Present:
Karla Yelland (President) Judy Chow (VP) Nuşin Brown (Secretary)
Andrea Agh (Treasurer) Bill Sukloff David Darling
Stan Buday Yvonne Snaddon Roy Philip
Mathan Mahalingam Robert Mertens Rob Scott
Jian Xin Wu Basil Ho Dinesh Kandasamy
Jake Martin Henry Yip Harry Mark
Arnav Ghosh Shen Li Andre Owona
Ankit Patel Ash Chatterjee Cindy Nguyen
Claudia Martinez Yashwinie Shivanand Paul Archibald
Elsa Huang Eqan Ahmad Glen Horenblas
Ibrahim Bello Jose Raymundo Kamal Kiruwanagamage
Kohilan Mohanarajan Marshall Lawson Mirza Talab Ali Baig
Naeem Javed Nisha Malik Noor Siddiqi
Paulo Legaspi Philip Nivet Rebecca Yau
Robert Boctor Sean Connors Serguei Zenine
Shobhit Saxena Vassilisa Gotcheva Sharven Prasad Dhanasekar
Visaka Morapitiya Voica Balutiu
Opening: Welcome by Karla Yelland at 6:20 pm.
Karla made the land acknowledgement.
Karla made a motion to accept the Agenda, Yvonne seconded. Motion carried.
Karla explained how past meeting minutes can be accessed via the PIPSC website.
Karla made a motion to accept the 2024 AGM meeting minute, Stan seconded. Motion carried.
President’s Report – Karla Yelland: A member survey was done to find out what members are interested in. We have 705 members in our subgroup. Initiatives were publishing a newsletter, distributing it via email and the PIPSC website; we reached out to Rands to explain benefits of Union membership. We organized Lunch and Learns, held social/networking events.
- A SSC 4900 Yonge holiday event was held and well received.
- ESDC coffee Meet and Greets were held at different sites.
- A Bowling Event was held at Splitsville Woodbridge based on demographic survey results.
- NPSW coffee and donut event was held among different departments co-located at 4900 Yonge. ESDC, SSC and Transport participated.
- Lunch and Learns were held virtually: Service Plus in June and DTA in August
Karla introduced the Toronto IT Subgroup Executive.
Financial Report – Andrea Agh: Andrea presented the financial statement from September 2024 to September 2025. We requested our allocation of $XXXX.XX for 2025. The allocation is used towards member events including the AGM. We had 5 in-person Executive meetings and one virtual meeting. Money was put towards visibility items such as IT logo hats, lanyards and pens.
We funded the initial setup of the SSC coffee/tea club to ease Return to the Office.
Andrea presented the budget proposal for 2025-26. Including Rands, we have 754 members. PIPSC will decide our upcoming allocation based on their funding formula.
Motion to accept the financial statement, Judy seconded. Motion carried.
Second motion to accept the budget for 2025-26. Mathan seconded. Motion carried.
Guest Speaker – Rob Scott: Karla thanked Stan for serving as the National IT Group President for 12 years and for his various contributions to PIPSC.
Karla introduced the new National IT Group President Rob Scott. Rob presented the IT update.
A bargaining survey was developed in January and sent out to members. The key issues brought out in the survey results were RTO, flexibility and telework arrangements, pay and contracting out, artificial intelligence and career development.
A bargaining conference was held in Ottawa two weeks ago. Our Chief PIPSC negotiator is Robert Alexandre Séguin. The IT group bargaining team members are listed at this link: https://pipsc.ca/groups/cs/bargaining-team
Stan Buday is the NOC chair. The next step will be serving notice to bargain, followed by exchange of proposals. Dispute resolution (arbitration vs. conciliation) will have to be decided. Bargaining training was held in September. Bargaining could start as early as November. The IT Collective Agreement expires in December.
There will not be a central table at this round of bargaining but a coordinated effort with other groups will be made.
In the survey results, RTO came first before pay. There is no national policy on telework. Some managers deny it without justification. We would like telework to be recognized as a method of work.
We would like pay rates to be competitive to match the private sector.
AI is an issue for all unions. Proposed language on AI is being finalized.
We will be the first group to start bargaining. There will be bargaining solidarity with other groups. Some groups are set to have their contracts expire Spring of 2026.
Q: Why do we see non-public sector unions go on strike sooner when their contracts expire?
A: We are under legislation. Rules are different for public sector unions. We can’t serve notice until 4 months prior to contract expiry. Treasury Board may take time to get back to us. There are regulations and timelines to follow. We must bargain in good faith and demonstrate we have an impasse to go on strike.
WFA will be part of the discussion. Treasury Board tried to remove WFA wording from the PA table. We will support PSAC and CAPE to stand for WFA.
Q: What happens to the IT training fund when the current contract expires?
A: The training fund is set to renew with the new fiscal year, and have it extended for at least another year. In the short term, end of the IT contract won’t freeze the training fund.
Q: Will the government provide more workspace with return to work?
A: We are not aware of any changes. We are pushing to allow work from home and to have IT workers provided with suitable office space to store equipment.
Guest Speaker – Yvonne Snaddon: It’s in the Treasury Board’s advantage to take longer for bargaining. When there is an agreement to vote on, we need members to stand behind us to get a better deal.
There was a lobbying event held in the Summer. We need members to reach out to their MPs.
The IT group has its own Young Professionals Committee for members under the age of 40. They have created a Discord server with lots of information about PIPSC and also offer games.
Yvonne mentioned benefits of becoming a steward.
Each department has a Consultation Team President. They are a steward and sit at tables with senior management of their departments.
Departments were told to come up with scenarios to implement a 15% reduction.
Q: Are term employees not getting renewals entitled to anything?
A: A tool for alternations is being created; however, term employees are not covered at this time.
Bylaws: Discussion of this item is being deferred for now. We would like to expand our geographical area to the GTA.
Elections facilitated by Stan Buday:
5 positions were up for election: Vice-President for a 2-year term and 4 members-at-large.
Yvonne Snaddon nominated Judy Chow for VP. Judy accepted the nomination and was acclaimed.
There were 4 vacant member-at-large positions available. Mathan Mahalingam, David Darling, Roy Phillip, Robert Mertens and Andrea Agh are in the 2nd year of their 2-year term.
The following persons were nominated for member-at-large positions:
Basil Ho was nominated – accepted the nomination
Judy Chow nominated Bill Sukloff – accepted the nomination
David Darling nominated Nuşin Brown – nomination declined
Mathan Mahalingam nominated Dinesh Kandasamy – accepted the nomination
Yashwinie Shivanand was nominated – accepted the nomination
Andrea Agh nominated Yvonne Snaddon – nomination declined
An election was not held. All candidates were elected by acclamation to fill the 4 remaining vacant positions.
Elections 2026 will require a ballot for President and a ballot for 5 members at large if nothing changes in the body.
Adjournment:
As President, Karla thanked everyone for attending the AGM and made a draw for prizes.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm.