Feds seek Miramichi land for pay centre

Miramichi is one step closer to getting the 550 federal jobs promised nearly a year-and-a-half ago.

Public Works and Government Services Canada has launched a request for information, looking to buy land where it can build a new payroll centre for public servants.

Prospective sites will be screened and evaluated by April, according to a news release issued Wednesday.

The so-called pay centre of expertise,announced in August 2010, will consolidate and modernize the federal government's pay system for public servants.

It is expected to reach its full complement of 550 employees by 2015-16.

But the first 146 employees will be hired "in the coming months" andwill startworking this spring in an interim leased officeatthe Miramichi Mall.

"The Harper Government continues to move forward with the transformation of its pay administration and the establishment of the Government of Canada Pay Centre of Expertise in the city of Miramichi," Miramichi MP Tilly O'Neill-Gordon stated in the news release.

"This Request for Information being launched today not only confirms the Government of Canada's commitment to consolidate pay services, but also our commitment to create hundreds of jobs in the city of Miramichi," she said.

Thecentre alsofulfils a government promise to replace any jobsthat will be lostby shuttingdown the long-gun registry headquartered in Miramichi.

The Conservative government, with its majority, won a Commons vote in the late fall to kill the long-gun registry. But it has not yet moved to push the bill through the final stages in the Senate.

The new pay centre is expected to result in an annual savings of up to $80-million once startup costs are recouped by about 2020.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser raised concerns in her spring 2010 report about the state of the government's payroll system.

The prime minister's advisory committee on the public service also indicated that updating the federal payroll system was a "top priority" in February 2009.