By Rob Silver 
It has been 10 years since the Phoenix pay system was launched, and from day one it has been an unmitigated disaster. Workers have been overpaid, underpaid, or not paid at all. People have lost homes, had their credit destroyed, and endured an unimaginable level of stress simply for showing up to work.
When it comes to blame, you will hear Liberals point at Conservatives and Conservatives point at Liberals, and the uncomfortable truth is both are right. The Harper government bought a deeply flawed system, and the Trudeau government continued with it anyway.
A decade later, you’d think this would be resolved. It isn’t. Tens of thousands of pay issues remain, and new ones continue to occur.
And what is the government doing now? Repeating the same mistake, pushing forward with another major system change without meaningful consultation with unions or affected workers. History tells us exactly where that leads.
Let’s also talk about cost. Phoenix was supposed to save $70 million per year. Instead, costs have ballooned to over $2 billion, not counting the human damage inflicted on workers and their families.
The lesson is painfully obvious: you do not fix systems that affect workers’ livelihoods without consulting the workers and their unions. Anything less is reckless and risks yet another avoidable disaster.
Fair to say, after 10 years, real consultation isn’t optional. It’s long overdue
Nicolas Maltais