An Ottawa public servant, suffering from mental health issues, says ongoing problems with her pay are pushing her over the edge.
Her mortgage bounced, she had to borrow thousands of dollars from her parents and the system is still broken. It's taken a lot of courage for Jennifer Carter to speak to CTV Ottawa about what she's going through. The anxiety, the stress is sometimes unbearable. But Carter says she had to speak up for the thousands of others in the same or worse situation.
As a manager with the federal government, Jennifer Carter is used to fixing things but getting her own paycheque is one thing she can't seem to fix.
After two nervous breakdowns, and months off work, Carter finally felt strong enough to return to her job in February. Her paycheque, however, didn't follow.
“I went to buy some basic groceries,” says Carter, “and my bank account is empty and I thought this didn't make any sense. I went to my bank and found out my mortgage had bounced and a few other things had bounced.”
At 40 years of age, she says she had to ask her elderly parents for money to help her cover her monthly expenses.
“Everything was so hard for two years, so hard,” she says, “that you just want it to be okay. You think the one stable thing in your life is that you're going to get a paycheque.”
Carter says her boss had everything arranged for her return but the breakdown was with the Phoenix pay system that kept losing her timesheets.
“They still didn't go through, so I emailed them. It bounced back, saying the files were too big. I emailed again, it bounced back. It’s that moment of, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do and I'm used to being able to fix stuff.”
The federal government has admitted some 80,000 public servants aren't getting paid what they're owed, including several members of parliament. The government says it's working on the problem but admits it will take months.
Yesterday in Gatineau, the Prime Minister stepped in, ordering the top bureaucrat to fix this.
“It is something that I have engaged in personally,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “and tasked the clerk of the Privy Council to oversee. We are making sure the situation gets fixed for the families that are needing our help.”
Jennifer Carter isn't convinced of that. Five months after her return to work, with her boss, even her MP working to help her, she just found out she is still not on the payroll.
“I don't want to be 45 years old and living at home with my parents, I don't,” she says, “I need this fixed.
Today, Public Works admitted there had been two privacy breaches with the Phoenix pay system but that both were low risk with respect to privacy concerns.
On the pay issue, Marie Lemay, the Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada said they are addressing concerns as quickly as possible and to look forward to an update next week.
