The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
Log in

AGM 2021 - Saint Hyacinthe RE sub-group for PIPSC

Meeting Minutes

8 December 2021

Virtual Zoom meeting. 

Opening: 12:00 noon.

Present:

Claude P. Champagne, President

Tania Ngapo, Vice President

Yves Arcand, Treasurer

Sébastien Villeneuve

Evelyne Guèvremont

Lamia L’Hocine

Louise Deschenes

Claude Gariépy

Michel Britten

Fadi Ali

Pierre Gelinas

Isabelle Germain

Julie Brassard

Louis Sasseville

Marie-Claude Gentes

Absent with apology:

Martin Mondor

 

Changes to and approval of the agenda

Some participants are involved in a conference and have a short lunch break to attend this meeting.  The elections of the new executive will therefore be moved forward.

Claude P. Champagne presented the agenda which was unanimously approved as distributed and with the amendment.  Motion to approve by Pierre Gelinas, seconded by Sebastien Villeneuve.

Approval of the minutes from the AGA held 17 December 2019. 

Claude P. Champagne presented the previously circulated minutes which were unanimously approved as distributed.  Motion to approve by Tania Ngapo, seconded by Sebastien Villeneuve.

Elections (Claude P. Champagne)

Both Claude P. Champagne and Yves Arcand would like to resign from their positions.  Tania Ngapo is willing to continue as Vice President.  The discussion was opened for interest.  Sebastien Villeneuve and Evelyne Guèvremont expressed interest in joining the Executive.  Claude P. Champagne presided as President of the election.  No opposition was expressed, nominations who were elected with unanimity.

News from the Institute (Sébastien Villeneuve, Delegate)

More dossiers this year than normal, and some difficult/heavy.

  • Reinstalling PIPSC union - management (patronale - syndicale) meetings back at SHCRD. 
  • Discussions on management requests made early 2021 for RES to use up their vacations before the end of the financial year.  Management has the right to ask staff to take their vacation time.  However, personal circumstances can be taken into account and Sebastien, as our delegate, offered that he can help in this regard where there are a lot of details. 
  • Some other points noted were:
    • Professional positions are not being replaced.  However, posts are not being deleted, but rather, at the moment waiting until the new workplace structure is established (R&R).
    • The number of RES at SHCRD remains at 17 and a new hiring plan is being put into place
    • In response to the last PSES section on harassment, it is duly noted that supervisors have an obligation to be implicated in cases of harassment.  The moment that there is an oral notification of harassment, management has an obligation to react.  Sebastien, as our delegate, can help with how to document events and put together a dossier.  The same applies for Workplace Health and Safety.
    • R&R:
      • A national PIPSC committee has been formed
      • The Anglophone community appears more reactive than francophone
      • Management has the right to do as they wish with respect to management structure and have no obligation to consult PIPSC.
      • We are very fortunate are SHCRD that Julie Bernier has engaged PIPSC since the outset, and recognise Julie for being so inclusive and transparent.
      • Important to note that the section head will not be excluded from PIPSC.
    • Discussions about the impact of Covid on career progression are underway, including lack of A-base funding this year, limited opportunities to engage with clients, travel restrictions and conferences
    • No problems appear to have arisen at SHCRD with the implementation of the proof of vaccination.
    • In the last bargaining period there were discussions of replacing the sick leave system and a new system was proposed.  However, the new system had no right to negotiation once implanted and on this point discussions came to a standstill.  For now, we continue to operate under the old system (that is, there has been no change).
    • A new system, ProGen, is currently being tested to replace Pheonix.
    • Note that in seven years, PIPSC at SHCRD has not had any grievances and generally has been able to mitigate confrontation.

Questions:

  • Julie Brassard asked if R&R system is better accepted elsewhere. 
    • Sebastien: little news, will perhaps have a better idea next year
  • Claude Gariépy noted that in yesterdays meeting with Gilles Saindon and Liz Foster, the latter stated that the new structure was requested by scientists.
    • Sebastien: stems from the PSES
  • Fadi Ali asked why there is resistance to the new R&R structure.
    • A range of reasons were given from several participants including, but not exclusively:
      •  lack of information and apparent lack of planning prior to announcement,
      • imposition of new system without consultation,
      • current planning appears to be “on the fly”,
      • supervision by peers adds two steps between RES and DRDT (that is section head and ADRDT),
      • ethical concerns about supervision by those in competition for funding (as opposed to the old system of section heads),
      • no information on right to refusal to be section head or the means to become section head,
      • lack of compensation for more responsibility in the post of section head,
      • lack of clarity as to the role of section head,
      • it is a significant change.

Michel Britten did note that in the past system with section heads, they undertook evaluations.

In other union news, Claude P. Champagne noted that after the latest PIPSC elections, Debbie Daviau is no longer President of PIPSC.  The new President is Jennifer Carr.  There are also two full time Vice-Presidents, Norma Domey and Sean O’Reilly, and two part time Vice-Presidents Stéphanie Fréchette and Eva Henshaw.  Sebastien Villeneuve mentioned also that the new Director for Quebec is Pierre Potvin.

Sebastien mentioned that PIPSC allows that we can meet in person, of course following Covid safety measures in place locally.  Given the significant rise in daily case numbers in Quebec between sending the invitation and today as well as to be as inclusive as possible, the current meeting was moved from a restaurant to a virtual setting.

Other activities from 2021 (Tania Ngapo)

As one of the initial Women In Science (WIS) Learning Lab attendees, Tania Ngapo was invited to participate in working group for the organising committee of the second WIS Lab which was held virtually over 3 days in October 2022. 

Tania also mentioned that the PIPSC WIS group is very proud of the Women in Science Toolkit that was created as an outcome of the first learning lab and that earlier this year achieved the Canadian Association of Labour Media's Fighting Oppression Award for a communications initiative that raises consciousness and contributes to struggles against racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and other forms of oppression and discrimination.

Financial report (Claude P. Champagne)

Yves Arcand gave a summary of the financial report that had been circulated prior to the meeting.  With Covid, there have been a few expenses.  Those in 2020 relate to the AGM late 2019.  The financial report was unanimously approved as distributed.  Motion to approve by Julie Brassard, seconded by Claude Gariépy.

Thanks

Thanks was expressed unanimously for the work that the current executive has undertaken throughout the last couple of years.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 pm by Claude P. Champage, and seconded by Yves Arcand.

 

Minutes submitted by Tania Ngapo, 10 December 2021

Minutes revised and approved by Sebastien Villeneuve, 13 December 2021

 

Published on 31 March 2022