Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I know personally that there are very talented public service employees in my riding of Nepean, in Ottawa-Gatineau, and elsewhere in Canada. These are very highly qualified people, and they have a great deal of expertise. Some have the feeling that they were not involved, and they were not consulted in designing or developing or implementing the system.
I know that one of the root causes for the big mess we are in is the overreliance of the federal government on outside contractors. According to the report, I believe the federal government spent $2.7 billion on IT staffing, bringing in professionals from outside rather than relying on trained public servants.
Alex Benay, Canada's chief information officer, said, “more investment is required in better preparing internal IT staff to address the needs of the [Government of Canada]”. I think that is one of the root causes, in my opinion.
Now, the unions, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, which represents I think about 50,000 employees, wants the government to scrap the Phoenix system and start from scratch. I think PIPSC president, Debi Daviau, said give us a year and we'll build a working replacement for this troubled system. I understand that the Public Service Alliance of Canada is also in support of this.
To the Deputy Minister Marie Lemay, have you had any discussions on this issue?
Please keep it short, as I have a very short time.