 model because cost-benefit analysis supports fully public infrastructure investments. The government certainly does not need P3s, given the lower borrowing costs afforded to it.
We recommend that the government cancel current procurement processes for P3 infrastructure and reissue them as design-build requests with public sector workers providing the operation and maintenance of those facilities. We also recommend that the government develop a process to terminate contracts for other existing P3s and return them wholly to the public service to operate and maintain.
Now I want to touch on precarious or non-standard work, a type of work that is increasingly common in Canada. In the federal public service, 15.3% of employees are categorized as term, casual, or student. This number does not include workers who are self-employed or employed by companies that contract to the federal government, such as temporary-help agencies. While information about the actual contracts and payments to these contractors is available, nowhere in the government reporting is there a consistent and comprehensive tracking of the people who make up this substantial portion of the workforce. This is a reflection of poor oversight.
We recommend the government reduce, with a goal of eliminating, the use of temporary-help agency workers and other types of external contract personnel within the federal public service. Further, we recommend developing and implementing, in consultation with public sector unions, a system-wide process for the comprehensive tracking and reporting on the use of temporary-help agencies and other external contract personnel.
Now a word about pay equity and the legislation we expect the government to table this fall. If this new law is to be effective, there needs to be funding attached to it. Both the 2004 federal pay equity task force and the more recent special House of Commons committee on pay equity called for a federal pay equity commission and a pay equity tribunal, both of which will require funding. Informing and educating employers, unions and employees of their rights and responsibilities as well as enforcing the new law will require funding. We expect to see this funding included in the 2019 budget.
Finally, we have a recommendation about child care. The 2018 federal budget acknowledged that women's participation in the paid labour force has been one of the most powerful sources of economic growth in recent decades. In order to provide the type of child care system that actually advances gender equality and yields economic returns, the government must go forward and beyond its multi-year allocation plan. PSAC supports increasing federal child care funding by $1 billion annually until we meet the accepted international benchmark of 1% of GDP annually on early learning and child care. We also support providing conditional federal transfers to the provinces and ensuring the funding goes directly to public and not-for-profit providers.
Thank you. We'll be pleased to address any of your questions.