Unlike the mythological bird of the same name, the federal government’s Phoenix payroll system is not going to rise from the ashes.
Driving the news: The feds are reportedly going full speed ahead with their plans to ditch Phoenix, the public service payroll system that has done nothing but cause headaches since its launch in 2016. As of last year, 30% of federal employees reported errors in their pay.
- Phoenix has been such a mess that some employees were compensated in 2020 for general "stress, aggravation, pain and suffering" caused by the system.
- This year, federal public sector unions are demanding more compensation payments because employees are “still facing constant stress and anxiety” due to Phoenix.
Why it matters: Phoenix has miserably failed its two main goals, streamlining operations and saving money. Instead, it’s created a backlog of 425,000 transactions that will take years to untangle and has cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion to launch and subsequently try and fix.
- More broadly, Phoenix’s failure — alongside the ongoing ArriveCan fiasco — shows Canada has "real deficiencies in technology management," per one policy expert.
What’s next: This year’s budget allocated $135 million to improve payroll. This sum will go towards papering over some of Phoenix’s cracks with AI and developing a new system from payroll services provider Dayforce — though a full replacement is years down the road.—QH