The Phoenix conflagration

BUREAUCRATS IN CHARGE ... MADE A TOTAL MESS OF IT. — KELLY MCPARLAND IN BUREAUCRAT LAND, YOUR OWN FAILURES ARE CAUSE FOR COMPENSATION

You have to give Canada’s federal bureaucrats credit: when they create a bubble for themselves, they don’t use half measures. The world within which Ottawa civil servants operate is impermeable not only to market realities and the exigencies of the private sector, it evidently keeps out any annoying intrusions by irony or a sense of the ridiculous as well.

At the moment, the union representing people paid from the federal purse is on a campaign to have its members compensated for pain and trauma they’ve suffered by buggering up their own pay system. Phoenix, as it is amusedly called (do all public entities give pet names to the source of their paycheques, and, if so, wouldn’t Alicanto, a bird — according to Wikipedia — that “feeds on gold and silver,” be more appropriate?) is a well-documented disaster.

Canadians who take the time to read about the troubles of the people their taxes support will know that Phoenix was an ambitious effort — started under the Tories and launched under the Liberals — to collectivize and simplify the process under which tens of thousands of public employees receive their paycheques. It has proved massively costly, grossly troubled and incapable of performing the task for which it was built. So far it’s at least $1 billion in the hole, and could reach more than $2 billion in wasted effort according to a Senate report released this week.

And it still doesn’t work. The reason for all the problems, according to a great deal of research, study and investigation, is that the bureaucrats in charge of the project made a total mess of it. Canada’s auditor general, Michael Ferguson, called it an “incomprehensible failure” brought about by an “obedient culture” within the civil service that avoids bad news like the plague. In particular, three senior public servants who headed the project pressed ahead with it despite clear indications it didn’t work, and kept quiet about the looming disaster rather than inform higher-ups.

The Senate report avoided naming names but affirmed the conclusion, identifying a “fundamental management cultural problem within the public service … that plays down bad news and avoids responsibility.”

As of June, the problems with Phoenix have created a backlog of 600,000 pay issues, including underpayments, overpayments and nonpayments. Naturally, those responsible weren’t fired, since it’s almost impossible to fire a civil servant. They didn’t get their bonuses though, poor folks.

Immune to any sense of obligation or farce, the unions representing federal employees see their members solely as victims of the foul-up, rather than its cause. They want the government to fork over compensation, not just for those who had their pay disrupted, but for those who had no problem at all and continued getting paid as usual. Union bosses say even those who got full pay, on time, suffered the stress of uncertainty, not knowing if they could be next. Chris Aylward, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said in May that he sees this as a good time to put the squeeze on the government, which will want to avoid embarrassing confrontations in the run-up to its re-election bid next year.

“We want to put pressure on the government during this round to ensure our members get compensated at the bargaining table for the Phoenix fiasco,” he said. According to a recent report, he may be right: Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are apparently looking at a “tiered” compensation plan, in which there would be money for everyone, whether they got paid or not.

We should all be so lucky. Canadians stressed at the rampant overspending of their elected representatives — including a federal government that long ago abandoned its pledge to keep deficits to a minimum and balance the budget next year — could demand compensation for the angst they endured as a result. Residents of provinces running additional deficits — which would be most of us — could file additional claims. Some civil servants could go for a triple dip, claiming payments for the stress of their own bungling, and that of federal and provincial governments as well. Those unfortunate enough to work in the private sector, who already struggle along without the security, benefits or pensions of the public sector, could seek reimbursement for the troubled sleeps they suffered from learning of the horrible pressures on those they pay taxes for.

It’s a significant moment for all this to be happening. While Ottawa’s bureaucrats are going for a big payoff, their provincial cousins down the road in Toronto are worrying about getting paid at all. New Ontario Premier Doug Ford, despite his oft-repeated campaign promise to slash spending without cutting jobs, is busily cutting jobs. He’s already dumped a bunch of previous Liberal hires, including the first-ever chief scientist; forced out the chief executive of Hydro One and the utility’s entire board of directors; and last week sent Toronto’s bloated municipal council into paroxysms of rage by announcing plans to slash it from 47 seats to 25. So far he has refrained from addressing “front-line” employees, i.e. those who regularly come face to face with Ontarians, but that’s little comfort to the 1.3 million people who get their income from the provincial purse. As Financial Post columnist William Watson pointed out Wednesday, their compensation eats up just under half the government’s entire program spending, and is growing at a rate of 4.4 per cent.

A government pledged to finding $6 billion in “efficiencies” can hardly ignore that elephant. Whether it clamps down on pay, or lets attrition reduce bureaucrat numbers, something will have to give. No doubt it’s already causing plenty of stress among provincial employees. Federal bureaucrats may want to up their demands for stress pay, on the basis that upsetting one civil servant is the same as upsetting them all.