Another thing we find a bit shocking is that according to the official position, which we learned from newspaper articles, memos were sent out within the Department of National Defence, for example, to require that pay advisers get their Phoenix system training and present proof of their certificate of completion in October, because only about half of the pay advisers had completed it at that point. It had not been made mandatory at the start, apparently.
My question, Minister, is this. Halloween was the date set for clearing the backlog. If we go back a bit earlier, on September 19 you said there was no reason to believe that the backlog wouldn't be cleared by October 31. How could you say that then when half of the pay advisers had not even received the formal training for the program they were meant to be using?