The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
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Toronto Environment and Climate Change Branch AGM Minutes - Tuesday, December 12, 2022

Time: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.            Location:  Teams Virtual Meeting

Agenda

  1. Introductions
    1. Special guest: Emma Landy, the new PIPSC Employment Relations Officer. Emma will say a few words about herself.
  2. Review of Previous Minutes (Attached)
  3. Treasurer's Report
  4. Branch President's Report (update on Branch activities, unassigned seating, and more)
  5. Election
    1. President
    2. Member-at-Large (4 positions, two of which are for 1 year)
  6. Guest Speaker: John Purdie, PIPSC Director for the Ontario Region
  7. New Business
  8. Door prizes
    1. Each participant will receive a $XX gift certificate. They will be provided after the meeting.
  9. 1:00 p.m. Adjournment

Minutes:

  1. Introductions

President, Bill Sukloff (Bill) opened the meeting, welcoming all attendees. He then introduced the special guests: Emma Landy, the new PIPSC Employment Relations Officer assigned to ECCC and IAAC offices in the Ontario Region, and Sofia Manicheva, the Downsview Security Officer, as well as John Purdie, PIPSC Director for the Ontario Region. Bill then offered special welcome to new members and first-time attendees.

Bill indicated that ECCC PIPSC Branch consists 540 members from the following groups: SP (PC, MT, BI, CH), RE (RES, REM), IT, and NR groups. This year, we're happy to provide the participants with a $XX gift certificate from Tim Hortons.

The branch executive members and stewards were also introduced.

  1. The Minutes from the 2021 AGM that was circulated in the AGM invitation email was reviewed and approved.
  1. Treasurer, Amir Shabbar, presented Treasurer's Report.
    • Financial report in 2022: the Branch had $XX,XXX opening balance in January, 2022.  Because of a lack of ways to spend the allocation, the branch didn’t received any funding this year. For predicted expenditure in 2022, because over 130 members had joined the AGM, the expenditure will be much higher than predicted.
    • Budget report for 2023: starting balance in January of 2023 would have been $XXXX.XX (to be adjusted). Amir still projected that we will get some allocation depending on the balance, with a projected balance of $XX,XXX by December 2023.
    • Anna questioned if we can budget for the next year’s AGM expenditure based on the previous year’s expenses (e.g., over $XXXX in 2022).
    • There was a question about where did the allowance go that was not allocated the branch? Bill explained that it goes to the general PIPSC budget for some important purposes.
    • Bill asked a motion to approve the financial report from 2022. The financial statement will be amended to reflect the actual cost of the AGM. The motion was approved by Leslie Carpenter and seconded by Connor Anderson. The motion was carried.
    • Bill asked for a motion to approve the 2023 financial budget. It was approved by Helen Yang and seconded by Qian Li with no oppose. The motion was carried.
  1. Branch President's Report (Bill Sukloff)
  • Billed noted that one of the challenges faced by PIPSC members who returned to the workspace is obtaining proper workstation setup at home and at the work site.
  • The other challenge is the move to unassigned seating. Staff on the main and the second floors were told to clear up their workspace in preparation for the entire floor to be converted to unassigned seating. With this situation the noise level will become problematic, even with headset on when attending virtual meetings. Facility said that people could use return to workplace app to book seating that is far from others to minimize the noise. Bill encourage members to share their experiences with him and Andrea as well as post their comments on the PIPSC returned to the work site whiteboard (the link to the white board was included in the e-mail reminder).
  • Bill encouraged members to review the whiteboard every couple of weeks to read new postings or to add to the discussions.
  • Bill reminded members to use the two personal leave days before the end of the FY and suggested to use these days first when taking vacation leave at the beginning of a fiscal year, so it’s one less thing to remember.
  • In closing Bill stated that he just completed his 2-year term as President and did not plan to run it again. He has been president of ECCC Brach for 20 years!! This role has provided Bill with great opportunity to grow both personally and professionally, and worked with wonderful people over the years.
  1. Election: Run by Jeremy Wentzell
  • 5 vacant position: 1 President and 4 member-at-large.
  • Andrea was the only candidate who expressed a desire to run the president position and was elected as the new president. As such, there is one more vacant member-at-large position.
  • Michael Wheeler, Bill, Anna, and Marie-Claude Archambault expressed a desire to run/re-run for the member-at-large position. Those who are not certain at the moment, they can reach out to Andrea and Bill during the year if they want to get involved. Not that the vacant position from Andrea has only one-year term.
  1. Guest Speaker – John Purdie, PIPSC Director for the Ontario Region
    • John introduced various PIPSC structures, its committees, affiliations and membership. For membership, John indicated that most retired members are not afforded that same right as regular members - they may be restricted or limited in their participation.
    • John also talked about the government and rules to govern.
    • John then explained the process to change bylaws as well as future operational changes
    • Key focus of PIPSC:
      1. Dealing with issues related to return to the workplace.
      2. Working on increasing staffing to better serve the members.
      3. Internally working on is a new governance model to make sure that anything PIPSC does supplies at direct benefit to members
      4. Collective bargaining, in any negotiations with the employer.
    • Anna commented at the end of John’s talk that, it is anticipated that issues related to health and safety maybe growing, has PIPSC prepared to discuss and advise on those issues? John responded that PIPSC will provide training to stewards on the interpretation of the health and Safety Act and on how to discuss these issues with the employer. Those trained stewards would be ideally sitting in the OHS committee.
    • In closing, John pointed out two things:
      1. PIPSC allotment is $XX per member, that has been changed a few years ago. Please refer to the Policy on Constituent Body Allocations.
      2. There are a few ways to lower the balance: 1) purchase some swag now to hand out next year; 2) Donate max. $XXXX to food bank or legacy foundation.
  2. New Business
  • There was no new business to conduct.
  1. Door prizes
    • 132 (?) certificates of $XX each
  2. 1:00 p.m. Adjournment
  • Bill called for a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Published on 19 January 2024