Thank you very much to the minister and all the members of the panel for being here today.
Of course, we didn't really want to be back here today for this update. This committee was told the problem would be resolved by October 31, and yet here we are.
It's most concerning that we still have 15,000 employees who are experiencing difficulties. Also, what's going to be coming down the road is concerning, with all of the adjustments that have to be made to employee pay. Having worked in a payroll department myself some time ago, I can just imagine the T4s and having to deal with the out-of-pocket expenses.
I do commend you on being proactive in calling on the Auditor General to conduct an audit into the Phoenix pay system. I know, from sitting on the public accounts committee, that this would have been our concern, as well, given the amount of taxpayer funds this represents.
I'm somebody who likes to go to the root causes of problems, so what really concerns me in all of this is that it could have been avoided, to a large extent. I think back to the fact that you had to rehire experienced people and less-experienced people. I can just imagine that staff who were let go two years ago, prior to the transformation taking place, were experienced staff. They probably went off and found other jobs, and when it came time to address this lack of capacity, you had to go out and find people, hire them back and train new people, leading to even more problems down the road.
Minister, could you talk about how difficult that was in just trying to roll back the compensation department to where it needed to be, including the satellite department in Miramichi?