29 YEARS AND COUNTING . . . THE TIMELINE FOR THE GOVERNMENT’S STRUGGLE TO DELIVER A NEW PAY SYSTEM FOR 300,000 EMPLOYEES
June 1989:
Conservative government of Brian Mulroney begins analyzing options for replacing legacy pay systems.
Aug. 26, 1993:
Accenture wins $45-million contract to automate much of the work handled by 750 pay & pension administration employees.
April 1995:
Liberal government of Jean Chrétien terminates Accenture contract for default.
June 1996:
Accenture sues government for $45 million in damages.
January 2003:
parties settle, terms not disclosed.
September 2007:
Public Services and Procurement Canada proposes project to modernize pay system technology. Decision deferred.
2008 Spring:
House of Commons committee discusses consolidating government pay administration, which is spread across dozens of departments and agencies and uses many different systems.
May:
Public Services’ Accounting Banking and Compensation Branch finishes business case for fixing the pay system.
July:
Cabinet approves a Transformation of Pay initiative, consisting of a $122.9-million project to centralize pay administration for 46 federal departments and a $186-million project to install a new system that would become known as Phoenix, serving 101 departments and nearly 300,000 employees.
2010 February:
Public Services issues request for proposals for pay modernization. The winning contractor is to adapt and link the new pay system’s software, based on PeopleSoft technology, to the federal government’s pay administration procedures and rules.
August:
Prime minister Stephen Harper announces the government’s new pay centre will be located in Miramichi, N.B.
2011 June 6:
The federal budget unveils a deficit-reduction action plan.
June 29:
Pay modernization contract awarded to IBM, teamed with Deloitte Inc. and Oracle Canada. Terminates June 28, 2019. As of year-end 2017, the government had paid out more than $200 million.
Aug. 4:
Shared Services Canada created, responsible for the government’s email, telecommunications and data centres.
December:
Public Services begins implementing the pay-consolidation project, which is completed four years later. Fourteen hundred pay administrators across the country are to be phased out and replaced with 550 employees in Miramichi. It will handle nearly two-thirds of the government’s pay transactions.
2012 March:
The pay centre opens in Miramichi.
Fiscal year:
The budget for pay modernization project is reduced in line with government-wide cost-cutting effort.
December:
Public Services begins implementing pay modernization project.
2014 June:
initial Phoenix design is completed, version of PeopleSoft to be used changed to 9.1 from 8.9.
2015 Spring:
Planned July pilot with Natural Resources changed to become internal Public Works pilot to conduct tests on the pay system.
Summer:
Pay modernization project defers key software enhancements including retroactive automation for ‘acting’ positions and retroactive transactions relating to changes in collective agreements.
July 13:
Sensitive data removed from pay modernization defect tracking tool following a privacy breach.
Mid-Sept:
Two-stage rollout of Phoenix delayed from October and December to February and April. Final testing of system moved to January.
Oct. 19:
Liberals win a majority in federal election.
Nov. 4:
Liberal cabinet sworn in. Public Works department renamed Public Services and Procurement Canada.
2016 Jan. 18:
Final draft of report by S.i. Systems, an independent contractor, concludes Phoenix is ready to be rolled out.
Jan. 29:
Gavin Liddy, assistant deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada, receives a draft copy of a second assessment of new system’s readiness from Gartner. This report, commissioned by Treasury Board, is more pessimistic about the readiness of Phoenix. Liddy did not share Gartner’s conclusions with his minister until months after the rollout began.
Jan. 29:
The Public Service Management Advisory Committee meets to consider final preparations for Phoenix — those present say their departments are ready to go live.
Feb. 24:
First phase of Phoenix rollout begins, involving 34 federal departments and 120,000 employees.
Apr. 11:
Marie Lemay joins Public Services as deputy minister, replacing George Da Pont, who is retiring.
April 21:
Second phase of pay modernization launched involving 67 departments and 170,000 employees. About 30 per cent of employees have errors in their paycheques. Backlog of pay transactions soars as errors and knock-on effects accumulate.
May:
Lemay meets with PWC, a consulting group, and asks it to examine Phoenix system’s processes. PWC hired in late fall to suggest ways of fixing problems.
Summer:
Government begins re-hiring compensation advisers to staff satellite offices in Gatineau, Winnipeg, Montreal and Shawinigan. Public Services department steps up training for human resources employees across government. Help lines set up for dealing with emergency cash needs, tax issues.
Nov. 29:
Public Services Minister Judy Foote says during Commons committee testimony that it had been a mistake to reduce the number of government compensation advisers before Phoenix was up and running.
2017 February:
Treasury Board and PSPC hire Goss Gilroy to do lessons learned report on Transformation of Pay Initiative. Data completed July 2017.
April:
Public Services begins processing back pay following the retroactive signing of collective agreements with government unions. Forty per cent of the pay increases had to be handled manually.
Apr. 27:
Prime Minister establishes Ministers’ working group to provide greater oversight.
July:
Oversight committees established at multiple levels of bureaucracy to take whole-of-government approach to Phoenix fixes. Lead committee made up of deputy ministers and equivalent.
Summer:
Establish joint Public Services-Treasury Board pay stabilization team to closely track progress of fixes. Led by Public Services associate deputy minister Les Linklater.
Aug. 24:
Judy Foote resigns as minister to spend more time with family.
Aug. 28:
Carla Qualtrough takes over as Public Services minister.
September:
Danielle May-Cuconato hired as assistant deputy minister of Pay Stabilization Project
Nov. 21:
Auditor general tables his examination of Phoenix, reveals backlog of pay requests is approaching 500,000 as of June 30.
Dec. 27:
Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough confirms number of transactions awaiting processing at pay centre exceed 600,000.
2018 Feb. 15,:
Public Services dashboard shows escalation in pay transaction backlog to 633,000.
Feb. 24:
second anniversary of Phoenix Pay’s launch.