Opposition parties want committee recalled

As the federal government was scrambling to make sure hundreds of civil servants get paid this week, the opposition parties joined forces Monday to call for emergency hearings into the government’s problem-plagued new payroll system.

Newly released documents from one of the government’s biggest departments show that questions about “critical defects” in the so-called Phoenix system were going unanswered just weeks before its scheduled launch.

Both the Conservatives and New Democrats demanded the government operations committee be recalled to talk about how Phoenix has resulted in tens of thousands of civil servants being improperly paid —or not paid at all.

“I would hope that Liberal committee members would welcome an opportunity to examine what lead to this fiasco, why it has taken so long to get clear answers, and why we have yet to receive clear timelines for resolution of numerous problems,” NDP public works critic Erin Weir said in a statement.