Madam Speaker, again I rise in the House to speak about the perpetual nightmare that is the Phoenix pay system, which continues to impact Parks Canada employees in my riding of Kootenay—Columbia.
It has now been over three years since this disaster was forced upon the public service. Despite never working from the beginning, those who implemented the system received performance bonuses. Meanwhile, thousands of hard-working public servants have not been paid what they have earned, when it is owed to them.
This pay system was ill-conceived from the beginning. It was taken off the shelf, with no consideration given to special circumstances such as acting pay, overtime or leave without pay. Parks Canada employees were especially impacted because many of them work under different pay statuses throughout the year, going from full time in the summer to part time or casual in the shoulder seasons. Every change in status brings concern to staff. Will they get paid next week? Will Phoenix issue a seemingly random payment amount?
My colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé brought up a Parks Canada Phoenix case from her riding yesterday during question period. That Parks Canada worker has not been paid since March. This week, and it is only Wednesday evening, I have received two new Phoenix casework files in my office, both from Parks Canada employees.
The NDP has raised this issue many times, both in and out of the House, since the problems started cropping up. We have proposed solutions, like paying employees the amounts owed directly to them, while keeping records. That way, hard-working Canadians are accurately paid the funds that they are owed by their employer.
It is starting to feel like these suggestions, these pleas, are falling on deaf ears. How many more times will constituents have to contact their MPs when they are at the end of their ropes, both financially and emotionally?
The previous Conservative government touted that the Phoenix pay system would save millions of dollars per year. Instead it is estimated that the government has spent more than $1.1 billion dealing with this broken system, and that number continues to grow. That is money that could have been spent improving the lives of Canadians or dealing with the climate crisis, if the Liberals had not rushed to roll out the Phoenix pay system despite warnings that it was not ready. Conservative and Liberal governments both own a piece of this failed system.
The Treasury Board president was quoted in a CBC article this morning saying, “We may have to have the old system in parallel with the new pay experiments as we go forward.” What are “pay experiments”? Meanwhile, we still do not know how long it will take to replace Phoenix or how much this debacle will cost.
When a new system is implemented, the government must ensure employee files are 100% accurate before they are transferred to the new system. Otherwise, errors will persist.
I do not want this to be a totally negative speech, so I want to take a minute to thank the Parks Canada employees and other federal public servants who have continued to provide excellent public service to Canadians while suffering under what at times must seem like a horror system. Their loyalty to Canada and their commitment to serving our country must be recognized and should be rewarded in collective agreements.
It is shameful that the government of a developed G7 country cannot pay its own employees properly and that it has let this problem persist for more than three years.
How will the government ensure that Phoenix's replacement is delivered in a timely way and will not be another failed, expensive experiment?