So does anyone answer to this whole situation?
Someone should, but we need to break it down a little.
First, we would need to know how many staff attritted during covid. We would have to know more about when and why …. Did they just quit, were they laid off and did not respond to recall, how many were lost to promotions, retirement, other health issues, etc….. and how much hiring and training was going on at that point.
Second, we would need to know what direction ML gave Alstom over the entire period - what the specified demand for staff was Pre covid, what changes did ML make to its requirements over time, what direction did they give alstom to downsize and later to staff up again, etc.
Thirdly we need to know what steps Alstom took during the period where service was being restored… when did they start calling back staff, when did they post job ads, how many qualified applicants responded, etc. Did they meet the pace needed given the time to screen, offer positions, train, etc.
Lastly we need to know where the Province and Minister were in all of this…. Did they direct service startups or instruct ML to delay startups in a way that affected ML’s request of alstom or alstom’s ability to deliver?
My point is - ML will never provide this data voluntarily. It might be discoverable via FOI, but ML will no doubt claim confidentiality clauses, ministerial privilege, canine dietary incidents, or whatever so that none of it comes to light. This is a good example of what can go wrong when there is no transparency within a somewhat complicated food chain.
My conspiracy theory is that Alstom did indeed have a graph that said, as of Feb 2020 we had x rte’s. We have since laid off y of them, if we recall them we may get z% of those people back, and if we begin new hiring it will take us k months to get back to that original strength - and a further q months to add enough staff to be ready to add new services. (I say that because When I was running a HR Shop we had people who did exactly that sort of analysis for our long lead time, highly trained and licensed workforce. I do believe that Alstom has a competent HR shop so they would have been doing much the same)
My further conspiracy theory is that between them, ML and QP may have ignored those constraints…. Or surprised Alstom with sudden increases in requirements that could not be met…. Or assured Alstom that their needs did not approach those limits and caused Alstom to back off hiring and training….
Or, Alstom may have dropped the ball.
I suspect we may never know.
- Paul