Tuesday, July 15, 2025

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Tuesday, July 15, 2025 | Latest Paper

Bigger workload, shorter timelines a growing ‘burden,’ says PCO

New priorities created by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers have put the public service’s hub of support for the cabinet under growing strain, according to its annual report. An “increased workload and shorter timelines means an increasingly heavy burden on existing resources and expertise,” says a section of the Privy Council Office’s (PCO) […]

PCO seeks ‘issues ninja,’ ‘master storyteller’

The Privy Council Office is taking great strides to make working in the federal public service more interesting, and apparently coming up with cool job titles is part of that strategy. An internal job posting went out late last month seeking an “issues ninja,” a “master storyteller,” and another job to support Prime Minister Justin […]

Phoenix pay centre continues to inch toward addressing cases on time

Public Services and Procurement Canada Phoenix pay centre employees are continuing to chip away at addressing the now 284,000 “unprocessed transactions” that haven’t been dealt with fast enough over the year Phoenix has been in use, but Public Services and Procurement Canada deputy minister Marie Lemay said there’s still a ways to go before public servants […]

Current, ex-public servants say Public Service Employment Act ‘unconstitutional’

Andrew Caddell, a public servant at Global Affairs, says the Public Service Commission has a flawed decision-making process when determining if a public servant should be allowed to run for public office. The Public Service Employment Act, legislation that supports the work of the Public Service Commission, often makes for “arbitrary,” “subjective,” and even “dangerous” […]

Despite ‘rocky start,’ public service union leaders prefer Trudeau to Harper

The relationship between Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government and unions has been “rocky” so far, but federal public service union leaders say it is better than it would have been if the Conservative government of Stephen Harper had been re-elected in 2015. “We have a respectful working relationship [with the Liberal government],” Robyn Benson, national president […]

Unions want feds to cough up a $75-million Phoenix contingency fund

The three largest public service unions are calling on the federal government to earmark $75-million in the upcoming federal budget to create a Phoenix “contingency” fund for public service workers who continue to experience pay issues under the problem-plagued payroll system that launched one year ago. The unions say a contingency fund could help departments […]

Feds set aside $545-million to finance new contracts reached with big unions

After more than a year in office, the Liberal government has reached tentative agreements with several large bargaining units representing thousands of civil servants, though those without deals are signalling they won’t settle until they get exactly what they want. Alain Belle-Isle, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board Secretariat, said in an emailed response to questions […]

Department reveals there are 290,000 unresolved Phoenix pay cases

There are nearly as many unprocessed public servant pay issues in the queue as there are federal employees who receive their pay through the Phoenix pay system, departmental officials revealed today. A year after the first of around 300,000 federal employees began receiving their pay through the new payroll system, there are approximately 290,000 “unprocessed […]

Government staff to turn from Phoenix backlog to prioritize new pay issue response time

While around 7,000 cases of considerably outdated pay issues still remain in the government’s backlog of pay transactions, the department responsible announced today that the workers will begin prioritizing response times for more recent, daily cases. “Eliminating the backlog will be very important but we need to shift our focus towards improving our service standards. […]