Evidence of meeting #81 for Public Accounts in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was problems.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:30 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Let me be very clear on this. I've said it from the beginning. I'm sorry if I didn't say it—
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Let me correct you. You never once in committee, until November 29 of last year, brought that up. In all your other previous appearances, it never came up, until November 29.
10:35 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I apologize if I wasn't clear, because it was an issue from the beginning. We started satellite offices. We had a “we hire” sign, starting on June 17. We've tried so many ways to get compensation advisers. We had to work with the unions to be able to bring people back. We had a letter from the clerk. There's nobody left in terms of compensation advisers. It has been a struggle to get the people and to on-board them.
I want to be clear. To me, it is the number one issue to take the pain away from the people, because if we'd had 700 people trained when we went live, we wouldn't be having these discussions.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Let me stop you there. If we knew about it, why did we go ahead and do it?
10:35 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
You know how the workforce works. When you let somebody go, you have to tell them 22 months earlier that their job is affected.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
However, if we knew it was going to be a problem, why did we go ahead and press the button? Through the Chair—
10:35 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
People had started leaving. People were already in other jobs. People were already ready to go. At the time, all the risks were assessed, everything that you raised with colleagues. We talked to the departments. They had less and less staff able to do pay, so all these things came into account in the decision, but I am convinced that if we had 700 people fully trained when we went live, we'd still have had efficiency issues, HR process issues, but people would not feel the pain the way they feel it today.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
I think our time is up, Mr. McCauley.
I want to thank all of you. I'm not so certain that I feel better after this meeting than I did when we began, so I think you can assume that you will be invited back fairly soon and that we will want to see some of those answers prior to that. It would be very much appreciated that we get those answers as soon as possible.
We are going to suspend this part of the meeting. Please make an exit as soon as possible.
We are going to go in camera, which means that committee members are allowed one staffer each, plus their whips.
We are suspended.
[Proceedings continue in camera]