deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada. (Lemay became the new PSPC DM in April 2016, just as the second part of the rollout was underway.) In July, PSPC publicly acknowledged that its Phoenix errors and delays had affected about 82,000 public servants. Foote then took the unprecedented step of allowing Lemay, Di Paola and other senior PSPC bureaucrats to hold regular briefings on the Phoenix pay system to provide regular updates and information on how it was being fixed. To some, this highlighted a long source of tension in Ottawa, namely the question of who should be held accountable when there is a massive serving of incompetence in any federal program, the politicians or the public service. At one briefing, Di Paola said that the big problems with Phoenix were training and public servants improperly entering information into the Phoenix system. She also criticized federal workers at the Miramichi, New Brunswick pay centre saying their transaction processing times were slower than expected. This drew a sharp rebuke from Chris Aylward, Vice-President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada who said that,“Di Paola is the one person who, by her own self-admission, was responsible for the new pay system but blamed everyone except the very department responsible for implementing the pay system.” PSAC President Robyn Benson was particularly critical of PSPC management responsible for the project for ignoring the union’s pleas to slow down or delay the Phoenix rollout because departments and the new Miramichi pay centre were not ready. “Phoenix has profoundly damaged public service workers in multiple ways, placing in jeopardy their livelihood, health insurance coverage, privacy and security clearances, to name just a few of the many consequences”, she said. PSAC had warned the government many times that the Miramichi workers did not have proper training, and asked for a delay in going live with Phoenix. “Ultimately, our warnings were ignored and they went ahead anyway,” said Benson.
On October 13, Marie Lemay announced that Rosanna Di Paola was being shuffled out of her Phoenix role into a new job as a senior adviser at the department. This sent a clear message that horizontal accountability — the poppycock idea that large complex, costly projects that are managed across multiple departments were no one has final accountability — is unacceptable. Lemay then brought in Marc Lemieux, from Canada Economic Development (Quebec Regions), the regional agency Lemay headed before she was promoted to work at Public Services, in April 2015. Lemieux was the agency’s executive director of corporate services, and acting vice-president of operations. By December, things had improved but there were still over 15,000 public servants who had either not been paid for months or whose pay was completely screwed up. The Opposition wanted blood…notably Foote’s. NPD MP, Erin Weir, accused Foote of ducking accountability for the mess and hiding behind public servants. FOR HER PART, FOOTE STEADFASTLY REFUSED TO PUBLICLY BLAME ANY OF HER SENIOR OFFICIALS OR THROW THEM UNDER THE BUS.
Interestingly, the unions were still not calling for her resignation. Foote had made herself accessible and available for all technical briefings, took calls from the union leaders, all while continuing to apologize for the PSPC mess and making herself available to the national media. On December 14, in one notably harsh and winching moment for anyone to watch, Ottawa CTV Chief News Anchor Graham Richardson scolded and chastised Foote in studio, live on the air admonishing, her and PSPC for the debacle. Foote sat stoic, taking the criticism for the mess, for the department and for the government and sincerely apologized again, saying she was very sorry about the mess, that it was unacceptable and that they (PSPC) were working hard to fix it and get it right. Foote stayed in the studio and sat and listened live on air, to the stories of several public servants,
who had been affected by the debacle and who were still without their pay. By Christmas, Foote’s program to fix Phoenix was working. She had the department hire over 250 additional compensation advisers, opened a new call centre, added four satellite offices and repaid out-of-pocket expenses for public servants facing financial difficulty because of pay problems. She allocated an extra 50 million dollars to hire additional public servants with compensation experience. She made several trips to the Miramichi, N.B., and pay centre to support staff and assure them they would get whatever help they required. She also called in the Auditor General to formally investigate the entire Phoenix file. When asked if it all could have all been avoided, Foote responded that the previous Harper Conservative government should have: “kept the 700 compensation advisers who were laid off before the new payroll system was up and running.” By centralizing pay operations in a new pay centre in Miramichi, N.B., the Harper government had hoped to save $70 million a year. However, a big problem arose when PSPC had to recruit about 550 new employees when the majority of the experienced compensation advisers who lost their jobs declined to move to the new pay centre in Miramichi. Foote added that: the “Phoenix project was flawed, poorly planned and the rollout of it was doomed because so many of the experienced staff who understood the government’s complex and arcane pay rules were let go”. She noted that: “we have over 300,000 people in the system and the process was compromised as soon as the decision was taken to eliminate the jobs of 700 compensation staff before we had transitioned properly to Phoenix.” “The loss of experienced payroll people, inadequate training and a large workload, and a program driven by cuts instead of service all contributed to the problem”, says Foote. She adds that,“Accountability will come, but we must stay focused on fixing this first.” Foote continues to consult widely and stays in contact with the unions and continued >> page 37 35 OTTAWALIFE FEBRUARY 2017