Alberta's 51,000 teachers have taken a stand for labour rights and our children's education, demanding reasonable compensation, support for classroom complexity and caps on class size. Their wages have lagged behind inflation rates for far too long and they are asked to do more with less on a daily basis. 

This is the largest strike in Alberta's history and PIPSC stands in solidarity with the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA). While picket lines are anticipated, we do not expect any significant impact to PIPSC members due to work locations; however, you may experience traffic delays. 

We also recognize that the loss of teachers in schools impacts parents, including our members, across the province. Employers are required to consider accommodation requests on a case by case basis. 

If you require support, please reach out to your local stewards.

We encourage you, as PIPSC members, to support the ATA outside of your work hours, and during unpaid breaks. Supporting our teachers means supporting our children and the next generation of public service workers!

According to Le Devoir, the Legault government is considering legislation that would make certain union dues “optional” and impose new rules on union governance and transparency. We stand firmly against these proposals. Far from improving transparency, they are designed to weaken unions’ ability to represent their members and to tilt power further toward employers. 

The leaked document suggests dues could be withheld if they fund activities like legal challenges, social movements, advertising, or charitable donations. Unions that fail to comply could be hauled before the Tribunal administratif du travail. In practice, it will limit the ability of workers to speak out and rally against government overreach and policies that roll back progress, and could contravene collective agreement or labour laws or other legislation (Privacy Act, pay equity, etc.).

The proposal also strikes at the heart of the Rand Formula – the principle that everyone who benefits from a collective agreement contributes fairly to the cost of maintaining it. Without it, we risk costly bureaucracy, weakened solidarity, and fewer resources to defend workers’ rights.

Unions are already democratic and accountable. Members debate, question, and vote on budgets, priorities, and actions. Transparency is built into every meeting. What the CAQ is proposing is not transparency, but blanket suspicion – and a double standard, since employer groups and corporate lobbies face no such constraints.

This fits a broader pattern: restricting the right to strike, cutting public services, and now interfering with union governance and workers’ rights. PIPSC is clear:

• Yes to accountability to members, by members
• No to government interference that undermines democracy and workers rights
• Yes to cooperation on the real issues facing workers and families

Strong, independent and financially independent unions are essential to a fair and democratic society. We call on the Government of Queébec to abandon this harmful path and respect the institutions workers have built.

We stand in unwavering solidarity with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) as they take strike action in defense of their members, good jobs, and the future of Canada Post.

The government’s decision to gut door-to-door delivery, lift the rural moratorium on post office closures, cut back delivery standards, and impose service reductions is an attack not only on postal workers, but on the public services that Canadians rely on every day. These short-sighted cuts put jobs at risk, weaken communities, and deny people—especially in rural and remote areas—the universal service they deserve.

Postal workers have been clear: Canada Post does not need to be dismantled. It needs to be strengthened, modernized, and expanded, with bold investments and revenue diversification that support a greener economy and stronger communities. Instead, the government has chosen austerity over innovation.

As public service professionals, we know that when services are cut, people suffer. We share CUPW’s outrage at this betrayal of trust and lack of public consultation. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with postal workers as they fight back against this government’s reckless approach.

We encourage PIPSC members to join CUPW picket lines in their communities, show visible solidarity, and amplify CUPW’s message. Together with our labour allies, we will demonstrate that when one public service is under attack, we all stand up to protect it.

An attack on one public service is an attack on all public services. Together, we will defend good jobs and protect the services Canadians count on.

FREDERICTON, NB, September 19, 2025 — New Brunswick Crown Counsel (NBCC) Group—represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC)— have ratified a five-year collective agreement that delivers pay parity with Crown Prosecutors and ends a compensation crisis that saw legal costs spiral out of control. The deal, retroactive to 2023 and running through 2028, will align NBCC with the salaries of crown counsel in other provinces and represents a major victory for government legal capacity.

"This deal validates what we've been saying all along – Crown Counsel deserve the same compensation as their prosecutor colleagues," said Eric Boucher, NBCC President. "The 95% strike support sent a clear message that our members were united and serious about achieving fairness. This agreement ensures New Brunswick can recruit and retain the legal expertise it needs."

The agreement secures three of the union's four key pay proposals, most notably achieving pay equity with the New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Group – ending wage gaps that ranged from 29% at senior levels to 49% for junior lawyers despite identical qualifications and responsibilities.

The tentative agreement emerged following conciliation meetings in July, where the independent conciliator's report strongly favoured the union's position. The deal includes significant wage grid improvements and market adjustments that reflect the true value of Crown Counsel's specialized legal work.

"The conciliation process confirmed what we knew – our position was reasonable and necessary," said PIPSC President Sean O'Reilly. "This agreement demonstrates that when workers stand together with rock-solid solidarity, meaningful change is possible."

With the province's use of private law firms having doubled from $4.1 million in 2019-20 to $8.6 million in 2024-25, and the province paying up to $500 per hour for private legal services, retaining experienced Crown Counsel will generate substantial savings.

Crown Counsel provide legal advice to all departments and many crown corporations, defend against lawsuits, grievances and appear at arbitrations, ensure the government respects the law and the Constitution, negotiate and draft contracts, and draft all public laws and regulations.

"Without our members' unwavering commitment to fair compensation, this result would not have been possible," Boucher emphasized. "This agreement protects both our members and the public interest by ensuring the government has the legal capacity it needs."

The five-year agreement provides stability and predictability while positioning the Government of New Brunswick as a competitive employer for experienced legal professionals.

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For more information: Johanne Fillion, 613-883-4900 (mobile), jfillion@pipsc.ca

In June 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a new partnership with Cohere – a Toronto-based AI company. The government billed it as a “Made in Canada” innovation to modernize the public service. Cohere is set to receive $240 million in federal funding under this strategy. 

But the story behind the announcement looks very different. Cohere relies on American firm CoreWeave to run its data centres, tying up Canadian taxpayer dollars in US operations. When asked to name specific government projects that justify the hefty investment, AI Minister Evan Solomon couldn’t provide a single example. And the promised public registry of government AI projects that was meant to ensure accountability still hasn’t been delivered. 

Compounding our concern is the fact that unions like PIPSC – which represent the workers most likely to be impacted by these decisions – have been excluded from discussions and the government’s AI Advisory Committee. Yet, corporations are given seats at the table. This imbalance demonstrates whose needs are shaping this policy. 

A partnership built on secrecy

The federal government’s AI partnership with Cohere was announced last month, but the details remain secret. Ottawa says AI won’t cost jobs, yet Cohere’s “North” tool is already replacing office tasks at Bell and RBC.

When the UK made a deal with Cohere, the scope was public and clear – it included hiring and defence. Why can’t we get the same transparency here? Canadians, including public servants, deserve to know what’s being planned behind closed doors – and unions must be at the table.

Where is the promised public AI registry? Why are unions excluded from the AI Advisory Committee while corporations get privileged access? If the government wants to use smart technology, it should be smart enough to tell Canadians how it will affect jobs, tasks, and the future of public services. Keeping this deal secret only creates more questions – and less trust.

Outsourcing and the looming threat of privatization via AI

This partnership with Cohere is giving $240 million to a company that generates 90% of its revenue outside Canada and uses the US company CoreWeave to operate its data centres. Meanwhile, Canada’s in-house IT professionals, including 20,000 PIPSC members, continue to be sidelined. 

Cohere isn't just partnering with government – it's also cutting deals with private telecom companies to sell AI services back to that same government. Bell Canada has signed a revenue-sharing agreement to market Cohere's AI tools to government and enterprise customers, with both companies splitting the profits from public sector contracts.

This creates a circular profit scheme: taxpayers fund Cohere's development through the $240 million government investment, then pay again when Bell sells Cohere's services back to government departments. 

This approach transforms public services into revenue streams for private companies – a dangerous precedent that threatens the independence and integrity of federal operations.

This isn't Canadian AI leadership or modernization – it's privatization with a Canadian flag on it.

Public service cuts and the Phoenix parallel

The government wants PIPSC members to trust that AI won't be used to replace jobs, but this partnership comes as Ottawa is ordering 15% cuts to public services – the deepest cuts in generations and breaking its first promise to the federal workforce. It raises real concerns that AI will be used to replace workers. 

What’s more, the government is cutting budgets while expecting new technology to magically do more work for less money. We've seen this before with the Phoenix Pay system: it promised savings but instead, replacing humans with technology continues to cost billions of dollars and cause harm nearly a decade later.

Rushing AI implementation without proper safeguards, regulation, or worker consultation risks repeating those costly mistakes on an even larger scale.

It’s a tough time for this government to ask for trust. 

What PIPSC wants to see

We support AI that helps civil servants do more and better work. But federal workers and the Canadians we serve deserve better than AI policies driven by corporate interests and profit-sharing agreements. We need transparency, genuine consultation, and protections that ensure AI serves the public interest – not just private balance sheets.

What we need:

• Transparency: Deliver the promised public AI registry so citizens and workers know how AI is being used
• Real consultation: Include union representatives on the AI Advisory Committee, and commit to ongoing consultation, including at the bargaining table
• Canadian expertise: Use our own federal IT professionals to develop AI tools instead of outsourcing to companies with foreign operations
• Worker protections: Include AI provisions in collective agreements with guarantees for training and protection against mass layoffs
• Independent oversight: Establish AI regulation and oversight to protect workers and all citizens

Cohere may be valued at $6.8 billion, but that valuation is built largely on revenue from outside Canada and partnerships that prioritize corporate profits over public service delivery. The federal government's secretive approach to AI implementation, combined with massive spending on outside contractors while sidelining our own professionals, looks more like privatization than modernization. 

When we outsource critical government functions to foreign-operated data centres and exclude our own experts from decision-making, we weaken Canadian sovereignty and undermine the very public services that define us as a nation. At a time when other countries are questioning Canada's strength and independence, we should be investing in Canadian expertise and transparent governance – not handing over public services to profit-driven partnerships with foreign operations.

This isn't how you build a resilient, sovereign country. It's how you dismantle one, one contract at a time.

A survey was conducted on behalf of the Canadian Tax Federation by Leger in July 2025. The poll claims that a majority of Canadians want cuts to the public service, and that a majority believe that service quality has not improved despite the growth in public service. PIPSC has responded with criticism to the survey, and some additional methodological concerns are outlined below. 

Representativeness matters 

The online survey was conducted on a sample of 1,553 Canadian adults. The selection of these adults was based on non-probability sampling (a web panel in the case of this survey). The use of this type of sampling means that the probability of Canadian adults being selected into the sample is unknown or non-random. Simply put, this type of methodology suffers from biases, and it is both impossible and irresponsible to claim with certainty that these results accurately represent the views of Canadians. 

Biased questions lead to biased results

The phrasing of the questions asked provides some information about the numbers and expenses related to the growth of the bureaucracy and is phrased as “According to government records, the federal government added 99,000 additional employees since 2016, which contributed to an increase in the overall cost of the bureaucracy by more than 70 per cent.” The respondents are then asked their opinions on the size and cost of the bureaucracy. Good surveys depend on neutral questions that do not bias the responses. If the survey aimed to provide context and information to respondents, it could have also included why this growth took place. Accompanying information, such as the growth of the Canadian population since 2016, the gaps left behind by cuts from the Harper government, or the trends of the proportionate growth of the public service as a percentage of employment, was not provided. Leading questions or questions that provide incomplete information cannot be expected to produce unbiased results.    

Not supported by other data available 

The sampling and design of the questionnaire lead directly to the concern that the results presented in the survey are not representative of Canadians in general, but of individual respondents who took part in the survey. The claim that a majority of Canadians want cuts to the federal public service does not match up to other data available. For example, other polls show that the Canadian population is still largely supportive of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who ran his campaign on “caps, not cuts” to the public service. 

If you are interested in participating as Chair, Member, or Friend on a standing committee of the Board for 2026, you are invited to submit your expression of interest by completing the prescribed form by the deadline of Monday, October 6, 2025. 
 

Committees of the Board

• By-laws and policies Committee 
• Elections Appeals Committee 
• Elections Committee
• Executive Compensation Committee (See Note 3)
• Finance Committee
• Human Rights and Diversity Committee
• Information Technology Services and Projects Committee
• Professional Recognition and Qualifications Committee
• Science Advisory Committee (See Note 2)
• Training, Education and Mentoring Committee (Chair) (see Note 3)

Note 1: By-Law 17.1.3 Composition -  All Committees shall consist of 5 to 7 members and, unless otherwise specified, shall include 1 member from each Region. Where there is a Vice-President liaison to a committee, the Vice-President does not count as a member of the committee.

Note 2: A call for nominations will not be made for the Science Advisory Committee until 2026 for a term of 2 years (2027-2028).

Note 3: There will be no solicitation process for members of the Executive Compensation Committee or for the Training and Education Committee. Institute By-Laws and policies require that members of these committees be selected from members of the Board of Directors and/or the designated individual from the Chair of the Regional Training Committee, respectively. However, members may indicate their interest in the position of Chair of the Training and Education Committee by filling out the appropriate form by clicking the following link: Nomination Form

Note 4: Only volunteers who have complied with the due-process call for nominations and have adhered to the prescribed timelines, shall be deemed to be eligible candidates.

Application Process

Volunteers are limited to applying to 2 Standing Committees of the Board and must indicate their preferences in priority order.  

Fill out the prescribed form by clicking on the following link: Application form. The instruction process for applying is listed below:

Note: To be able to fill out the application, you must log in to Google with your PIPSC email account.

• Clearly identify the committee(s) by title.  If requesting to volunteer on 2 committees, rank these in order of preference.
• Indicate your Group and Region.
• State whether you are applying as Chair, Member or Friend. 

Note 5: As a condition of your appointment to one of the committees, you may be required to sign a confidentiality agreement and a conflict of interest declaration confirming that, as a member of a committee, you will declare any perceived or real conflict of interest or with the issues discussed within the committee. In addition, you may be required to make yourself available for committee meetings at short notice, in accordance with the applicable By-Laws. 

Note 6: If you are not selected as Chair, you will automatically be considered as a member or as a friend.

Note 7: A “friend” of a committee is a member interested in the activities of the committee, but who is unable to participate as an active member.  Note that there are no “friends” on the Executive Compensation Committee, the Elections Committee, the Elections Appeal Committee, or the Finance Committee.

• List any Committees of the Board on which you served for the past 5 years
• Include a brief rationale (on the prescribed form) outlining the reasons why you wish to be considered and what you would bring to the work of the committee you are applying for 

Deadline

The deadline for expressions of interest is no later than  Monday, October 6, 2025.

Information

Please consult the information on the Selection Process and Selection Criteria by following these links: 

Committees of the Board, Institute By-Laws and Policy on Committees of the Board of Directors.

If you have any questions, please contact us at: governance@pipsc.ca.

Nomination Forms

Application form

Nomination Form (for Chair of the Training and Education Committee)
 

Committees of the Board

• By-Laws and Policies Committee
• Elections Appeals Committee
• Elections Committee
• Executive Compensation Committee
• Finance Committee
• Human Rights and Diversity Committee
• Information Technology Services and Projects Committee
• Professional Recognition and Qualifications Committee
• Science Advisory Committee
• Training, Education and Mentoring Committee

OTTAWA, September 4,  2025 — The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is sounding the alarm over federal government cuts at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

Unofficial notification of a work force adjustment (WFA) at PHAC was sent to PIPSC on August 25. While those affected will not know their individual status until later in September, it is clear that critical public health expertise is being eliminated.

PHAC was established to enhance Canada’s ability to prevent and control outbreaks, manage infectious diseases, and protect the health of Canadians. The proposed cuts will affect staff across PHAC, including operations at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg — Canada’s only facility of its kind and a recognized global leader in emergency preparedness. The lab’s vital work in research, diagnostic testing, disease surveillance, and containment plays a critical role in both national and international biosecurity. 

“Eliminating public health positions while Canada’s healthcare system is already stretched to the breaking point leaves Canada dangerously unprepared for the next health crisis and puts lives at risk,” said PIPSC President Sean O’Reilly. “These cuts will pile even more pressure onto the system, while stripping away vital programs that millions benefit from — from Lyme disease research and vaccination programs, to suicide crisis hotlines and chronic disease prevention.”

This work force adjustment is part of the federal government’s Budget Refocusing Exercise. Similar work force adjustments are being implemented across the federal public service to meet spending reduction targets. The government is also directing upwards of 15% public service spending cuts under its Comprehensive Expenditure Review. 

"These are cuts on top of cuts. Work force adjustments and public service cuts have become the government's go-to solution for meeting spending targets, but you can't cut your way to a stronger Canada,” said O’Reilly. “This is Harper-era austerity –– or worse –– dressed in a red tie.”

PIPSC represents over 85,000 public-sector professionals across the country, most of them employed by the federal government. Follow us on Facebook, on X (formerly known as Twitter) and on Instagram.

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For more information: Johanne Fillion, 613-883-4900 (mobile), jfillion@pipsc.ca