Feds to forgo $140 million in booked savings as they try to fix pay problems

OTTAWA — Federal civil servants will be reimbursed for hiring tax accountants to sort through their pay problems and departments will be allowed to re-hire laid-off payroll employees, the federal government said Thursday as it tried to bail out its sinking Phoenix pay system.

A high-powered cabinet committee is also being created to fix the pay process, although a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office didn’t provide a deadline for achieving that goal.

In announcing the measures, the government acknowledged it will have to forgo $140 million dollars it expected to save over the next two years from implementing the new electronic payroll system — and that it could take that long to finally resolve all of the pay issues.

A cabinet working group, led by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, will work to bring Phoenix to a so-called “steady state,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

The group includes Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Treasury Board President Scott Brison, Ottawa-area MP and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, who is also currently the acting minister of Public Services and Procurement.

“This working group will bolster the actions we have already taken and ensure that we fulfil our commitment to the public service to fix the issues that have impacted employees,” Trudeau said in his statement.