It is with great sadness that we announce that Paul Skinner passed away peacefully on September 2, 2023, at age 68. Paul was surrounded by family including his wife Anna, and daughters Marena and Melanie.

Paul served nine years as BC/Yukon Region AFS Representative and then as the BC/Yukon PIPSC Director. Including his service as a steward at the subgroup and branch level, Paul was a union leader for PIPSC for 18 years.

We are sad to share that, after a courageous battle against cancer, Joel Reisman passed away peacefully on September 19, 2023, surrounded by immediate family. Joel was a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and brother.  Joel was also a beloved member of our union family. 

Joel served on our Toronto North AFS Subgroup and Branch executives for over ten years, the last six years as subgroup and branch president.

Dear AFS members,

On September 16, your AFS Bargaining Team reached a tentative agreement with the CRA.  We would like to acknowledge the work of our past bargaining team members that helped us get this far. Thanks to Dan Jones, Pam Kubicz, Dan Quinn, Alnashir Ravjiani, and Robert Trudeau.

The AFS Bargaining Team unanimously endorses the acceptance of this agreement on behalf of the AFS Group.

If ratified by our AFS members, wage rate increases will be as follows:

The AFS IT Region President election for the BC / Yukon region recently concluded.

The AFS Executive is pleased to announce that Ted Roome has been acclaimed for a three (3) year term. 

Election report submitted by:

Mary Lycett

Chair, AFS National Elections Committee

Your AFS Bargaining Team met with the employer July 19 – 21 to continue negotiations to renew our collective agreement. Our next set of bargaining dates are scheduled for September 13 – 15.

The good news is that we reached agreement on a significant number of issues, including several important matters. The bad news is that the same can’t be said for pay. Limited progress was made on pay.

AFS members are professionals. We deserve higher pay.

Your AFS Bargaining Team met with the Employer for the seventh time on June 27 to 29 to continue negotiations to renew our collective agreement.

The Employer responded to our April pay demands with a monetary proposal. The Employer’s proposal does not meet the economic needs of our members. It also fell short of the PSAC-UTE settlement. However, it did provide us with a starting point as we enter the serious stage of negotiations.

Your AFS Bargaining Team met with the Employer May 30 to June 1 to continue negotiations to renew our collective agreement.

We discussed a number of outstanding issues and agreed on several items including:

We have verified the results for the elections to positions on the AFS Group Executive. The following candidates were successful:

Prairie/NWT Region AFS Representative

Susanna Moretta - acclaimed

Quebec Regional Representative

Jean Couillard - acclaimed

Headquarters Regional Representative

Abraham Garcia - 71

Daniel Quinn - 68

Toronto Regional Representative

Paul Tsuji - 455

In Memoriam – Ian Tait

We are sad to share the news of the passing of PIPSC Service Award recipient Ian Tait. 

Serving for over a decade on the AFS National Executive, The Taitanator, as he was known by his AFS colleagues, was a force to be reckoned with in the workplace.

     There are five (5) vacancies for Officers on the AFS Group executive. Successful candidates will take Office on July 1, 2023.

Following the close of nominations on May 1, 2023, the following members expressed their willingness to serve as Officers on the AFS Group Executive.  Two positions have been acclaimed - congratulations to Jean Couillard and Susanna Moretta.