Government Operations committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee to discuss the Government of Canada's new pay system, Phoenix, and our plan to address some of the issues that we're facing. I can certainly appreciate your interest in understand

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry, I just want to make sure that I understood the question. You're wondering if we saw some of the challenges before launching the system.

Government Operations committee  We did.

Government Operations committee  There were, and that's why the actual launch was delayed. There was a third-party evaluation. The whole launch was delayed until everybody felt that...first of all, the vendor, the departments.... We had a third-party evaluation. There was a state of readiness that was establishe

Government Operations committee  To me, when we talk about the system, it is from the moment somebody works until that person get a paycheque in his or her bank account. There are many parts in this system. There is obviously the user, who has to put information in, and managers, who have to approve. There is th

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

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 l

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

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.