IT Executive Committee Meeting Minutes - October 2025

Present: Rob Scott, Debbie Butler, Tamara Critch, Stan Buday, Christine Ledrew, Karim Chaggani, Marc Benoit, Yvonne Snaddon, Giovanni Giolti, Pierre Touchette

Staff: Robert Séguin, Elizabeth Morin Virtual: Jacob Beaulieu

Regrets: Lucille Shears, Jean-Simon Brassard

 

Minutes/procès-verbal

1) Welcome / Bienvenue (Rob)

a) Equity Statement (Christine)

b) Land Acknowledgement (Tamara)

2) Adoption of Agenda / Adoption de l'ordre du jour

a) Moved by Tamara Critch, seconded by Giovanni Giolti, CARRIED

3) Approval of Minutes of Last meeting / Approbation du procès-verbal de la dernière réunion de 12 August/ août 2025

a) Moved by Tamara Critch, seconded by Debbie Butler, CARRIED

b) Approval of Minutes of 17 September 2025 Minutes

i) Moved by Tamara Critch, seconded by Christine Ledrew, CARRIED

c) Approval of Minutes 2 October 2025

i) Moved by Tamara Critch, seconded by Pierre Touchette, CARRIED

4) Business Arising from the minutes/Action Items Affaires découlant du procès-verbal/Points d’action

a) Merging of the Portage, Hull and Gatineau Sub-groups (Pierre, Christine)

i) ACTION: Lucille and Pierre to meet to address and complete formal paperwork. (Ongoing)

(1) Stan advised he has attended the Portage Sub-group AGM and it appears that it is on the mend, therefore it’s likely there will not be a merge of the sub-groups

(2) Motion to merge Gatineau with Hull subgroups

(a) Moved by Stan, seconded by Pierre

(3) Amended motion - send survey within about merging and last opportunity, if insufficient response, then Executive decides Gatineau and Hull be merged.

(i) Moved by Yvonne, Seconded by Pierre, CARRIED

1. ACTION: Christine to draft survey to Gatineau and Hull subgroups and send by 23 October 2025, Pierre to translate

b) Navigar (Rob)

i) ACTION: Pierre Touchette – table an agenda at IT Training Subcommittee to make decisions on the other groups accessing the training fund. (Ongoing) – moved to Pierre

(1) Robert Seguin advised that we no longer have extra licenses to pass along, but Rob Scott advised are not at risk of using all our current licenses.

c) 2025 Sub-group Presidents evaluations (Lucille)

i) ACTION: Lucille to upload evaluation summary to group drive. (Ongoing)

(1) ACTION: Christine to reach out to Lucille to obtain evaluations

d) Return to Office / Retour au bureau (All)

i) ACTION: Yvonne and Stan to bring lack of management training to WGC and IJCC and its effects on members. (Ongoing)

(a) ACTION: Stan to have this added to IJCC agenda next meeting.

e) ITYPC (Debbie, Jean-Simon/Karim)

i) ACTION: Debbie to provide the ITYPC Chair the template on how to submit a budget. (COMPLETED)

ii) ACTION: Yvonne and Jean-Simon to work with Rob on the request to the EC to include the ITYPC Chair at YPC meetings. (Ongoing)

(a) Yvonne stated the ITYPC Chair should be invited to our Executive meetings in which Stan advised that it would require a motion due to financial implications.

(1) ACTION: Rob to ask the Chair his interest in participation and then discussion possible motion

f) PIPSC AGM (Rob)

 

i) Delegate Caucus (Rob)

(1) ACTION: Rob to talk to Elizabeth with regards to invites and translations but must be no later than a week before the meeting.

ii) Promotional Items (Pierre)

(1) ACTION: Pierre to get suggestions from supplier on individual swag items for PIPSC AGM IT attendees.

 

g) 2026 Sub-group Presidents - Quebec City (Rob)

i) ACTION: Rob to write a business case to EC to hold 2026 Sug-Group President’s meeting in Quebec City

5) Standing Items / Points permanents

a) Bargaining/ les négociations

i) Bargaining Update / Mise à jour sur les négociations (Rob, Robert)

(1) Rob advised the proposal package ready to go, considering submitting our interest to bargain on 23 Oct, and the first IT Bytes for this round have been drafted .

(2) Robert advised that it may be early to late January 2026 to exchange proposals and start bargaining.

(3) Robert also advised that Notice to Bargain will trigger the essential services and will strategically focus on certain departments.

(a) ACTION: Robert to work with Pierre and Stan the essential services list. (Ongoing)

(b) Robert requested this item be moved to Standing Items Bargaining update

ii) Strategic Bargaining Committee (SBC) (Stan/Rob)

(1) Rob provided a synopsis of the 2 October meeting that included an update from research section, a presentation from public affairs on the new campaign, “Here for Canada”, presentation from member engagement on organizing support, round table updates, discussion on coordination with acting manager from Compensation Services

(2) Stan advised there was some talk of including General Economic Increase (GEI) at the common issues table. Yvonne stated we made it clear we would not be held back to do the common issues table and specifically not include pay and further discussion will be needed.

iii) Training Fund Update (Pierre/Tamara)

(1) Tamara advised the Training Fund Subcommittee submitted a change to the employer managed portion of the fund changes to IJCC. Also, Navigar brought forward looking at vendors instead of Pluralsight and the employer was asked to provide better stats on their portion.

iv) IJCC Update (Stan)

(1) Stan stated the meeting held on 22 September officially changed co-chair to Rob Scott and topics included issues of employees without pay and access courses and future discussions. The updated budget from Training Fund Subcommittee was approved. The employer provided a digital competencies update, alternations and application by TBS, results of survey.

(2) Rob received a concern from a member regarding “citizen development” that is occurring within the Government of Canada and the possibility of having a position on the concerns of security, how owns that type of work, what happens to costs of maintaining and responsibility. This will be raised at next IJCC. Rob stated we will need an expert opinion on this topic.

(3) Stan voiced his concern on future meetings of COAT and IJCC but stated the next meeting of IJCC will be virtual.

(4) Yvonne – motion forward to have Dean Corda as ESDC member of IJCC.

(a) Motion to propose an update to the terms reference of the IJCC to add Contracting Out Officer as a member of the IJCC committee.

Moved by Yvonne, seconded by Stan. CARRIED.

(b) Rob will introduce this at the next IJCC meeting.

v) Strategic Planning Portfolio Update & Review / Mise à jour et examen du portefeuille de planification stratégique (All)

i) Rob stated as agreed upon at Strategic Planning meeting each portfolio lead would take turns to present an update on their strategic planning activities. We still commence next meeting.

vi) Visibility / Visibilité (Pierre)

i) Pierre advised he can provide an update after meeting with the supplier as there is an issue with the manufacturer on the colours. Stand stated we should get any colour they can provide on time. Pierre advised he will request the items be shipped directly to the Toronto Sheraton.

ii) Pierre stated a future discussion is needed to decide on visibility items to subgroups and members.

d) Return to Office / Retour au bureau (All)

i) A fulsome discussion was held around RTO and varying departments. Specifically, there has been no talk of 5 days per week RTO but seeing an increase in Duty to Accommodate (DTA) requests to stay out of the office, with one department having five to six hundred Its requesting DTA, but also having lack of office space. One department appears to be refusing DTAs without following proper process. Lack of identified OSH members has continued to be a concern.

ii) Robert advised that he had a discussion with Political Action and Member Services about mobilization activities including RTO, specifically if members still believe RTO is the most important item as noted in the survey. Would it be worthwhile to encourage activities on RTO?

(1) Discussion from the Executive included feedback from Sub-Group AGMs supporting, members willing exchange pay and the employer working with current collective agreement wording. Generally, it appears that it’s still important. Rob advised if there is good teleworking language then RTO won’t be as significant an issue and should be messaged that it’s for all workers, not just IT, and leading by example. Robert stated he will bring these insights back to Political Action and Member Services.

 

e) Workforce Adjustment / Réaménagement des effectifs (All)

i) Discussed Passport Office affecting 250 indeterminates, but no IT members. Also discussed TBS proposing to PSAC to remove WFA from collective agreements (CA) and fall back on National Joint Council (NJC) agreement. This would make it very difficult to change any wording as the NJC is on a cyclic review. We do not support this proposal as having it in the CA would allow grievances.

ii) Stan asked about PIPSC’s plans for alternation. Rob provided update that PIPSC has presented at Steward Councils, their alternation platform requiring a PIPSC login but unaware how it will compare with the TBS alternation platform.

6) New Business / Nouvelles affaires

a) ITYPC (Jordan)

i) Jordan advised that the discord server is going well and posting anything relevant for members to see including bargaining updates. Also would like to consider opening this to all IT members and not just members of ITYPC but ITYPC have their own channel. Positive feedback was given from the Executive with a couple of questions posed – how are you verifying users are actually IT and/or ITYPC members? And how/have you sent out communications as employer is blocking some communications from PIPSC? Jordan advised he has not been authenticating members and not yet sent any emails. But Elizabeth offered to assist Jordan in both cases to verify and sent communications.

ii) Jordan would like to hold another engagement around the PIPSC 2025 AG at the Tilt Arcade Bar on December 11 from 6-8 pm and has requested assistance in requesting that budget. Debbie advised a budget must be submitted to the Executive for approval and a budget for 2026 will need to be submitted. And it was mentioned as a potential conflict with the Financial Forum but was decided as it’s for the Toronto ITYPC members which likely does not have any members attending the PIPSC AGM it will not be conflict.

iii) Jordan advised that there is another meeting scheduled in November and will need ITYPC list from Elizabeth.

b) PIPSC AGM (Stan)

i) Delegates

(1) Rob advised our chosen delegates and alternates were submitted and we are working with PIPSC on selecting those alternates. Stan stated that almost 20 emails were sent for those not yet registered, almost all came back that they appreciated reminder. Moving forward next year, there is a far reduced number with multiple resolutions on reducing the number of delegates for the AGM. The Executive were reminded that these By-Law changes also affect the Group AGM size. The Executive were advised that the venue for next year is already booked and regardless of any AGM resolutions, there can only be 500 in-person delegates and the rest would be virtual.

ii) Hospitality

(1) Rob has an agreement with the SH to share the costs of the hospitality suite (Dec 12 and 13, -11 pm) to make affordable while the SP and CP groups respectfully declined. The request has been sent in for hospitality room and beverages (domestic beer, craft beer, wine (no categories), bar rail and soft drinks), but food will not be provided due to costs. Suggest we revisit next year depending on numbers. There were concerns of not providing any food and were suggestions of providing snacks at the swag room as it violates hotel policy to do so in the hospitality room.

(2) Stan advised that a schedule should be set up for the swag room and can send delegates to the swag room as they are seen in the hospitality suite.

iii) Delegates Caucus

(1) Nov 6, 7-9 pm Eastern & Nov 13, 7-9 pm Western

(a) Rob stated there will be two evening zoom meetings, making it smaller to have discussion but invitations should be sent as soon as possible. Rob would like to include all IT members attending as delegates, not just IT delegates. Elizabeth to get the list from the AGM team. The Membership Officer to host but will need assistance with taking attendance. Stan reminded everyone that this is a required meeting for the delegates.

 

iv) Executive Resolutions Zoom

(1) Nov 3

(a) Stan reminded the Membership Officer of the need to put together the template for the resolution review and add our recommendations and rationale.

(i) ACTION: Tamara to put template together for review

(b) Rob – did we set a time? Can send a zoom but time works best for everyone. 6-8 EST.

(i) ACTION: Rob to send zoom invite to Executive

v) Executive Dinner

(1) Dec 10

(a) Yvonne stated the reservation is 7 pm, Adaga for all the executive and the negotiator.

vi) Promotional Delegate Items

(1) Pierre confirmed 225 bags will be in Toronto by the end of November.

c) AI (Marc)

i) Marc provided some research on the different types of AI and provided that brief for review. It was suggested that the Executive should review this report and decide their stance.

 

d) Member Observer (Elizabeth)

i) Rob advised there was another request from a member to be observer at the Executive Meeting. We have an open invitation to our meetings but at member’s own expense. Questions were posed if members were aware of the financial impact and how would closed sessions work? Rob suggested when we write back to member to advise them of the finances and that closed session may occur. Rob suggested maybe a templated response would be good for any request for observer.

 

e) Request for Subgroup Funds (Debbie)

i) Move to close session

(1) Moved to Rob, seconded by Debbie, CARRIED

ii) Move to come out of close session

(1) Moved by Tamara, seconded by Christine, CARRIED

(2) ACTION: Christine to send email to all small subgroups regarding Small Subgroup Funds and the process.

7) Reports/Activities d’exécutive

Reports are uploaded to the group google drive

(Please file in the Executive Reports sub-directory / A déposer dans le sous-répertoire des rapports exécutifs)

 

a) President /Président (Rob)

b) Vice-President/Vice-président (Pierre)

c) Treasurer/Trésorier (Deb)

d) Steering Committee & Secretary/Comité directeur et Secrétaire (Tamara)

e) Bargaining / Négociations (Rob/Robert)

f) NOC/ROC- Mobilization / CNO/ROC- Mobilisation (Stan)

g) Communications (Marc)

h) Subgroup Officer/Agent de sous-groupe (Christine)

i) Steward Officer / Agent de délégués syndicaux (Giovanni/Pierre/Jean-Simon)

j) Membership Officer / Agente de membership (Tamara)