Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for the invitation to appear before you this morning to discuss the Phoenix pay system.
As secretary of the Treasury Board, I support the board in its role as the employer of the core public service. In this capacity, my senior management team and I are fully committed to doing our part in ensuring that public service employees are paid accurately. It is an unacceptable situation, one that has touched far too many of our employees.
I would like to thank the Auditor General for his analysis and his recommendations on how to stabilize the pay system. His report is important input into the work underway.
This morning, I would like to address his two recommendations for the Treasury Board Secretariat specifically.
The first is that the secretariat establish, with Public Services and Procurement Canada, timelines for departments and agencies to submit accurate pay information, and that it support PSPC, departments, and agencies in the development of performance measures to track and report on the accuracy and timeliness of pay. We agree with this recommendation. In fact, we have already advanced work towards fulfilling this commitment.
In collaboration with PSPC, we will establish standardized timelines for HR transactions that lead to a pay action by June 30, 2018. We will also work with departments and agencies to establish and implement a comprehensive approach that links the HR world to actual pay processes. To better track and report on pay actions, we will set out performance measures that will be rolled out in fiscal year 2018-19. Finally, we will collaborate with departments and agencies to track and report on key HR metrics, including timeliness of pay.
The Auditor General's second recommendation for TBS is on costs. He recommends that the secretariat, again with the support of PSPC, departments, and agencies, track and report on the cost of resolving pay problems and implementing a sustainable solution for all departments and agencies. We agree with this recommendation.
The comptroller general of Canada is leading a government-wide exercise to better understand the full picture of actual costs.
That work is underway. It is a rigorous process, based on international best practices. It will determine all costs incurred to date and put in place a framework to track future costs. It will involve significant consultation with departments and central agencies to ensure a proper understanding of the data. We expect that exercise to be completed by May 2018.
In closing, let me reiterate that my department and the TBS senior management team are, and have been, fully engaged on this file.
The Auditor General's recommendations and the resulting efforts to address them will contribute significantly to the work that is already underway.
Mr. Chair, this concludes my remarks. I would be pleased to answer the committee's questions.