Government Operations Committee on March 1st, 2022

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Just on that theme, what is your department doing to ensure a more accessible workplace for those with disabilities, under the theme of human rights, environment, and social and corporate governance principles?

[Samantha Tattersall]

In terms of what we as a department are doing for accessibility, I might turn to my colleague Karen Cahill.

With respect to the mandate commitments, we are currently looking at how we could update our procurement policies to better embed principles around human trafficking and ethical procurement.

Maybe Karen has something to add in terms of accessibility and what we're doing at TBS.

[Marie-Chantal Girard]

Actually, I can answer this. Thank you, Samantha.

I will supplement by saying that the TBS office for accessibility was mandated to help the public service get ready to implement the Accessible Canada Act. Its “Nothing without us: An accessibility strategy for the Public Service of Canada” was co-developed with persons with disabilities to be a road map. If we want to make the public service a leader and a model in this field, one key element of the strategy is to improve recruitment, retention and promotion of employees with disabilities. As the country's largest employer, as I said before, we can certainly make a major difference in that regard.

The Government of Canada has identified a target of 5,000 new employees with disabilities to be hired by 2025.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Do I have any more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

No, your time is up. The bell is going.

We'll go to Mrs. Vignola for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is about the Phoenix system, given that some people in my riding are still being affected by these problems. People in Vancouver and some towns in Quebec have been writing to me about this.

We have been dealing with the Phoenix system for six years. The number of cases with arrears owing has grown to 141,000. During the pandemic, we were constantly being told that in the current month, 400,000 actions had been taken in cases. That told us absolutely nothing, however, about how many cases had been resolved.

The department has also negotiated to get compensation agreements signed, but are there still people to be compensated?

For the 141,000 cases in the Phoenix system in which there are arrears, what can people expect, in concrete terms?

Some people are waiting for $756, but others are waiting for $40,000. After six years, this makes no sense. I would not wish this on anyone.

[Marie-Chantal Girard]

I can begin, and perhaps my colleague, Madame Cahill, will want to supplement.

Our colleagues at Shared Services Canada, or SSC, are working hard on this. Since we started trying to solve this problem collectively, several thousands of rules and updates have been added to the system, and we know that it is stabilizing. That doesn't mean that the queue is getting shorter, because there are movements every day, at a large employer like the public service. However, there are updates, and the system is more stable than it was.

Among the series of things we have done, we have imposed a moratorium that allowed us to freeze or postpone vacations and overtime. We have also postponed repayment of overpayments. We are doing a series of things to make sure, at Treasury Board, that the pay environment is stable and allows us to manage the queued transactions. We know that an employee may have more than one transaction in the queue.

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

Can you complete your answer...

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

I'm sorry for interrupting, but unfortunately our time is up.

We'll now go to Mr. Johns, for two and a half minutes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I'm going to follow up on that. It's been six years since the start of the debacle with Phoenix. One in three workers is still having problems getting paid.

Why has the government been unable, or unwilling, to fix this problem over the last six years? It's pretty sad when government is spending money on consultants to fix the problems created by consultants.

[Marie-Chantal Girard]

As we see another anniversary of this situation, I know this is an issue that the government and all of us have committed to address and take on very seriously and diligently. We have taken action on many fronts to provide flexibility and to minimize the financial impacts on employees who have experienced these issues.

I gave a couple of examples. We also have repayment options. We have the moratorium, and we also have training that is being provided to our employees—not consultants—to address those situations that—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I only have time for one more question.

These employees are under a lot of pressure. They've done incredible work during COVID, like yourselves, and I appreciate it. We know public sector employees are feeling the pinch. There is also the rising cost of living and rising prices. PSAC has put forward a wage proposal for more than 110,000 public service workers who are seeing a reflection of those skyrocketing prices. We know there's a labour market shortage, increasing salaries to compete with, and recruitment is a big deal.

Will Treasury Board commit to raising salaries in the public sector that at least match inflation?

[Marie-Chantal Girard]

Almost 99% of agreements have been settled within the 2018 round. We are just beginning the 2021 round of collective bargaining. Indeed, we have a number of unions that have tabled notice to bargain. Usually, it happens in the short term after the collective agreement expires.

PSAC, which represents over 120,000 employees, has tabled a notice to bargain, as has the Professional Institute. We are starting discussions with them. We are actively at the table, and we are discussing both monetary and non-monetary provisions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

We'll now to go Mr. McCauley, for five minutes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Very quickly, of the $8 billion, how much is actually going to be spent on rapid testing? I thought it was $4 billion, but I thought I heard someone say $2.5 billion.

How much will be spent on rapid tests between supplementary estimates (C), Bill C-10, and Bill C-8?

[Annie Boudreau]

In total, $4 billion will be spent.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Perfect.

Whose decision was it to delay the publication of the public accounts and then reopen them, add in the money, and then further delay them and not publish them until later?

Was that a minister decision, or a deputy minister decision? Whose decision was it?

[Annie Boudreau]

I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Monia, to answer that question.

[Monia Lahaie]

Thank you.

It's our responsibility to ensure that the public accounts are representing the true value—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Right, but they were signed off on in September.

Whose decision was it to delay publishing them, and then whose decision was it to reopen them? It had to be one person. Or was it a group decision? Who decided, please?

[Monia Lahaie]

The officials decided—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Which officials, please?

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

With all due respect to my very good friend, Mr. McCauley, please allow the witness to respond, because the translation is going to be very hard.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I have a limited amount of time, Mr. Jowhari. I appreciate that, but I would also appreciate a straight answer.