First of all, thank you.
I completely understand your frustration and the difficult situation we've put your constituents in. I can assure you that in no way by suggesting that people were getting their base pay but not other types of pay was I trying to be disrespectful of the position we've put them in. I apologize if that was how it came across.
I think we have to be mindful that this will not take nine years to resolve. The math I was starting to give your colleague had to do with...if you see a 24% reduction over four months in three departments, that's not nine years, if you can reduce the other 70-odd per cent in the next year or so. We don't know if that's going to be the same result as we roll out the pilot project. We also know that there are some departments—and you have a nexus of them in your riding between DND and Coast Guard—that have extraordinary challenges with both their HR systems and how their systems interface with pay and how they input their data.
One of the things we know is that this isn't just a matter of technology in pay; this is a matter of HR. Departments are regularly submitting their HR data late, which puts a stress on Phoenix that adds a complication. As soon as a transaction becomes retroactive because it's late, Phoenix doesn't like that. Now Phoenix shouldn't behave that way, but it does. The effort we're making with all departments is to ensure that their data is inputted on time and accurately.