In direct violation of our AFS Collective Agreement, CRA has stopped paying CPA Canada dues for Ontario and Quebec CPA members. 

CRA notified the AFS Group that they stopped paying CPA Canada dues on December 20 for members in Ontario and Quebec as “CPA Canada dues are no longer mandatory.” However, management’s position is based on a flawed premise. 

CPA Ontario and Quebec will no longer be collecting dues for CPA Canada, but paying CPA Canada dues is mandatory to remain a member of CPA Canada.

Work to develop and implement a pay equity plan at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) continues with representatives of other unions and non-unionized employees. The working spirit is collaborative and proactive. The committee is meeting several times a week to carry out the crucial job evaluation stage. Job evaluation will then enable us to compare female-dominated jobs with male-dominated jobs, to determine whether there are wage gaps that need to be corrected. At the same time, the committee is working on improving the job evaluation tool proposed by the consultant, KPMG.

The employer’s arbitrary and haphazard return to office (RTO) mandates have caused many of  us unnecessary hardship.

The AFS Group has taken several steps to challenge management’s actions; so far, we have: 

• filed a policy grievance and an unfair labour practice complaint
• held rallies across the country
• passed a unanimous motion of non-confidence in CRA’s Commissioner, Bob Hamilton
• Informed the Minister of National Revenue, Marie-Claude Bibeau, of the non-confidence motion, but we have not received a response

It is with great sadness that we learned the news of the passing of Edward (Ed) Evashuk. Ed was a longtime member of the AFS Southern Alberta Subgroup, and staunch Union activist. Ed started his activism in 2002 as a Member-at-large for his Subgroup, and from there took on ever increasing roles of responsibility. He was the Subgroup Vice President in 2005 and President in 2006. His activism career culminated in 2007 when he was elected as the Prairie Regional Representative for the AFS Executive, where he also was a member of the bargaining team till 2011.

With the recent election of Shawn Gillis as our AFS Vice-President, the position of Ontario Region AFS Representative becomes vacant on July 1, 2024.

Consistent with AFS by-law 6.9.2, the AFS Executive selected Ward Cluff to serve as Ontario Region AFS Representative from July 1, 2024 until June 30, 2025.

Ward has extensive experience as our Hamilton AFS President and has a strong record as an activist and leader.

We welcome Ward and look forward to working with him as part of our team.

In solidarity

Dear colleagues,

On June 8, 2024, our AFS Group held its Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM is the supreme governing body of our AFS Group and our AGM delegates represent over 17,000 AFS members working at the CRA from coast to coast.

CRA’s Commissioner made the decision to increase the requirement for onsite office presence despite survey results showing that a vast majority of CRA employees had lower job satisfaction and higher stress levels since the two-day return to office mandate.

Work to develop and implement a proactive Pay Equity Plan at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been ongoing, and committee members have been spending multiple days per week with UTE, PSAC, Unrepresented, and employer representatives to complete a Pay Equity Plan. Unfortunately, the Employer will not meet the legislated deadline of September 2024, due in part to the size of the organization and challenges imposed by the employer with respect to collaboration in the early stages of the committee.