Evidence of meeting #25 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cases.
A video is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes, and they have been assigned to those four offices.
September 19th, 2016 / 5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
You have also provided additional training sessions because the initial training was not adequate. Is that correct?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We provided training sessions for the compensation advisors. We also held some for the human resources people. We have dedicated teams that are going from department to department to discuss the three priority issues that were raised by the users, in order to make the system operational.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
I believe that the IBM software supplier was also asked to make improvements. Is that the case?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Precisely.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
So there are four new temporary offices, and additional training and fees. To pick up on my colleague Mr. Falk's question, how much has this cost Canadian taxpayers up till now?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We estimate the costs at $50 million.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Are we talking about $50 million up till now?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes, that is the estimate we have currently. Of this amount, as we mentioned, $25 million has gone to the satellite offices opened in Gatineau, Montreal, Shawinigan, and for our call centre in Toronto. That amounts to $25 million. Our estimate—in order to be very conservative—covers the period until the month of March, that is to say the end of the fiscal year.
In addition, an amount of close to $6 million has been allocated to the work of IBM. We are now asking them to work 24/7. They are working evenings and nights. We are also making adjustments to the system to improve its functionality.
Finally, an amount of $16.1 million has been allocated to additional resources, in order to manage complaints and get work done 24/7 in many cases. This comes to a total of $50 million.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Out of that $50 million, $25 million was used to open four temporary offices?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
And the call centre.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
And the call centre. And then there was an amount of...
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
There was $5.7 million for IBM.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
This amount of $5.7 million is for the consultant?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It is for IBM.
Conservative
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
And the amount of $16.1 million—
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Let's talk about that amount of $16.1 million.
Can you explain to me what this $16.1 million will be used for?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We have put a lot of elements in place since the Phoenix system was launched. Among other things, we had to create a whole team to manage the questions and complaints we received, to ensure that we could manage them well and answer them properly. We are providing training. This amount will cover all of the training we offer, either to the departments, the compensation advisors, or others. We also have an internal team that provides support to IBM. We work together.
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Out of this amount, Ms. Lemay, I believe one part has already been committed and the other will be by the end of the fiscal year. So with this sum, you feel you will be able to eliminate the famous backlog by October 31.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes. And may I add, to make sure we understand each other, that there are 82,000 cases in the backlog, or, rather, 82,000 employees.
We never said—
Conservative
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
That is correct, but there were 82,000 employees at the outset. I want to make sure that people understand that we never said that as of November 1, all problems would be solved. We know that there will be a transition period after October 31, when we will have to adjust our capacity in order to verify the stability of the system, and see how many compensation advisors we will need, and how many teams we will need with the new system. Once people are used to using it properly—
Conservative
Steven Blaney Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Ms. Lemay, the amount of $50 million adds to the cost of implementing the Phoenix system. What had been forecast for the new Phoenix system?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It was a $309-million project.