Mr. Speaker, today I rise in this House to talk further on the devastating impacts of the Phoenix pay system. On October 4, I asked a question for the people of my riding of North Island—Powell River and too many of them are still waiting for answers. Across my riding, multiple people are struggling because they are not getting paid. In the past week alone, we have had to open four new files.
I want to share with members the stories of the constituents in my riding. I have constituents who have been told that they must wait until they can prove that they are going to default on payments to be made a priority. Constituents have not been paid because the system has incorrectly identified them as terminated or as having reduced hours, so people are showing up for work every day, doing their jobs, and not being paid because of a glitch in the system. One constituent told me that she was grateful to friends who have had the family over to feed them because they simply cannot afford enough food.
What is most concerning is that we have had more cases come into our office, not fewer. There are some people in my riding who have not been paid in multiple months, there are some who have not been paid any of their overtime, and there are some who have not been paid in full. In fact, a constituent today came to the office and said that because of a mix-up this individual is actually being told that he or she owes money that has not yet been paid. Too many constituents in my riding, as well as people across Canada, have been left with little to no income for an extended period of time. How twisted and unethical can this get? It is embarrassing that the Canadian government is not meeting these basic obligations.
I was an employer for over eight years. If I had not paid my staff, I would have been fired by my board.
My constituents and I have many questions. I am hoping that tonight the member opposite can share with this House the reasoning for the government to ask for proof of financial default to pay its own employees. Can the member explain to me and my constituents why people are being identified as terminated while working and working well, might I add, at their jobs? Can the member opposite explain why families have to be dependent on others for their basic necessities? How broke do employees have to be to get their hard-earned compensation?
At this time, let us take a step back and look at the numbers. We know that the federal government has missed its self-imposed deadline to clear a backlog of 82,000 public service payroll cases. Further, we know that there are 22,000 unresolved cases. Here is my concern. Those numbers represent only the cases as of July. What about the cases since then, like the ones coming through my office?
People in my riding are feeling desperate and the uncertainty is creating significant stress on individuals and their families. Trying to walk through this complex process where their financial existence is always on the edge is reckless to ask of people who work so hard for our public service.
We need to know. Has there been a new backlog of cases growing since July 1, so that the government has missed its self-imposed deadline, which in itself is a fraction of the actual cases that need to be solved? Can we get a clear answer from the government? My constituents deserve an answer and they deserve it now.