Government Operations committee  Sorry, I may have misspoken. I joined on April 11, and I believe I met with our representative, Ms. Lackie, probably on the Wednesday of my first week, and we had conversations about Miramichi at the time and the folks there. The meeting I had with the heads of the union was on April 25.

Government Operations committee  I think I would have made another type of recommendation. I think I would have looked at making sure that the employees and all the departments really understood the magnitude of the change in terms of the change management associated with that. I would have made sure that we did have additional compensation advisers, just in case we were going to transition.

Government Operations committee  I will answer in the same way I just did. I think we could have taken additional measures, but the move to the second wave and the move to Phoenix is the right decision. But I would have done it a little differently, and I would have taken additional measures knowing what I know today.

Government Operations committee  Phase one had a lot of planning and a lot of testing, and as I said in my presentation—and maybe we can expand I on this if you wish—there were a number of steps taken before launching it. There was testing. The launch was actually delayed. It was originally planned in three, got moved to two, it was delayed, and there was a third-party assessment.

Government Operations committee  In 2015, I would have to look. I'm sorry, I wasn't there in 2015. In 2016 I can tell you, no.

Government Operations committee  Sorry, you mean for the year 2015? Absolutely, I can answer your question. I apologize. No, nobody has, and it's not a priority. We're really focused on getting people paid. That's what we're focused on. That will be the last priority for us.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  The answer to your question is that right now we're taking it collectively, because we're absolutely focused on fixing it. We are spending very long days—a number of us—in making sure that we get people paid. After that we're committed to doing an evaluation, we're committed to looking at lessons learned.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I should turn to my colleague who was there during that whole transition step, because, unfortunately, as I said, I only came in at the tail end of that portion of it.

Government Operations committee  I was not in the position personally, but I can tell you that Minister Foote did receive the advice to roll out Phoenix for the February launch.

Government Operations committee  Oh yes, I was there, and the advice was to do the second phase.

Government Operations committee  I'm trying to remember if it was prior to when I arrived. When I arrived, actually, the data had already been converted, because the 21st—

Government Operations committee  I understand your question, but I want to clarify one thing. The date of the 21st is the date when the system was on, but the data conversion started way before that. The data conversion actually started at the beginning of April. But with the information that we had in April, I would have recommended to her to go to the second phase.

Government Operations committee  The reality is that we all expected there to be some transition period. Whether it was me, or the private sector, I think everybody expected that this would not happen without a single.... There was a transition planned, so yes, the recommendation to the minister was clearly, “Go ahead”.

Government Operations committee  I would say in response that we expect there to be a transition period. There is a transition period where we will face issues that we have to correct, whether it's how we program the system, make adjustments to some of the rules, whether it's making sure people understand how it's used, making sure that managers understand that they need to do some of the paperwork, whether it's onboarding or others right away.