Government Operations committee  I almost want to ask you who put her in the system, but I'm not going to go there.

Government Operations committee  We are aware, definitely, of the military issue. Maybe you want to speak to that quickly.

Government Operations committee  In answer to your question, then, we are aware of many issues, which we are addressing. That's why it's so important that employees reach out to us, if they are having a problem. I can't guarantee you today that we are aware of 100% of the issues. If we don't know about one.... That's why it's so important.

Government Operations committee  Right now, with the centres and everything, we feel that we have the resources. But I can tell you that our minister has told us that she wants this fixed and that it's for us to come up with the solutions. We're not being held back as to resources to put this to bed. Right now, the thing we'll be monitoring the most closely is our pay centre in Miramichi, and when we reach, I'll say, the steady state—when people are fully used to the system, when some of the automation comes in, when that flow is steady—that's when...

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. We have done something about that. Every week, actually, on a daily basis, Ms. Di Paola sends our colleagues in finance all requests for emergency pay that we receive. She forwards them directly to the departments so that they know, if they're not already aware, that some of their employees have asked for emergency pay.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  Can I just make sure that I didn't misspeak? I believe I said that in my opinion I would have done things differently. There are things that we would have done differently. We're not saying this is a success, by a long shot. We realize there are real issues, there are real people involved, and we're really serious about solving it.

Government Operations committee  We have been keeping the Privy Council Office aware of every step in the last month. We've been working together and they've been supporting us in many ways. What you have to remember, I think, is that this is not a PSPC issue solely. It is an enterprise-wide transformation, a Government of Canada issue, and my colleagues are totally seized with that.

Government Operations committee  In early June, when we learned about the growing number of problems, we decided that we had to provide employees with a process by which they could contact us directly, and we would then forward their requests to the departments, or else we would find a way to accelerate the process in certain critical cases.

Government Operations committee  We believed that the risk of delaying it was greater than not delaying it. Do you want to speak to that?

Government Operations committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, I just want to be absolutely clear on this. We did recommend to the minister to go ahead. That's clear. I only want to make sure it's very clear. It was our recommendation.

Government Operations committee  Yes, there have been, and we have a process to get them back. So the answer is yes.

Government Operations committee  In Miramichi we hired 40 additional staff at the beginning of the year. We expect to have more than 115 soon in Gatineau, 50 in Winnipeg, 20 in Shawinigan, and 20 in Montreal. That is a significant number of people who are going to be coming to the table to help us get through the backlog.

Government Operations committee  I can tell you that we're very seized with these issues, and our colleagues at the Treasury Board are working with the unions and are developing a process. We don't have the details yet. As soon as we have them, we'll make them available. We're asking employees to keep whatever pieces of documentation they can and to keep track of what it is costing them.

Government Operations committee  I can tell you that we took them into consideration, and our advice was clear: to move.