An Indigenous liaison officer at the Stony Mountain Penitentiary north of Winnipeg says he hasn’t been paid in more than three months.
Wayne Robillard is just one of thousands of federal public servants who have had their pay interrupted by a system that was brought in under former prime minister Stephen Harper.
Robillard said the pay system has left his family in a very difficult position.
“That’s a huge chunk for anyone to pocket. To be able to say, ‘Hey I’m just going to continue on dealing with this’ and knowing that I’m owed that much money when I could go find employment somewhere else and not have to worry about it, especially during the holiday season, this has caused an incredible amount of stress for myself and my family and my daughter.”
“The phoenix pay system really needs to go. It was poorly thought out in my opinion,” he said.
After a two year recovery from long-term COVID-19, Robillard was looking forward to coming back to work this past fall.
He said his wife’s income has kept them going along with an emergency advance. Robillard said they had to dip into their savings to cover the mortgage.
“I sat on this side of the table with an empty plate while my daughters ate…” he said.
“I’m from Fisher River so when they bring the Christmas hampers in, I’ve never really participated in that because I never really felt that I was in that pool where I had that need, and I never wanted to take food or the ability to take food out of someone else’s hand so I have never gone to that — this year I went…. this year I went to make sure my family had food over the holidays,” he said.
In a statement to APTN News, a spokesperson for Public Service and Procurement Canada said it put measures in place to try and mitigate pay issues – including emergency advances.
“It is unacceptable for Government of Canada employees and former employees to face pay issues, including not receiving any pay at all. Employees deserve to get paid correctly and in a timely matter, and we recognize that anything less is unacceptable,” said the statement.
Robillard said it’s not enough.
“Food or gas or Christmas presents for your daughter, or things like that you know, you shouldn’t have to ever really worry about going without when you work for the federal government especially when you’re told many times you know get a government job get a great pension and great benefits, well this so far is now effecting my pay and my benefits,” he said.
According to the federal government, the cost to fix the Phoenix pay system backlog is so far at $3.5 billion.
The government said since October 2024, there are more than 408,000 unresolved Phoenix pay system cases.
