At the close of nominations on March 31st, 2017, the NAV Canada Election Committee had received seven valid nominations for three member-at-large positions on the NAV Executive.
Therefore, an election has been conducted and closed on May 25th, at 4 PM, Ottawa time.
After the vote counting, the Election Committee congratulates the following elected candidates:
The term of the persons filling the executive positions is from 05 June 2017 to 31 May 2020.
The announcement this week that the federal government will temporarily hire an additional 200 staff, invest a further $142 million over three years, and introduce even more measures to expedite fixing Phoenix is welcome, if long overdue, news.
Given the ongoing cost to government, taxpayers and federal employees, however, one has to ask if Phoenix was ever really worth it to begin with. It wasn’t.
Compounding this problem is the likelihood that a speedy fix will be difficult – especially since new resources take time to be effective – a fact that Parliamentary Secretary Steven MacKinnon seemed to acknowledge in his remarks on Wednesday.
While the additional $142 million will be spent over the next three years, no new time lines for fixing Phoenix were provided in this latest announcement – something employees are anxious to know. A technical briefing planned for next week may reveal more.
In short, while we should be cautiously optimistic that progress is being made, we should also be wary of governments bearing new fixes – especially those that come without clear timelines and that enhance an already-flawed contract with IBM.
In fact, one glaring omission in this week’s announcement was any mention of what PIPSC considers to be a root cause of the Phoenix troubles – outsourcing IT transformations to multinational companies such as IBM, who have a vested interest in additional, ongoing contracts.
After everything that we’ve seen so far, now is the time to look in-house and ensure that the government's own IT workers are managing the system going forward. We will never reach the government’s long-promised “steady state” without them. Only then can we – and all Canadians – really say whether the fixes are worth it.
Better Together.
Debi Daviau
President
PIPSC is proud to announce that its Head Office building located at 250 Tremblay Road in Ottawa is the recipient of a Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada BOMA BEST Silver certification, which recognizes excellence in energy and environmental management and performance in commercial real estate. BOMA BEST is Canada’s largest environmental assessment and certification program for existing buildings.
The Institute’s Head Office had previously been certified at the Bronze level. These awards not only confirm the quality of the building, they demonstrate the care taken by PIPSC in managing this valuable asset on behalf of its members. Real estate professionals, including those employed by the federal government, use the BOMA Best program as a benchmark when evaluating properties for potential tenants.
The PIPSC NAV CANADA Group Bargaining Team was in meetings with the company from May 8-11, 2017. On Friday May 12, 2017 our team worked in closed meetings on our bargaining priorities. The parties continued discussions on numerous items and positive progress was made. Both parties presented comprehensive packages however no final offers have been made. The parties will be meeting on June 5 and 6, 2017 in a smaller group to work on a comprehensive package in hopes of resolving our remaining interests.
PIPSC expresses its solidarity and support for members of the RCMP who are experiencing difficulty accessing front-line mental health services.
The Professional Institute applauds federal Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s recent report into the state of mental health support for members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The report is very timely, coming out only days after the Canadian Mental Health Association’s 66th annual Mental Health Week.
As the Institute prepares to welcome civilian members of the RCMP in the months ahead, we urge Canada’s national police force to redouble its efforts to ensure its officers and staff get the help they need, when they need it.
Dear Members,
Your Bargaining Team met with the Employer on May 9 and 10, 2017. We reviewed the Employer's proposals and discussed your priorities, highlighted from the bargaining survey. Your top three priorities: Job security, Outside Consulting and Remuneration were presented.
Please attend the Annual General Meeting on May 18, 2017. We will present our proposals and seek your opinions.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is pleased to provide the following submission on Bill C-27, as requested in federal Minister of Finance Bill Morneau’s correspondence received March 2, 2017.
Bill C-27 is a deeply troubling piece of legislation that paves the way for employees of federally-regulated employers to see their pension security eroded. We worry that this legislation signals that the current government is also considering similar action with respect to the Public Service Superannuation Plan (PSSA), a move PIPSC would vehemently oppose.
Together with other unions and organizations representing retirees, PIPSC was shocked to see Bill C-27 tabled without either consultation or warning. We do not see Bill C-27 as different from similar proposals floated by the previous government and we are disappointed that the current government has chosen to pursue it.
We recommend that the government not pursue Bill C-27 and instead look to ways to further strengthen the retirement security of all Canadians by better promoting and shoring up defined benefit pension plans.
The Professional Institute
of the Public Service of Canada
(PIPSC)
Submission to the Minister of Finance on Bill C-27,
An Act to Amend the Pension Benefits Standards Act
May 2017
On behalf of our more than 55,000 members across the country, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is pleased to provide the following submission on Bill C-27, as requested in the Minister’s correspondence received March 2, 2017.
Bill C-27 is a deeply troubling piece of legislation that paves the way for employees of federally-regulated employers to see their pension security eroded. It shifts the risks of providing for a secure retirement from employers to employees by permitting employers to seek to replace defined benefit pension plans with new target benefit pension plans. Bill C-27 would substantially expand the ability of federally regulated employers to offer target benefit pension plans, which provide a much lower level of security to members’ pension income than that provided by defined benefit plans. Moreover, we worry that this legislation signals that the current government is also considering similar action with respect to the Public Service Superannuation Plan (PSSA), a move PIPSC would vehemently oppose.
PIPSC was pleased to see the government run on a campaign promise to support and grow the middle class. We have applauded your decision to expand the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), a significant step towards helping younger workers build and save for their future. During the 2015 election we saw no mention of the possibility of your government introducing a bill such as C-27. Together with other unions and organizations representing retirees, PIPSC was shocked to see Bill C-27 tabled without either consultation or warning. We do not see Bill C-27 as different from similar proposals floated by the previous government and we are disappointed that your government has chosen to pursue it.
We therefore welcome the opportunity now to comment on the bill and will specify in more detail our particular objections to it. Your correspondence asked us for solutions. We therefore also recommend that you do not pursue Bill C-27 and instead look to ways to further strengthen the retirement security of all Canadians by better promoting and shoring up defined benefit pension plans.
Target benefit plans made headlines in 2013-14, when the New Brunswick government passed laws to convert longstanding public sector defined benefit pension plans into target benefit plans. This conversion has resulted in significant pension reductions and decreased benefit security for New Brunswick government employees, including many PIPSC members who were affected by this legislation. Many New Brunswick plan members and retirees felt they were misled and misinformed about what plan conversion would mean for them. As a result, plan conversions in New Brunswick have resulted in class action lawsuits and constitutional challenges. Our union is in the process of challenging this legislation in the New Brunswick courts on behalf of our members.
While Bill C-27 does not allow for direct conversions from defined benefit pension plans to target benefit plans, the legislation could be used to facilitate such a process over time. For example, the proposed legislation seems to contemplate that certain members could choose to consent to surrendering their benefits under a defined benefit plan in exchange for a new target benefit plan and that others could elect to remain with the existing plan, which would be highly unusual. If this is permitted it may mean that those groups of employees that have the most to lose from changing to a target benefit plan (e.g., retirees and employees close to retirement) would disproportionately choose to remain with the existing defined benefit plan. This could lead to the problems that come with “mature” pension plans, where more people are being paid out than are paying into the plan. In these circumstances, the defined benefit plan could become unsustainable and may eventually be wound up, leaving only the target benefit plan.
The legislation presumes that employees or unions must consent to changes to their pension plans, but we see this as a failure to recognize the realities of collective bargaining. Bill C-27 has the potential to fuel labour disputes. Employers have a large incentive to push workers to “surrender” the pension benefits they have already earned. In a lockout situation, workers may be pressured to agree to surrender their benefits and pension rights. The proposed legislation also appears to allow employers to introduce target benefit plans for new employees without obtaining their consent, once again paving the way to the eventual elimination of existing defined benefit plans as current employees retire or leave the workplace.
The Bill states that these target benefit plans will be run by a board of trustees or another similar body. This board of trustees would have to include at least one member chosen by current pension plan members and, in the case of plans where the number of former members and survivors equals a prescribed number, at least one member selected by former members and survivors. There is no limit on the number of members that can be appointed by the employer and no requirement that there be equal numbers of employer and employee representatives. There is also no reference to whether unions would be able to appoint any members in unionized workplaces.
The legislation requires that actuarial modelling with regard to pension benefit stability be undertaken both before the target benefit plan is established and at regular intervals afterwards. In other words, the employer will decide how secure the plan benefits should be and then the actuaries will provide a model to help ensure that that level of security is achieved. Unfortunately, it is unclear just how accurate that actuarial modelling is. Certainly, there have been poignant questions raised over the modelling undertaken for the New Brunswick model, and actuaries have disputed the New Brunswick government’s claims about the likelihood that the target benefit will be paid out. At the end of the day, target benefit plans will never have the level of security found in a defined benefit pension plan.
While many of the provisions of the proposed legislation are confusing, unclear or uncertain, the real difficulty with Bill C-27 is that it provides a path for federally regulated employers to move away from defined benefit pension plans, which represent the most secure and predictable type of pension plan, to a less secure model of pension plan. A few jurisdictions have also made changes to their public sector pension plans to incorporate elements of a target benefit model. This has typically been accompanied by other reductions in benefits under public sector plans.
PIPSC recommends that the federal government stop moving forward with Bill C27 as it constitutes a dangerous attack on future and current retirees and on Defined Benefit pension plans in the federal private sector and Crown Corporations. It also opens the door to the degradation of plans such as the Public Service Superannuation Plan.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be consulted and to share with you the Professional Institute for the Public Service of Canada’s position on Bill C-27.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) was founded in 1920. With over 55,000 members, we are the largest union in Canada representing scientists and other professionals employed at the federal and some provincial and territorial levels of government.
The CCC PIPSC Bargaining Team met with Management on May 9th, 2017 to explore the possibility of extending the current collective agreement by one year. The format used for this meeting was a contract “re-opener” – which is a meeting that exists outside the formal collective bargaining framework based on a narrowed-down set of priorities. In this case we were only looking at pay, duration and some minor administrative changes to maternity leave based on new legislation that came into effect in the New Year.
Fellow members,
Since 1992, National Public Service Week (NPSW) has been an occasion to recognize and celebrate the contributions Canada’s public service professionals make to society. The Professional Institute supports this celebration of our members’ accomplishments and their true value to Canadians.
Given, however, the many, still-unresolved problems with the Phoenix pay system, we also feel it is vital we send a message to the federal government this year that failure to accurately and reliably pay federal public employees is no way to recognize them.
For this reason, while we will not be boycotting NPSW events, we will be encouraging PIPSC members to take part in sending a message to our Employer to “fix Phoenix” once and for all during National Public Service Week, June 11-17.
Buttons and other visibility items urging the government to “fix Phoenix” will soon be available for members to order, download and display.
I urge you to join in this effort. After all, we’re worth it, and it is only by working together that we can help ensure the government fixes Phoenix once and for all.
Better Together.
Debi Daviau
President