Speech (committee meeting)

{
    "time": "2016-11-29 15:40:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Mrs. Brenda Shanahan (Ch\u00e2teauguay\u2014Lacolle, Lib.)",
        "fr": "Mme Brenda Shanahan (Ch\u00e2teauguay\u2014Lacolle, Lib.)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"4700425\" data-originallang=\"en\">Thank you very much to the minister and all the members of the panel for being here today.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700426\" data-originallang=\"en\">Of course, we didn't really want to be back here today for this update. This committee was told the problem would be resolved by October 31, and yet here we are.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700427\" data-originallang=\"en\"> It's most concerning that we still have 15,000 employees who are experiencing difficulties. Also, what's going to be coming down the road is concerning, with all of the adjustments that have to be made to employee pay. Having worked in a payroll department myself some time ago, I can just imagine the T4s and having to deal with the out-of-pocket expenses.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700428\" data-originallang=\"en\"> I do commend you on being proactive in calling on the Auditor General to conduct an audit into the Phoenix pay system. I know, from sitting on the public accounts committee, that this would have been our concern, as well, given the amount of taxpayer funds this represents.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700429\" data-originallang=\"en\">I'm somebody who likes to go to the root causes of problems, so what really concerns me in all of this is that it could have been avoided, to a large extent. I think back to the fact that you had to rehire experienced people and less-experienced people. I can just imagine that staff who were let go two years ago, prior to the transformation taking place, were experienced staff. They probably went off and found other jobs, and when it came time to address this lack of capacity, you had to go out and find people, hire them back and train new people, leading to even more problems down the road.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700430\" data-originallang=\"en\">Minister, could you talk about how difficult that was in just trying to roll back the compensation department to where it needed to be, including the satellite department in Miramichi?</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"4700425\" data-originallang=\"en\">Merci beaucoup, madame la ministre, et merci aux t\u00e9moins qui l'accompagnent.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700426\" data-originallang=\"en\">\u00c9videmment, nous aurions pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9 ne pas revenir pour cette mise \u00e0 jour aujourd'hui. Le minist\u00e8re avait indiqu\u00e9 que le probl\u00e8me serait r\u00e9gl\u00e9 le 31 octobre, mais nous y sommes encore.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700427\" data-originallang=\"en\">Le plus pr\u00e9occupant, c'est que 15 000 employ\u00e9s continuent d'avoir des difficult\u00e9s avec le syst\u00e8me de la paye. Et puis, ce qui s'annonce est \u00e9galement pr\u00e9occupant, avec tous les ajustements \u00e0 faire \u00e0 la paye des employ\u00e9s. Comme j'ai moi-m\u00eame travaill\u00e9 dans un service de paye, il y a un certain temps d\u00e9j\u00e0, j'imagine ce que cela repr\u00e9sente de modifier les T4 et de composer avec toutes les d\u00e9penses courantes.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700428\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je vous f\u00e9licite d'avoir pris l'initiative de demander au v\u00e9rificateur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral d'effectuer un audit du syst\u00e8me de paye Ph\u00e9nix. Cette question-l\u00e0 nous aurait de toute fa\u00e7on interpell\u00e9s au comit\u00e9 des comptes publics, compte tenu de la somme qu'elle repr\u00e9sente pour le Tr\u00e9sor public.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700429\" data-originallang=\"en\">Personnellement, j'aime aller au fond des choses et ce que je trouve pr\u00e9occupant, dans tout cela, c'est que nous aurions pu \u00e9viter ce probl\u00e8me dans une large mesure. Je repense par exemple au fait que vous ayez d\u00fb r\u00e9embaucher des gens d'exp\u00e9rience et en embaucher d'autres moins exp\u00e9riment\u00e9s. J'imagine que le personnel dont on s'est d\u00e9barrass\u00e9 il y a deux ans, avant le d\u00e9but de la transformation, avait de l'exp\u00e9rience. Il est possible qu'il ait trouv\u00e9 un emploi ailleurs et que, quand vous avez voulu r\u00e9gler ce probl\u00e8me de manque de capacit\u00e9, vous avez d\u00fb courir apr\u00e8s ces gens-l\u00e0 pour les r\u00e9embaucher et que vous avez d\u00fb former \u00e9galement de nouveaux employ\u00e9s, ce qui a d\u00e8s lors occasionn\u00e9 davantage de probl\u00e8mes en aval.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4700430\" data-originallang=\"en\">Madame la ministre, pouvez-vous nous expliquer les difficult\u00e9s que vous avez eues \u00e0 amener le service de la paye au niveau auquel il devait \u00eatre, y compris dans le cas du service satellite de Miramichi?</p>"
    },
    "url": "/committees/government-operations/42-1/62/brenda-shanahan-1/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/brenda-shanahan/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/4229/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "9277819",
    "document_url": "/committees/government-operations/42-1/62/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fcommittees%2Fgovernment-operations%2F42-1%2F62%2F"
    }
}