Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to follow-up on issues I raised earlier in question period. In particular, I would like to raise an issue that has to do with the Phoenix payroll system.
Simply put, thousands of civilian members of the RCMP have been told that the government is keen to transition them over to the Phoenix payroll system. Currently, they are paid on the payroll system of the RCMP, which has not had the problems that Phoenix has had. Those problems are legion. We know of cases in Elmwood—Transcona of federal public servants who have had their homes put in jeopardy and serious strain put on their families. Civilian members of the RCMP do not want to be put in that same boat and, I think quite reasonably, just want to wait until Phoenix is actually fixed before they are transitioned over.
At one time in the life of this Parliament, the former president of the Treasury Board made a commitment that civilian members of the RCMP would not be transitioned over to the Phoenix payroll system until it was fixed. In fact, a memo went out that said that initiative was indefinitely suspended. Unfortunately, sometime after that, another memo went out saying that it had simply been postponed and that in the spring of 2020, civilian members of the RCMP would be transitioned over.
This week, we heard that an internal government memo estimated that it may take up to 10 years to fix the Phoenix payroll system, and it will certainly take four or five years. For those who are not great at math, it means that the spring of 2020 will come long before the government itself estimates that Phoenix will be fixed. It is quite reasonable that civilian members of the RCMP want to wait until that is over.
Therefore, I am looking for some reassurance from the government today that it will wait until it has Phoenix right before it puts the pay of thousands of civilian members of the RCMP, who do great work on behalf of and for Canadians, in jeopardy. That is what I am here to ask. Would the government kindly wait until Phoenix is fixed to make this transition so they are not subjected to undue strain because of the payroll system?