As the member of parliament representing Colwood and View Royal, my office has been inundated with heart wrenching stories of federal employees whose lives have been turned upside-down because of the Phoenix pay system implemented by the federal Liberal government.
Despite objections from public service employees and their union representatives, the Liberal government decided to roll out the Phoenix pay system in 2016 – knowing full well that there remained a host of unresolved issues with the program.
According to data that NDP MP Karine Trudel has been able to get from the government, 78 per cent of the 22,375 federal employees in British Columbia have experienced pay problems since the Liberals decided to implement Phoenix. In my riding alone, more than 1,000 federal employees have experienced issues with the pay system. Many have been forced to max-out their credit cards, dip into retirement savings, or incur late fees because they are waiting on their hard-earned paycheques.
One of those people is Lindsey Pike. Lindsey has been living on the West Shore, working with the federal government for 10 years. Last year Phoenix stopped paying her for a full three months. She still has not received this pay and now has no idea if her pay is going to be correct every two weeks. Lindsey has struggled with depression, but during the past few years was feeling like she was finally getting a hold of her life. “Since the Phoenix problems, my depression has returned full force,” Lindsey told me. “It has reached a point where I am crying all the time, lashing out at people around me, including the people I love, and I have to leave work early consistently to go to my therapist. I was doing really well before, but this has precipitated a spiral.”
Leroy Wade lives in Colwood and has had been working for the Government of Canada for more than 13 years. In 2016 he switched jobs and began working as a civilian employee for the Department of National Defence. However, Phoenix never changed his status. Not only was he never sure if he was being properly paid at his new rate, he was no longer receiving pay stubs, so he couldn’t even check. Meanwhile, he never received a $7,400 transfer pay he was supposed to. “All the guys I was working with were facing similar problems,” Leroy told me. “We would spend hours on the phone trying to reach a pay advisor instead of doing our jobs. And if you ever got a hold of someone they would pass it on to someone else or not be able to help you. It was like chasing a ghost.” Eventually Leroy had enough and quit. “I have a family and bills. I couldn’t deal with their nonsense any longer. Who knows if I will ever see the money they still own me,” he said.
Lindsey and Leroy’s stories are emblematic of hundreds of others. I have hundreds of stories of lighthouse technicians, DFO and DND employees, and Service Canada staff all trying to continue to serve Canadians while their lives are up-ended because of Phoenix. My office has been doing what they can for individual cases, while the NDP has been repeatedly demanding that the Liberal government take action to fix the debacle.
In 2016, the Liberals claimed that the Phoenix pay system was going to save Canadian taxpayers $70 million a year. Now, the minister responsible for this file has not ruled out the possibility that the costs of this fiasco will surpass $1 billion and still she has no deadline to fix it.
It is time that the Liberals recognize their failure and – in collaboration with employees and their unions – consider a plan B that either allocates significant additional resources or a different payroll system that does not include Phoenix.
Randall Garrison is the NDP Member of Parliament representing Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke.