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In all, there were 150,000 employees with pay problems that needed correcting at the start of summer, and a value of over $520 million worth of mistakes.

The Liberals will provide a full and detailed cost estimate to fix the system, but not until next May, with plans to finalize by next month a preliminary road map of dozens of projects aimed at fixing Phoenix.

Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough said the government would look at all options for the long-term, including whether Phoenix will still run the federal pay system. But she also didn’t mince words when she addressed the genesis of the problem.

“The previous government botched the Phoenix pay system from the start,” she told a news conference in the foyer of the House of Commons.

“They spent $309 million to create an unproven and flawed pay system, and prematurely booked $70 million in savings per year. They rushed the design and implementation, and they did not train staff — in fact, they terminated 700 special compensation staff before Phoenix was launched.”

When asked whether scrapping the system would make financial sense, Ferguson wasn’t convinced, noting the pay software alternatives that would be available today aren’t all that different than the one the government bought.

“If they started all over again, it’s hard to see how they would actually end up in a better situation,” Ferguson said. “Their only real option is to try and resolve the problem within the system as it exists.”