N.B. government payroll system revamp to be delayed, over budget

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The full implementation of New Brunswick’s revamped payroll system will be delayed by two years and cost about $200 million more than initially estimated.

The Oracle Fusion Enterprise Resource Planning project is meant to manage how payroll, procurement and finances are processed across all provincial government levels, including school districts and community colleges.

Work on the project began in 2020 and was pegged to cost about $200 million.

The project was supposed to be complete by 2028.

On Friday, a new completion date of 2030 was confirmed along with a revised cost estimate of “just shy of $400 million,” according to David Nowlan, the associate deputy minister in charge of project.

Nowlan said initial estimates for the “challenging project” didn’t fully account for the number of contract workers who would be needed.

“When you’re contracting specialized resources like that, in this marketplace, the cost of those resources continues to climb,” said Nowlan during a legislative committee meeting on Friday. “So we manage that as best we can. We monitor the time very closely people are spending on the project. Time is to be approved. Deliverables are being monitored.”

Nowlan said complexities with the project have included the new system recognizing different collective agreements, while also accounting for individuals who may be working multiple assignments with different pay rates.

“We’re changing the way people have done things for numerous years, probably up to 35 years in some cases,” said Nowlan. “The biggest challenge, and risk, is always the people side of things. It’s difficult to have people change along with the time. That risk is more than offset by the risk that we’re mitigating some very old disconnected systems that have been operating for years.

“Before we started the project, all of the education system’s payroll was paid on a system where they had to buy a computer on eBay, because it would only work on Windows 97. The fact people in that sector were being paid accurately and on time is a real testament to the backs of the people who were holding that system up.”

In December 2024, a report from Auditor General Paul Martin said the province would be using “IT systems with noted risks” until the project was fully implemented.

Nowlan said the project beginning during the pandemic also presented obstacles early on.

“The first week that our implementation partner was on site was the week before COVID,” said Nowlan. “We had to reorganize the entire approach to the project.”

“Every time you go into any organization with new functionality there are incredible challenges and you don’t know what you’re going to find across the organizations at times.”

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