A decade after the pay system launched, there are 1,800 full-time workers dedicated to clearing the backlog after public servants were overpaid or underpaid. After launching in 2016, the error-plagued Phoenix pay system overpaid and underpaid thousands of public servants. O’Reilly expects the looming mass movements of personnel will further clog the payroll system and increase arrears. "With Phoenix, we weren’t ready for implementation, but we had a government that was in a hurry.”Geneviève Tellier, a professor at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, has been following the failures of the Phoenix pay system fiasco since 2016. Alex Silas, national executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, wants a public inquiry to shed light on the failures of the Phoenix pay system.

Source: CBC News February 18, 2026 15:00 UTC