Yep - pure mismanagement of the roll out. Now the buyer kept changing the wants but the roll out was just plain wrong.
Friends in Queensland might have lost their house - they had no money for weeks and weeks as both worked in Queensland Health.
Accenture changed it’s company name over it.
It was mostly driven by the Harper government wanting to get it in place soon enough to be able to claim the hypothetical savings for their upcoming election campaign. Some of the implementation failures included laying off most of the dedicated central payroll clerks, failure to provide or fund training for the departmental HR staff who were supposed to take over the input of pay transactions to the new system, failure to provide training for employees to be able to get any information out of the system, and then to blame everything on the new Liberal government when they lost the election.
I still kick myself for not deciding to retire 6 months before the switchover instead of six months after. It took over two years for my pay and retirement benefits to be sorted out, and there were still a few problems that never got completely fixed.
In other news, by-elections yesterday in Alberta: no change in status. NDP held two Edmonton seats, giving Nenshi his seat in the Assembly, and UCP held Olds.
Nenshi won his seat by about the same margin Notley won it last time, so that will likely end back room mutterings by some NDPers.
UCP won by a comfortable 60% in Olds.
Interesting point is that in Olds, where the Republican Party was running on separatism, the NDP came in second, ahead of the separatists. Commentators like Braid are saying that if the separatists get beat by the NDP in Olds, they’re in trouble.
On the other hand National Post article says that 35% of UCP voters think Smith is a closet separatist.
Context: Olds is the only Alberta riding that has elected a separatist, when the Western Canada Concept won it in a by-election 40 years ago.
Some links:
https://www.thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/06/24/Nenshi-NDP-Posts-Strong-Byelections/
As a liberal Albertan, I too think she is a closet separatist, and barely closeted at that. Maybe I am not being fair, because my opinion of her is already rock bottom.
The Phoenix payroll thing is mind blowing. How does this happen? Its the sort of thing the old right wing talk radio guys would be cashing in on for years.
Big storm over the weekend in Calgary. Lots of flooded basements and wet homes. Will be another major insurance event.
How much would it cost to implement a new payroll system from scratch starting now? If it’s less than repairing Phoenix…it probably could get worse, but maybe not?
Other than the point that it started under Harper.
I’m not a tech person, but I doubt that it’s possible to start from scratch, because Phoenix has decades of employment info about federal public servants: jobs, salaries, vacation and benefits entitlements, pension contributions, etc. I doubt that you could start from scratch without some linkage to those data bases, could you? So doesn’t Phoenix have to be kept operative, even if the goal is a completely new system?
Probably, but Phoenix replaced something else with that history (though poorly). I don’t actually know much about it, I’m just idly wondering if “repairing” a sinking ship will actually be more costly than just getting a new one.
When did conservative accountability ever enter into their schtick?
Yes, but Phoenix has been operating (to use the term loosely) for about a decade now, so whatever databases from the previous system still exist are badly out of date and wouldn’t include new hires since Phoenix came online.
There’s a pretty detailed wikipedia article on Phoenix. It’s disturbing in several ways, particularly the former public servant who killed herself because of the economic ruin she faced from losing her income under Phoenix. Another public servant had the bank foreclose on their house, because they kept getting cheques for $0.00.
I think I linked to that article already. I found it a disturbing read.
Curious what could come of this.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-next-premier-danielle-smith-adam-legge-1.7569417
Speculations?
ETA: Why no preview, Discourse? Smith basically wants to conduct town halls this summer for feedback on “…assert[ing] autonomy and shield its economy from what she calls federal overreach.”
I’m sorry to say that Serge Fiori died yesterday at the age of 73.
For those of you who have never heard the band “Harmonium”, well, you’re in for a treat. In three albums recorded in three years, they summed up the entire history of prog rock, from a folk-based trio on the first album “Harmonium”, to a sextet on the second album “Si on avait besoin d’une cinquieme saison”, to a double album with orchestra, “L’Heptade”.
Their influence in Québec cannot be over-stated - they came on the scene at about the same time as Beau Dommage, and showed generations of Québécois musicians that it was possible to express cultural, spiritual, and political themes unique to them.
Here’s the first cut on the first album, appropriately titled “Harmonium” - https://youtu.be/R3GQkltF3Bc?si=rb0dKiSnt2uiJpSP
Welcome back! You’ve been missed!
Sorry to hear about Fiori. I loved the debut album and enjoyed 5 saisons, but couldn’t get into l’heptade for some reason.
Article on Bill C-4.
Wow! Fuck you, Mr. Trump, and fuck all Republicans!
Sorry, I have a piece to write, and I need a lot more time to cool off before I can say anything more clever and articulate than “Fuck all bullies!”.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-terminating-trade-discussions-canada-1.7572964
Of course Trump has a lot of cards. He probably cheats at bingo as well as golf.
Carney has extended some irritating policies, but collecting a modicum of tax on wealthy companies should not be one of them. Still, business leaders have a point when they say it is an obvious irritant. Carney has done well so far but expectations are high. Even “the adults in the room” had trouble dealing with Trumpian outbursts of colic. Carney should continue to flatter and make soothing noises, try the gripewater, stay calm and avoid getting upset, lay Trump gently on his belly, hold him upright after feeding and try thickening his milk with Pablum. Which was a Canadian invention.
It was also in the news that BC Ferries had paid a kajillion dollars for four Chinese boats. This strikes me as sensible, despite lots of chatter.
There are American laws saying American boats need to be used for certain local routes, and analysis revealed they cost something like five times as much. No one would be kvetching if the boats were Swedish. If Canadian companies can come close to the proffered price they should be preferred.
Can someone explain this 3% tax that Canada has/will impose on certain US companies that Trump is complaining about? They say it’s retroactive to 2022, and that something like $3 billion is expected in the next few days.
Have these companies been paying since 2022, or have they been expected to save the required money and pay up now?