Government Operations Committee on June 9th, 2020

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Sorry, the two million were the masks that did not meet the Public Health Agency of Canada's specifications and were delivered out to other government departments.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

What percentage of the N95 masks that have come into Canada were deemed not acceptable for the purpose of what they were ordered for, please?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'm going to ask my deputy minister to respond to the question relating to percentage.

[Bill Matthews]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The member has referred to the website, so of the N95 on the website, the 12.2 million, those are all in and accepted, tested, and good to go.

The quality issues the member referred to related to the ones that have not passed testing. There are 10 million in Canada of those. They're not included in that number.

The minister already referred to the number of those that have gone outside and been distributed.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Have we prepaid for any masks for an order that we have not received, or perhaps the order's been cancelled, as in we've prepaid for masks and we've lost the money?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

We have a number of contracts in place for N95 masks. In the terms of those contracts, we are not paying for masks that we cannot use—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you, Minister.

My apologies for interrupting, but if there's an additional answer for Mr. McCauley, I would ask you to put that in writing and deliver it as soon as possible through our clerk.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

That was my answer. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you, Minister. Perhaps you could move your microphone an inch or two further away from your mouth. Our interpreters are getting a bit of feedback.

Thank you very much. We'll see how that works.

We'll now go to Mr. MacKinnon for six minutes, please.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Through you to the minister, I thank you for pointing out that it's your third time at this committee. I want to salute the transparency that I know you take very seriously and bring to this committee every time you're here.

Can you tell us quickly how, from your vantage point, domestic capacity with respect to PPE is ramping up?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much for the question.

Domestic capacity has been a priority for our government so that we can have multiple, co-terminous supply chains operating in order to have short- and long-term capacity for PPE domestically available. We are partnering with Canadian industry to rapidly scale up and retool production capacity. Our goal is to be overprepared. We're building capacity in anticipation of future needs right across the country. While we continue to receive shipments internationally, we are working to source as much supply as possible from domestic manufacturers. As we move into the next phase of this crisis, we will ensure that we have domestic capacity producing the range of items that we list on our web page: face masks, gloves, face shields, N95 surgical masks, and the like.

Last week we also launched a request for proposal for the purchase of 50 million disposable, non-medical face masks, and for this RFP, there's a dedicated stream for indigenous businesses. You can see how we are moving to additional means of procurement, additional phases of procurements, as we progress through these months to ensure that we have domestic capacity but are also able to diversify within that stream.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you very much. That's an important clarification for all of us.

Your statement contained an update on the Phoenix pay system. I know because of COVID and other things we haven't probably spent enough time discussing that.

I see Mr. Linklater is accompanying you today. Could you perhaps update this committee on the progress that has been made during the COVID pandemic on the Phoenix pay system and on that backlog?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thanks for that important question. The Phoenix pay system remains top of mind for our government even during this crisis, because federal employees deserve to be paid accurately and on time.

I'm going to hand the floor over to Les Linklater in a moment, but I just want to mention that since January 2018 the backlog of financial transactions has decreased by 64%. That is 247,000 transactions, down from 384,000 to 137,000 pending transactions, which is remarkable. I thank our pay centre employees for their hard work in allowing us to see a steady decline in the queue during the past couple of months.

Les Linklater, do you have anything further to add?

[Les Linklater, Associate Deputy Minister, Human Resources-to-Pay Stabilization, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

Thank you for the question.

Since COVID hit, we have not had to invoke our business continuity plan. Staff have been teleworking very effectively. With the results of the most recent public dashboard on Phoenix posted today, over the course of both April and May the queue has been reduced by about 27,000 transactions. As the minister said, there are 137,000 financial impact transactions beyond our normal workload currently at the pay centre, and we are continuing to see a downward trend despite the issues of remote work and telework.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Minister and Mr. Linklater.

Mr. Drouin and I represent constituencies where many public servants live. Madam Minister, we are very pleased with the efforts made.

I would like to ask one last question, because I suspect my time is almost up.

This year’s tax season has been postponed to June 1. With respect to the Phoenix pay system and the erroneous T4 slips that may have been issued over the past few years, could one of you compare this year to previous years?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much.

I'll let Les Linklater take this question.

[Les Linklater]

This year we have issued over 500,000 T4s and Relevé 1 tax slips to public servants across the country. As the member is no doubt aware, the amendment of T4s is a regular course of business when we're dealing with changes to pay and looking at a number of factors that feed into that.

For comparative purposes, for tax year 2019 we issued about 50,000 revised T4s, which compares to over 200,000 for tax year 2017. We have seen improvements in the stability of the system and a significant decrease in the number of revisions to T4s. As we move into tax filing deadlines for this year, we believe that number will continue to be much lower than it has been in the past.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Ms. Vignola.

You have six minutes.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Anand, some employees have had problems with Phoenix. It is common knowledge. They were transferred to a department not served by the Pay Centre.

I have been told that these individuals have not been getting answers about their salary fluctuations. As of April 29, 26 departments had not transferred their pay transaction data to Public Services and Procurement Canada, or PSPC.

How does PSPC ensure that it receives a complete and realistic picture of payroll transactions?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you very much for your question, Mrs. Vignola.

Our priority is to ensure that public servants receive timely and accurate pay. The Pay Centre and the Pension Centre are essential, and we have the resources to ensure that their services are provided without interruption.

However, with regard to your question, I am going to ask my colleague Mr. Linklater if he has an answer. If not, we will have to answer you in writing.

Do you have an answer now, Mr. Linklater?

[Les Linklater]

Thank you for your questions.

Of course, there are still payroll problems all over the government, but they are decreasing day by day. We have established governance to ensure that information is shared. Work-wise, we are in close contact with the departments not served by the Pay Centre to make sure that payroll information accompanies people as they move around in government.

In cases of particular problems and issues for a specific individual, we can ensure expeditious processing of the file as needed. For day-to-day issues, we have set up a pilot project to determine how to better deal with the backlog of employee transfers.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

That does not answer my question. I will repeat it.

As of April 29, only 27 of the 53 departments not served by the Pay Centre had transferred their pay transaction data.

How do you get a complete and accurate picture, when almost half of the departments have not transferred any data?

[Les Linklater]

If I understand your question correctly, we have developed tools that we are continuing to refine and they give us the means to work with departments on a bilateral basis. We therefore make sure that they have the information on their own files and on the issues within their departments, so that they can deal with their employees’ payroll issues with PSPC.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

All right.

The 26 departments that did not transfer their pay transaction data are therefore not included in the overall picture you provide.

[Les Linklater]

Yes, that is true. Some small departments have their own challenges, and we may not have all the data on the small agencies. That is right.