Silence on Phoenix angers PSAC president
Liberals’ silence on flawed Phoenix Pay system disappoints PSAC, Opposition
The public service can expect a “comprehensive review” of at least three departments as part of a federal government effort to eliminate inefficient programs, curb wasteful spending and end ineffective and obsolete initiatives, according to the federal budget released Wednesday.
Which departments will be subjected to the review won’t be revealed until sometime down the road, following a budget that featured only modest investments to the public service — and no mention of new money to help fix the problematic Phoenix Pay system that has resulted in some federal workers getting paid too much and others going unpaid.
The two largest unions representing public service workers had been hoping for a $75-million contingency fund so employees could get paid correctly and on time.
“Words don’t even describe how disappointed I am that they did nothing to address Phoenix,” said Robyn Benson, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
“It’s heart-wrenching that they have left out Phoenix in totality,” Benson said. “For myself as president of the PSAC and my 100,000 members, that says to them they are not important. It says to them, ‘It doesn’t matter if you get paid.’ ”
Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, added the government’s silence on Phoenix was deafening.
And NDP MP Erin Weir, the party’s critic for public services and procurement, said he was surprised to see no details about the Phoenix payroll and Shared Services programs.
They are “huge boondoggles” that could have been addressed in the budget, Weir said.
“Even if it was a commitment of some sort, some verbiage, that would have been helpful to know the government was going to put the resources behind making sure public servants are properly paid,” Daviau said.
The budget was vague on when the review of departments will begin, but it was among three measures announced to find better value from the public service.
“We’ll be closely watching to make sure those reviews are not done in the Harper fashion, that stakeholders are properly consulted … and if there are cuts, or reallocations of resources that they are done with all the information in front of them and not just as some ideological move,” said Daviau of the departmental reviews.
Benson said she hopes the Liberal government work with unions while conducting the reviews.
“I don’t want them just to go in there and slash, cut and burn. Then it will be reminiscent of the Conservatives,” said Benson, who argued the real waste in government comes from the contracting out of services and public-private partnerships.
The government also said it would begin the first comprehensive review in decades of federal fixed assets, such as buildings. The government said it spends $10 billion a year buying, maintaining and repairing owned and leased assets. The review will be staged by
asset-type — such as engineering assets, science facilities and so on — over the next three years.
The government also vowed to conduct a three-year review of all federal innovation and cleantechnology programs with the goal of simplifying programming and better aligning resources to improve the effectiveness of those programs.
The government expects to report back on the progress of the reviews in next year’s budget. The expenditure reviews come a year after the government announced annual reductions of $221 million on professional services, travel and government advertising.
The 2016 budget promised a $444-million investment in the Canada Revenue Agency to track down tax cheats.
This year’s budget promises an additional $523.9 million over five years, which the government anticipates will result in an additional $1 billion in assessed tax annually over that time period.
The funding is expected to result in more than 300 new jobs for auditors and other staff at the CRA, with a specific focus on the “underground economy.”
“We’ve long been calling for those investments. Although it probably
doesn’t go far enough, it’s clearly a step in the right direction,” Daviau said.
The budget put a heavy emphasis on innovation, and that included a promised review of the National Research Council that would examine the future role the NRC would play in creating more opportunities for women as researchers while supporting “breakthrough” research.
The budget also established a $2-million budget for the Chief Science Advisor and secretariat and promised to develop a new federal science infrastructure strategy, including for federal laboratories and testing facilities.
The government also vowed there would be a more “integrated and effective approach” to laboratories, information technology and human resources in the federal science community and they’d seek to ensure federal scientists have access to world-class infrastructure, innovative equipment and computer networks.
Daviau said “targeted investment ” in science was “not nearly enough to make up for the cuts of the Harper government in terms of decimating critical science programs for Canadians.”
There was also not enough focus on how public scientists play into
innovation agenda, she said.
“What we’d like to see know is far more focus on how you use public science to inform and inspire innovation in every sector in Canada,” she said.
Benson said she noted there was a commitment to some spending in other departments, which was positive.
“There is an infusion of money in different areas, so if in fact it is going to be used to improve programs, to hire people, to provide quality public services I’ll be happy,” she said.
There was also a series of less defined promises that could improve the working lives of the public service. The government promised to put more women in positions of leadership in the public and private sectors.
The government also signalled there would be more support for federally-regulated employees to request more flexible work arrangements, such as flexible start and finish times, the ability to work from home and unpaid leave to help manage family responsibilities.
There was also the announcement of an additional $7 billion over the next 10 years to create more affordable child-care spaces.