Thousands of Canadian workers continue to turn down promotions, accrue debt and delay retirement because of a pay system that the government has concluded is beyond fixing, and the end is still not in sight.

Since its implementation in February 2016, the Phoenix pay system for Canadian federal employees was plagued with problems. Employees got paid incorrect amounts, or not at all. Insufficient tax deductions led to surprise deductions in future paycheques. The accuracy of T4 slips was anybody’s guess, and some accountants soon developed specialties in helping clients who had been “Phoenixed.”

Late auditor general Michael Ferguson called the implementation of Phoenix an “incomprehensible failure” because of what its premature launch cost public employees. The government has since pledged to replace the system, which has already cost the government $1 billion.

Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) president Chris Aylward said replacing Phoenix is “absolutely” the right thing to do. But procuring a new system — which is likely to take several years— comes as small comfort to families whose pay and lives have already been turned upside down.

In an official employee survey released last month, about 70,000 employees reported having Phoenix-related pay issues in 2018. More than 53,000 public-sector employees said concerns about Phoenix prevented them from pursuing other job opportunities for fear of destabilizing their pay.

“Once your pay gets changed, that’s when you get on the Phoenix roller coaster,” Aylward said.

Three years on from the Phoenix launch, PSAC is asking the government to hire more staff to deal with 280,000 backlogged Phoenix cases and to compensate employees for what they’ve lost over three years of payroll hell.

In a statement to The Star, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada said the government “is doing everything possible to ensure that no employee remains out-of-pocket because of Phoenix.” The measures include the implementation of an emergency pay advance system and a claims system that works independently of Phoenix.

Even though years have gone by, and public interest in their pay problems seems to have waned, those affected say the problems with Phoenix have not let up. Here’s what Phoenix continues to cost four families from coast to coast.

Glynis Donovan, Halifax

Work centre supervisor, Department of National Defence

Donovan turned 60 in November, but her retirement is indefinitely on hold because she has no idea when or how she’ll dig herself out of the mess the Phoenix pay system has made of her life.

In 2007, Donovan started her current job as a civilian work centre supervisor with the Department of National Defence’s Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott. Located at the Halifax dockyard, her work involves maintaining inventory for Canada’s naval ships. It was an ideal transition from her 25-year career with the Canadian Air Force.

Then, in 2016, Phoenix struck. The problem has been a source of anxiety ever since, as her pay stubs are frequently incomprehensible and incorrect.

“This has impacted my health due to stress. I’ve got high blood pressure,” Donovan said in an interview. “I can’t finalize it. I can’t put a period after it and say, ‘OK, this is done. Put that away.’ It’s not going to finish.”

She has no way of knowing exactly how much money she’s owed, but Donovan spends about five hours each week keeping an up-to-date spreadsheet on the details of her frequently baffling pay stubs.

She recently started a fourth binder to house all those stubs, one for each stressful year.

“In May of 2018, I had five stubs for one pay, and four of them were zero,” she said, exasperation evident in her voice.

Donovan shared copies of her April 2018 statement of earnings. Multiple figures are circled with marker, and numerous question marks decorate the pages. She said this is typical.

“Everybody can balance their own chequebooks and banking accounts, but when you have a look at what’s involved with mine? It’s a nightmare,” she said.

“My biggest fear is Canada Revenue Agency because with my taxes, it’s been getting increasingly complicated.”

On Feb. 25, Donovan said she was emotionally distraught when she received her T4 slip needed to file her 2018 taxes. It pegged her salary at $95,000, about $30,000 more than it should have. She estimates that means she owes CRA more than $5,000 this year.

“I’ve been paying my taxes since I was 17 years of age, and I’m 60 and at this moment in my life I’m worried sick about CRA,” she said.

“I could’ve retired last year but I can’t let go until I get this straightened out.”

Donovan’s next step is to hire a tax lawyer, but she hit a frustrating road block this week. She was told the most financial assistance she could expect is $200 for each year her pay was plagued by the Phoenix system. She said that $600 won’t cut it for an audit on her complicated pay file.

“I’m not going to pay out of my pocket because I didn’t do anything to deserve this,” she said. “So that’s my next battle.”

Amanda Moloughney, Ottawa

Infrastructure Canada parliamentary affairs

Moloughney didn’t expect a string of promotions would lead to stress and financial hardship, but that’s what happened under Phoenix.

She’s worked in the public service in Ottawa for 10 years, most of that time in information management. Almost two years ago, she was transferred to Transportation Canada from Indigenous and Northern Affairs and offered higher pay.

Since then, she’s taken another role at Infrastructure Canada in parliamentary affairs, but her pay file still has not been updated to the wage she was offered in her previous position at Transportation Canada. So, despite two promotions, she’s still receiving the lower pay she earned two years ago.

Just as importantly, Moloughney’s pay file being in limbo has prevented her from adding her three-year-old daughter, Nadia-Harlow, to her health benefits plan. Her husband, Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf, works contracts at Ottawa Civic Hospital’s Heart Institute and doesn’t have a benefit plan through that work.

“I’ve had to postpone taking my daughter to the dentist,” she said. “It’s as if my daughter doesn’t exist.”

The couple is paying out of pocket for their daughter’s medical expenses and has had to take out money from their line of credit in order to pay for daycare.

The stress of it all has led to health problems for Moloughney.

“I’m a Type 1 diabetic. I have to say the impact of this has greatly affected my health and mental well being. I’ve had seizures as a result of the stress,” she said. “I don’t sleep some nights worrying about when is my pay going to arrive.”

“It’s posed such a financial challenge that up until recently we were actually considering leaving the country for my husband to go work in the Middle East,” she said.

They decided to hold off on the idea after Moloughney’s latest promotion. But, without knowing when her payroll issues will be resolved, she said even that decision was a risk.

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Heather Boudreau, Edmonton

Environmental services manager at the RCMP

In the spring of 2016, Boudreau returned to Correctional Services Canada from maternity leave. Her department was using a then-new system — Phoenix — to handle pay and vacation time. Boudreau hadn’t had any problems while she was off but quickly found her pay file going awry. It still hasn’t been fully resolved.

“It’s anyone’s guess what I’m really owed,” Boudreau recently said.

She didn’t receive a paycheque for 10 weeks following her maternity leave. Paying the bills meant her husband, who works in law enforcement in Edmonton, had to work 60-hour weeks to ensure the family could afford daycare and other baby-related expenses.

By the fall, Boudreau had received an emergency salary advance from her employer but ran into another problem: her mortgage renewal.

“At the time, my pay stubs were zero — or not right,” she said. “There wasn’t a long history of having a proper paycheque to show them.”

The bank initially turned her down. Only after her supervisor at Correctional Services Canada produced a letter vouching for her employment — and the amount she was supposed to be earning — were they able to get a renewal. But, for about a week, Boudreau said, she and her husband considered selling their house and downsizing.

For several months the Phoenix pay system fluctuated her pay from week to week. Sometimes she wasn’t paid at all. Other times, she’d be paid twice or even three times her actual salary.

By December 2016, her issues had been straightened out somewhat. But after Boudreau accepted a temporary secondment with Environment and Climate Change Canada, they started anew. Any time her secondment was extended, it would wreak havoc with her pay file.

“Every week was a blessing if I got any money — and it never, ever was correct,” Boudreau said.

Throughout her troubles with Phoenix, she became her own de facto payroll manager: keeping track of her hours worked, vacation time and sick leave on her own Excel spreadsheet. Her compensation adviser estimated she’s owed $12,000. But even she doesn’t believe it’s completely accurate.

Boudreau isn’t holding out much hope that every dollar she’s owed will end up in her pay file. Even her husband has advised her to take whatever the federal service pays her and just move on. Given all of the setbacks and problems she’s faced over the last several years — tax issues, continued paycheque problems, even considering whether to leave the civil service — she doesn’t expect the latest attempt to rectify her pay file to be any different.

“They can give me all the information they want,” she said. “But it’s so complicated that I can’t verify if they’re telling me the truth or if they’re making a mistake again.”

Shaunna McInnis, Kimberley, B.C.

Visitor’s Centre at Kootenay National Park

On a day off, McInnis sat down to file her 2018 taxes. She needed the full day to do it, because she knew she’d have to sift through files of inaccurate pay slips and a T4 just to make an informed guess about what she owed.

McInnis is a longtime federal seasonal employee, having worked in various positions for Parks Canada since her early 20s, when she helped staff campgrounds at Lake Louise. She now works at Kootenay National Park, driving 130 km to work from her home in Kimberley, B.C. She’s also a single mom to Owen, 14, who has chronic health problems.

The uncertainty of McInnis’ pay due to the Phoenix system has been a constant source of stress on her family.

“We’ve already got stress in the house,” she said in between working on taxes. “But with not knowing about paychecks, confusion with my hours of work, confusion with lots of little and bigger things — it causes a lot of extra stress.”

She and Owen used to live in Yoho National Park, where McInnis worked, an experience she said she was lucky to share with her son. Four years ago they decided to move to Kimberley, where their support system of family and friends is located and Owen doesn’t have to travel a long distance to go to school.

Not long after the move, McInnis’ Phoenix problems began. She took the summer off work in 2016 due to extenuating circumstances but she continued to get paid by Phoenix for 10 weeks.

“Every two weeks I would call and say, ‘Please stop paying me,’” she said. She was told by the Phoenix call centre that they didn’t have the authority to stop the payments.

That’s led to years of clawbacks from McInnis’ paycheques and unresolved disagreements about the exact amount she owes. Like many of her colleagues, she said, her pay comes inconsistently and she’s still being paid at the rate of her 2012 wage.

“Working seasonal is already stressful when you’re trying to budget,” she said. “It’s the unpredictability.”

What McInnis worries about most is her pension.

“I’m unable to calculate my pension,” she said. “I don’t know enough about accounting and payroll. I don’t know what should be paid into — but I do want the pension at the end of this.”

After almost three years, McInnis feels she’s waited long enough for answers and a resolution. She estimates she’s spent 100 hours of personal time compiling records and sending them to Phoenix representatives. She’s still waiting to hear back.

Yvette d’Entremont is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on health. Follow her on Twitter: @ydentremont

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