In 1997 or thereabouts, work began on a project to overhaul the compensation and pension system. The project was quite ambitious. We wanted to come up with our own solutions to compensation and pension problems and then, to integrate the two systems.
Our solution today is far more modest in scope. We have decided to keep the two components separate because integrating them is extremely complicated. We plan to use automated systems already on the market. All that will remain is to configure them to take into account provisions in collective agreements.
In 2001-2002, we were forced to end the project started in 1997. This led to a court case which took several years to settle. That explains why Public Works had to wait several years before refocussing on the problem. Basically, that is what we are doing at this time. Resolving the pension problem will help considerably to alleviate the workload of compensation advisors. Part of the work is centralized in Shediac.