Senate QP: Qualtrough talks Phoenix

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For this week’s ministerial Senate Question Period, the special guest star was Public Services and Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough, for what was bound to be a marathon session of Phoenix pay system questions. True to form, Senator Larry Smith led off, worried about that Phoenix was affecting pensions for the federal government, as the relevant pay centre just hired 55 new staff to verify transactions. Qualtrough noted that the system was worse for than they initially anticipated, and that they were taking all efforts to verify the data. Smith asked whether they had a date as to when things would be normalised, and Qualtrough said that her goal is stabilising the system, but she’s learned not to set deadlines on this, and while the numbers are going down, it’s not as quickly as they would like.

Senator Doyle asked about the Phoenix pay problems affecting members of the Coast Guard, to which Qualtrough noted that part of the problem is retroactive payments, and the vast majority of the Coast Guard’s payments are retroactive — one of the parts of the system that was chosen to be “de-scoped” in 2014. Qualtrough said that she is working toward a Coast Guard-specific approach, but and they have learned a lot and are making as many administrative changes as they can.

Senator Mercer also raised Phoenix, and wondered what kind of due diligence had been done before the system was purchased, such as with Queensland, Australia, and if they planned to sue IBM for what happened. Qualtrough noted that the relationship with IBM is complex, as they won an open and transparent competition, but the previous government de-scoped aspects of the project whereas her government is holding them to the contract. She said that only holding them to deliverables has not resulted in a functional pay system.

Senator McPhedran asked about the wage gap, to which Qualtrough noted that she had litigated pay equity cases as a human rights lawyer. She noted that the pay equity bill would come in the fall, and that they were doing gender based-plus analysis with all policies from the government, and that removing barriers for women in the workforce as as important as pay  equity legislation. 

Senator Ringuette asked about translation services for senators, which is based on lowest cost, leading to poorer quality work, and she worried this was a similar case for the whole of the government. Qualtrough said they were working to achieve a new vision with the Translation Bureau, and they were working hard on that.

Senator Dagenais returned to the hardship of those public servants facing Phoenix problems, and Qualtrough noted that they are taking actions and she appreciates how this is impacting public servants, which is why they have focused on four areas to fix the problem in a whole-of-government response. 

Senator Carignan asked about the negotiations with Davie shipyard on leasing new icebreakers. Qualtrough repeated her previous lines that they are doing their due diligence and doing their best to reach a solution that works for everybody.

Senator Jaffer returned to public servants suffering mental and emotional anguish because of the Phoenix, but noted the added problem of incorrect T4 slips as tax season approaches. Qualtrough said that they identified issues with CRA, particularly around overpayments, and are trying to mitigate the problems.

Senator Gagné asked about the disposal of real estate assets owned by Public Works, particularly francophone community schools being sold off without adequate consultation. Qualtrough said that she is looking to use the strategic tools of asset disposal to have other objectives in mind, like linguistic minorities (before she promised to get specific answers on a Winnipeg disposition).

Senator Omidvar asked about community benefits with procurement, to which Qualtrough noted that she absolutely hopes to use the levels of procurement for community benefits, and that included support for a private member’s bill that would create more tools, while collecting new data would help them do more.

Senator McIntyre asked about the procurement of used F-18s from Australia and why the competition to procure new fighters will take five years. Qualtrough said that they planes from Australia were part of one track, while a parallel process to purchase 88 new fighter jets was already started between five companies in four governments to help identify their consortiums to launch an RFP for the beginning of next year, and that the industry needs the time to get their consortiums together.

Overall, I will once again praise Qualtrough as one of Cabinet’s most effective communicators, and she offered clear and concise answers, without shovelling pabulum, or talking around issues in long and drawn out manners, and the fact that she wasn’t confined to 35-second responses meant that she was able to give much more complete answers than she would in Commons QP, so we got a better quality of response. It was refreshing to watch, and much more engaging than what we normally get (and proves that Qualtrough could be one of Trudeau’s secret weapons).

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Senator Nicole Eaton for a black and grey paisley dress with a dark brown jacket with black lapels, and to Senator Jean-Guy Dagenais for a medium grey suit with a white shirt and a pink tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Senator Larry Smith for a taupe suit with a butterscotch shirt and brown tie, and to Senator Elizabeth Marshall for a black sweater with knitted florals.