Liberals 'throwing good money after bad' on Phoenix, union says

A union representing federal government workers is accusing the Liberals of "throwing good money after bad" by tossing hundreds of millions of dollars at the failed Phoenix pay system.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) said it would have liked to see the 2019 budget, unveiled Tuesday, instead devote more money to finding a replacement.

"We know Phoenix can't be fixed, so there seems to be a perfect willingness to keep throwing good money after bad on the old system," PIPSC's national president, Debi Daviau, told CBC Radio's All In A Day.

The budget earmarks $553 million between now and April 2022 — $374 million by April 2020 — to fix the payroll system, which has improperly paid tens of thousands of public servants since its launch in February 2016.

The new money will bring the total amount dedicated to fixing Phoenix to $1.5 billion.

"We would really have liked to have seen a much more focused commitment on the purchase of a new system that can actually pay people accurately," Daviau said.

But newly appointed Treasury Board President Joyce Murray said the investment is needed to resolve the tens of thousands of outstanding claims from public servants, some of whom have found themselves in serious financial trouble due to the mess.

"Minister [of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility Carla] Qualtrough has that as her top priority, to stabilize the existing system and eliminate the backlog of claims," Murray told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.

The government isn't rushing to put a final dollar figure on a replacement just yet, Murray said.

"We're making progress on [a new system]. We're not going to put a budget in and try and fit this program into the budget," she said. "We will fit the budget to the job, not the job to the budget."

'Piece by piece'

The Treasury Board is hoping to bring forward possible replacement options this spring.

The department is preparing to move ahead with a pilot stage that will see three bidders bring forward proposed solutions and get feedback from civil servants, Murray said.

Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said he doesn't want to see the government rush into another mess.

"We should do it in small steps. That way if there's a problem, you can hit the pause button and fix that problem before you mess up the financial lives of hundreds of thousands of people," Poilievre told Ottawa Morning.

Murray said that's precisely the approach her government is taking.

"We're doing it piece by piece," she said.