Law Times

Page 6 November 13, 2017 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday Words versus actions I n any working relationship, broken trust is hard to repair. Law Times reports that lawyers who work with indigenous groups say provisions in federal Bill C-58 would force access re- questers to have specifics in terms of subject matter, time frames and types of records and will have a detrimental impact on these groups' ability to do needed research for land claims. "One can imagine the sheer quantity of documents that might re- late to a historic land claim or a specific claim," says Lanise Hayes, an Ottawa lawyer. "At times, Canada has responded to access requests by throwing in massive amounts of questionable documents, leaving it for the indigenous applicant to swim through and find the relevant information." Others echo these concerns. It was reported that Federal Infor- mation Commissioner Suzanne Legault, a lawyer, also expressed her dismay when she recently told a House of Commons committee that, due to the proposed changes, it "would be a lot more difficult for First Nations to access the information that they need." This is a federal government that has talked extensively about its efforts to achieve reconciliation with indigenous groups. Erecting bu- reaucratic barriers and keeping information siloed, as critics charge would occur under the new system, is troubling. (As an important note, access-to-information legislation is used by a wide variety of people and corporations in order to delve into the federal govern- ment's activities.) This year's News Media Canada's Freedom of Information audit said that "a quarter of requests sent to federal gov- ernment departments, agencies and crown corpo- rations were answered within the normal 30-day time limit." For the federal government: Listen to your crit- ics and drill down to specifics on how the new leg- islation will impact those who are using it. Lawyers and other information watchdogs: Keep up the very admirable work of pointing out these systemic f laws. LT ©2017 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reli- ance upon information in this publication. 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Karen Lorimer Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Brown Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gabrielle Giroday Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex Robinson Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Cancilla CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah Craven Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Barone Production Co-ordinator . . . . . . . . .Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford Getting paid an uphill battle BY SUSAN DELACOURT I t's the most basic part of an employ- ment contract — getting paid for one's work. Yet the federal government has been having massive trouble living up to that simple pay-for-work exchange for nearly two years. The question, really, is why this hasn't been a bigger story in Canada. By the government's own latest esti- mates this month, more than half of the country's 260,000 public servants have had problems being paid since the intro- duction of what's known as the Phoenix pay system since early 2016. Federal Au- ditor General Michael Ferguson is due to shine some more light on the problem later this month in his fall report to Par- liament. We aren't talking about small glitches here: Many public servants have been plunged into financial chaos and debt because they're being paid insufficiently or, in some cases, not at all. The CBC has set up a special web page to document the Phoenix catastrophe. This includes new mothers struggling after payment for parental leave failed to arrive and students unable to pay tuition after taking summer jobs with the government. "I sympathize so greatly with public servants who are experiencing these is- sues and with their families," Minister of Public Services Carla Qualtrough said earli- er this month, as her govern- ment had to admit that the problem was growing, not shrinking. "It is really and honestly and sincerely unacceptable that they have to go through these troubles, and we're working so very hard to make sure that we can resolve their issues for them," said the federal minister. The Senate, perhaps living up to its role as the chamber of sober, second thought, formally walked away from Phoenix a few weeks ago. But, apparently, this option isn't avail- able to the federal government as a whole. "It's the only one we have," Qualtrough told reporters when asked about whether the system could be simply thrown in the trash. "It's not like there's another option waiting out there." Obviously, if the solution was easy, ob- vious or cheap, it would have been done by now. What government wants to treat its own public ser- vants so badly? Millions and millions of dollars have been thrown at the problem and absolute, we-will-fix-it deadlines have come and gone a couple of times. What does seem clear now is that the former Con- servative government made a colossal mistake of some kind in purchasing this new payroll technology and the new Lib- eral government didn't know what it was unleashing when it put it into place soon after it came to power. The technology, such as it is, simply isn't up to the task of handling any change in the system, and that includes new hires or employee leaves. Maybe the lack of clarity around blame is what's made Phoenix such a low- profile story. Maybe it's because Canadians simply can't understand how a computer system could wreak havoc on the people who toil away in offices to give us our peace, order and good government. Whatever the cause, one assumes that the politicos inside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government are very keen to get this fixed. It's hurting the government directly in areas where it's been trying to build its "brand." How can a government claim to be an ally of the brave, new digital world, for instance, when it can't master its own payroll technology? How can it be friendly to women and youth when it can't pay women on ma- ternity leave or lure students for summer jobs? Many in Ottawa are keenly awaiting the auditor general's report to get an idea of when and how this payroll disaster will end. The phoenix of Greek mytholo- gy rose out of ashes. That prospect seems less likely at the moment for the Phoenix payroll mess. LT uSusan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based political author and columnist who has been working on Parliament Hill for nearly 30 years. She is a frequent political panellist on national television and au- thor of four books. She can be reached at sdelacourt@bell.net. The Hill Susan Delacourt Susan Delacourt

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