MINUTES / COMPTE RENDU
SP Executive Meeting / Rencontre de l’exécutif SP
Jan 14th, 2017
Presence / Absence --- Présences / Absences
Daniel Ingram (PRA/NWT – PRA/TNO) P
Norma Domey (NCR – RCN) P
Elizabeth Ptasznik (PRA/NWT – PRA/TNO) P
Steven J. Colwell (BC/YUK – CB/YUK) P
Enzo Barresi (ONT) P
Sushil S. Dixit (NCR – RCN) P
Judith Leblanc (QUE) P
Tarek Salem (NCR – RCN) P
Marcel C. Beaudoin (NCR – RCN) P
Thomas Landry (ATL) P
Michael A. Forbes (ONT) P
Suzelle Brosseau (PIPSC – IPFPC) P
Nicole Deschenes (PRA/NWT – PRA/TNO) P
Donald Lefebvre (NCR – RCN) P
1) Opening Remarks
▪ Thomas - As bargaining is completed, focus of the Sp Executive should shift to updating the Bylaws and Workplan.
▪ Judith - Rules of Engagement are a living document.
▪ ACTION - ALL
o send additional comments to Judith for additional changeséimprovements to the RoE.
▪ ACTION - MARCEL
o Correct minutes of previous meeting, submit to Jean
▪ ACTION - MARCEL
o Add email communications to standing items
2) Standing Items
▪ Email communications
o Email communications improving.
o No immediate need to add rules for email communication
o ACTION - MARCEL
▪ Add email communications to standing items.
▪ Exit polls
o Discussion held on how exit polls to be used.
o Should be used to improve functioning of SP Executive
o ACTION - ALL
▪ Review Exit Poll, send comments to Sushil.
o ACTION - MARCEL
▪ Put Exit Poll as full item on next SP Executive meeting Agenda
▪ Science Committee
o 14 science-based initiatives prepared and narrowed further down to 6
o Strategic plan based on said 6 initiatives submitted to and accepted by PIPSC
o Women in Science breakfast at PIPSC AGM extremely successful
▪ Working group created
▪ Survey being developed which will be sent to members
o Important to connect with science researchers at universities
▪ Stewards
o Conference call for all stewards in December to go over details of tentative agreement
▪ Enzo participated
o Another one will be scheduled for after ratification package has been presented to members
o Request that one be done in french.
▪ Significant risk that things may be unintentionally misunderstood
▪ Many french stewards/union members feel as if they are not as important as those that speak English
▪ Communications
o Need to send topics to Judith
o Chief Steward to send Steward newsletter
▪ ACTION - ELIZABETH
● Send Steward newsletter
o SGPAT conference travel as a topic
▪ ACTION - MARCEL
● Send article
o SP Group on Facebook
▪ Marcel pointed to CS Group on Facebook as an effective method of communication between members
▪ Created by Stephane Aubry
▪ IT
o 1 year free with purchase of laptop.
o Pay for renewal in fall, submit for reimbursement
o Question was raised as to what should be done with Office 365 subscription when executive leaves
o If problems arise with laptops, send question to Dan
o ACTION - DANIEL
▪ Remind Executives around 2017 PIPSC AGM about renewal of Office 365
o MOTION (Marcel/Daniel)
● Laptops being replaced to be given to PIPSC for disposal according to PIPSC procedures
▪ FRIENDLY AMENDMENT (Tarek/Sushil) - DEFEATED
● Leave disposal of laptops to discretion of each individual member.
▪ MOTION - TABLED
o ACTION - DANIEL
▪ Inquire with PIPSC as to procedures by which surplus laptops are disposed
▪ Sharepoint/Document storage
o Version tracking a vital part of document storage
o Difference between internal to Sp Exec, which can be managed by SP Exec, and those documents that face the members (which is controlled by PIPSC and is on PIPSC website)
o ACTION - MARCEL
▪ Investigate and report to SP Exec the differences between PIPSC Document Storage Solution and Google Drive
▪ See email from Judith on November 24th as starting point
▪ Membership
o ACTION - SUSHIL
▪ Full membership report to be presented at next SP Executive meeting
▪ Treasurer
o Budget presented
o ACTION - NICOLE
▪ Enquire with PIPSC/DAVE to ensure that proper allocation given to us.
▪ Due to expense reimbursements being submitted in December but only cashed in January.
o Internet
▪ People to present treasurer with 6 months of internet bills for reimbursement at SP AGM in spring and PIPSC AGM in the fall
▪ Swag
o Bottles, shirts to be distributed for AGM.
o Donald volunteers to be swag coordinator
3) Bylaws committee
▪ Three goals of Bylaws Committee
o Removal of Dedicated SG-PAT position on SP Exec and increase of amount of NCR positions from 4 to 5
o Change in technique for replacement of Sp Executive members outside of elections\
o Bargaining Team surveys
▪ Changes brought forward by Bylaws Committee reviewed, found to introduce additional problems
▪ ACTION - BYLAWS COMMITTEE
o Meet via conference call to finish the modification of the current SP Bylaws to reflect only the three priorities as directed by Sp Exec.Bylaws committee will present revised bylaws to SP Exec by email
4) Meetings
▪ PIPSC AGM
o Hospitality Suite
▪ Need to get hospitality suite back to mobilization
▪ Needs to have better communication between group and members
● Some parts are out of our control
o Alcohol
▪ Concerns brought forward as to excess alcohol. What is done with it? Is there inventory and re-use?
o ACTION - HOSPITALITY SUITE/SUSHIL
▪ Excess alcohol to be stored and inventoried by Sushil and brought to future local SP/PIPSC AGMs for use by SP Exec at hospitality events
▪ Subgroup Presidents Meeting
o Went well
o Fully focussed on communication from subgroup presidents to SP Exec
o Lots of good feedback from presidents of subgroups to Sp Execs that were present.
o Change schedule to 3 hybrid Regional (west, central, east) meetings in one year, alternating yearly with National meetings.
o ACTIONS
▪ ELIZABETH - Send notes taken on meeting to Jean for distribution to subgroup presidents
▪ ENZO - Send survey to Jean for distribution
▪ ENZO - Discuss possibility of hybrid President’s meetings with Subgroup Presidents
▪ ENZO, THOMAS - Develop business case for hybrid set of meetings.
● 3 options:
● 1st option
o President to attend 6 presidents meetings. One for each region
● 2nd option
o President to attend 3 meetings with Enzo and Regional representatives. Meetings to be held in Vancouver, Toronto and Quebec City
● 3rd option
o As per the 2nd option, but add an executive meeting to one of the 3 regional meetings. Quebec (9 votes) Toronto (3 votes) and Vancouver (0 votes) were considered as location for Executive Meeting. NCR Executive Transportation to Quebec City be done by VIA Rail
▪ SP AGM
o Saturday May 27th, 2017
o Executive Meeting Friday May 26th
o Business case for Montreal rejected as, even with increase in hotel costs due to 150th Anniversary of Canada, cost of SP AGM in Montreal would still be more expensive by $15k-$20k
o Guest Speakers
▪ Denis Harrison
▪ Morgan Cranny (Guest speaker/Entertainer)
▪ Mary-France Lalonde
▪ Yves Gingras
▪ Andrew Leslie
o ACTION - THOSE WHO SUBMITTED NAMES
▪ Provide contact information to Judith in
o MOTION (MARCEL/DANIEL) - CARRIED
▪ SP AGM to be held Saturday May 27th in Ottawa
▪ SP Executive meeting Friday May 26th, 2017 in Ottawa
▪ Location in Ottawa to be determined upon verification of hotel costs
▪ Tarek - All meetings held in Ottawa, regions feel neglected
▪ Suzelle - Does AGM have any measurable impact on mobilization?
▪ Suzelle - The language of the meetings (primarily english with minor french language) a large barrier to participation by members from Quebec or members for whom English is not their mother tongue
▪ Next SP Executive Meeting
o ACTION - DANIEL
▪ Send Doodle for date of next Executive meeting in April.
5) Team Building
▪ Suzelle spoke to 2 people. Bilingualism was a requirement for consideration
o Questions asked of Executive
▪ Is there a problem in the functioning of the Executive?
▪ How long has this problem existed and do you wish to fix this?
▪ What is your motivation to fix said problem?
o Answers by executive recorded by Suzelle
6) Bargaining Update
▪ Lunch and Learns
o Suzelle to provide FAQs to subgroup presidents
o Ratification kit planned to be sent to members by the end of January
▪ Changes will be tracked between current CBA and tentative CBA up for ratification
o Common issues will be explained by a common Powerpoint presentation
o No change in sick leave provisions of CBA until next round of negotiations
o SP Executive/BT will support SG request for L&L, as required
▪ Business case not just for SGPATs but for all classifications in SP Group
o Need to keep the following things in mind
▪ Transparency
▪ Keep members up to date
▪ Information for Business case should come from two sources:
● Executive committee
● Members
▪ Subgroup executives, as well as SP National Executives and Stewards are obligated to speak in favour of deal or remain silent. Arguing against deal may result in charges of bad faith bargaining being brought forward.
o Should there be a problem, they should be directed to contact Enzo or Suzelle.
7) Steward Retention
▪ Steven interviewed a number of departing stewards
o Table discussion to next meeting
o ACTION - MARCEL
▪ Set as full topic (45 minutes) at next meeting
8) Workplan
▪ Tabled to next meeting
▪ ACTION - DANIEL
o Send workplan to executive
▪ ACTION - ALL
o Review responsibility within Workplan
o Prepare comments for next SP Executive meeting
o Keep in mind, when reviewing Workplan, how to your position impacts and improves the life of our members
▪ ACTION - MARCEL
o Set Workplan as full topic (1 hour) at next SP Executive meeting
9) New Business
▪ Mobilization/Engagement
o Engage members in the community to try to improve the image of public servants in the community
o Perhaps may be better dealt with at the Branch level
▪ Get Group to help in specific initiatives
o Tarek to discuss with Enzo/Elizabeth to clarify how stewards and subgroups can mobilize within the Workplan
10) Close of Meeting
▪ Meeting closed at 4:30 pm