A Calgary student is one of hundreds of thousands of Canadians still waiting to receive the back pay owed to her in the wake of the troubled Phoenix pay system.

Phoenix is a new computerized pay system that was rolled out in February 2016 and has been the subject of complaints from thousands of federal employees who have been underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.

This summer, 22 year old Sydney Kallio, was working for Parks Canada in Waterton Lakes National Park and the day she found out she wasn’t getting her first paycheque; her supervisors suggested she call the pay centre.

“The Phoenix pay centre, they were having some problems with it and that I might be able to get it sorted out,” says Kallio. “I called them repeatedly and there was no answer. There were so many people calling that they couldn’t receive my personal call.”

Kallio said she had no choice but to continue to keep calling.

“It’s extremely frustrating especially when they’re supposed to be there to help you and you go to them for help and understanding and they can’t give you either of those,” says Kallio.

Her supervisors were able to help her out by having her rent at the bunkhouses put on hold until Kallio had the money to pay it but she had to borrow money from her parents to pay for things like insurance, phone bills and some of her bills from her previous semester of school.

 “It’s extremely embarrassing, especially when I’m 22 years old, to ask my parents for money and they don’t have a lot of money and they have their own bills so it was hard to ask them for that,” says Kallio.

She received a cheque but it was six weeks late and it was wrong.

“It wasn’t the contract pay nor was it the contract hours I had been working. I was only paid for 32 hours when I was working 40. It was $12.00 per hour when it was supposed to be almost $18.00 per hour,” says Kallio.

She was paid bi-weekly after that but it was the wrong pay and when she called to ask what was happening she couldn’t get any answers.

Kallio had planned to go back to school in the fall but ended up missing the semester because she couldn’t afford continue her education so she ended up moving back home with her parents.

“I wanted to go back to school but I didn’t think it was fair with owing my parents money as well as not having enough money to live on my own and just postpone school until I thought I would be paid a little but later,” says Kallio. “It’s extremely frustrating and stressful to know that this money is there I just don’t have access to it.”

Kallio is now relying on student loans to help with her post-secondary education.

“I got the job in the first place so I didn’t have to have student loans. Now I have to rely on a loan that has interest and that I will have to eventually pay off,” she says.

Kallio says since she shared her story, she’s been contacted several times by a government representative promising to sort out her back pay.