The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance re-launched its pre-budget consultations for 2021.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has referred to the upcoming budget as the “the most significant one of our lifetimes.” The stakes are high; we want to ensure this budget works for PIPSC members and all Canadians.

READ OUR BUDGET 2021 RECOMMENDATIONS

Here are some excerpts:

Recommendation 1: Build an equitable and sustainable national recovery plan

The impact of public policy decisions made in the next few years will be felt for generations. Success means protecting people’s health today and their livelihood tomorrow while also addressing structural inequity and ecological imperatives.

Recommendation 2: Invest confidently in the public service

When markets failed, the public service was there. The crisis has proven that Canadians benefit from having a strong, efficient and professional public service. Now is the time to confidently invest in the future. The vital programs that save lives, protect the environment and grow our economy must remain in the hands of our non-partisan public service.

Recommendation 3: Protect workers as the country reopens

We need to move slowly, protect people and pull everyone up along the way.

Recommendation 4: $750 million grant for NAV CANADA in each of the next two years

The government must immediately support the company by providing it with emergency funding to get through this crisis.

Recommendation 5: Correct inequality with tax fairness

We cannot simply strive to return to the status quo; we must correct the deep inequality that has been exposed. A rigorous examination of the tax system will be critical to ensure there is a legacy of positive and meaningful change – allowing those who have profited from the crisis to lift up those who have been harmed.

Bill C-224 aims to create a single tax return administered by Revenu Québec. We oppose and are actively working to stop this bill.

Many Audit, Financial and Scientific (AFS) Group members are understandably concerned about the impact it could have on their careers and positions.

Quebec residents are the only taxpayers in Canada that must file two separate tax returns, one federal and one provincial. Other provinces have agreements that allow the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to administer both federal and provincial taxes.

Sponsored by Bloc Québecois Member of Parliament Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bill C-224 was introduced last year but was not examined by Parliament because of other governmental priorities linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has just resurfaced and is expected to be reviewed in committee some time in 2021.

While there is no indication at this point that it will be adopted, we are not taking any chances. We are about to begin the lobbying campaign we would have conducted last year had there been no pandemic.

As a first step, President Daviau recently sent a letter to several influential MPs outlining our principal concerns with the bill:

• There is no clear evidence that decentralization of Canadian tax administration to a province would result in greater savings, efficiency, compliance or accountability.
• A shift from the CRA to Revenu Québec would require a significant expansion of the latter’s capacity, as well as an expansion of its administration budget. The CRA is already in a position to centralize Québec’s tax administration.
• International agreements aimed at fighting tax evasion are signed between central governments, and Quebec would not be in a position to perform the federal government’s work in this area.
• The proposed transfer would have a significant impact on 2 Quebec regions, Shawinigan and Jonquière, at a time of ongoing economic and social upheavals linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are urging these influential MPs to oppose Bill C-224 and have asked for virtual meetings with them as soon as possible. We will do our utmost to defeat this potential legislation and protect our CRA members’ jobs.

We, the public service unions and the National Association of Federal Retirees of the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP), demand that the Treasury Board come to the table ready to discuss changes to the plan.  

The PSHCP covers most workers and retirees of the federal public service and has not been meaningfully reviewed since 2006. In 2018, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed committing the Treasury Board to complete a review of the plan by March 31, 2019. The Treasury Board has not begun discussions with us.

Public service unions and the National Association of Federal Retirees believe that changes are needed to reflect recent medical advances, the increase in cost of living, and emerging technology. Together, we surveyed our members in 2018 and we are prepared to advocate for the changes you need in your health care plan. We have done the work to understand what our members need and how the PSHCP can respond to them. Continued delays are a serious neglect of the Treasury Board’s duties under the Financial Administration Act and its commitment to collaborate with public service unions and the National Association of Federal Retirees.

Along with our colleagues from other National Joint Council unions, we have cosigned a letter to the Treasury Board. We are prepared to commence legal proceedings to bring the Treasury Board to the table.  The National Association of Federal Retirees has submitted a separate letter of support.

Read the cosigned letter

Learn more about your group’s current extended health care plan: https://pipsc.ca/labour-relations/health-plan

The federal Pay Equity Act was passed nearly two years ago, yet it has not been implemented.

This act is meant to proactively guarantee that workers in woman-dominated jobs receive equal pay for equal work, when compared to man-dominated jobs. The creation of this legislation in 2018 was a historic moment in the fight against systemic gender-based discrimination and pay disparity between men and women.

While the implementation acts were being passed, we developed recommendations to improve the Pay Equity Act and ensure the timely implementation of this important legislation. We want to see improved transparency, clarity of application requirements, and improved salary adjustment calculations, among other recommendations.

On January 13, 2021, PIPSC President Debi Daviau submitted our position to the Consultation on Pay Equity Regulations.

Read our submission

Our recommendations are based on our knowledge of the specific challenges that provincial pay equity regimes face, as well as our strong desire to ensure the successful implementation of pay equity at the federal level. Those recommendations were shared and improved through discussion with the other unions under the leadership of Canadian Labour Congress.

In solidarity, we have also raised our concern about the ability of non-unionized women workers in small organizations to access pay equity protections. Many of these workers are in precarious and part-time jobs and are known to face discrimination in terms of pay equity and benefits. The current regulations on pay equity do not include any specific provision to protect these workers or guarantee them equal pay for work of equal value.

The Premier of New Brunswick wants a one-year wage freeze and three years with only a 1% annual increase for public servants.

Wages and salaries should be determined through a process of good-faith bargaining. Imposing unilateral salary rates through the legislature is a violation of our members’ Charter rights. We will work with all other bargaining agents to push back against any such attempt.

Public service workers have worked hard to see the province through this pandemic. They deserve respect and a fair deal, not a unilateral imposition of new rates of pay by the Premier.

Premier Higgs has said these cuts are in preparation for cuts in funding from the federal government however federal funding remains stable at this time. Federal leaders have repeatedly stated publicly that austerity is not the solution to COVID-19 related economic downturns.

The provincial opposition members have suggested that Premier Higgs is taking this opportunity to forward his own agenda and implement unnecessary cuts to public service wages.

A wage freeze and years with only a 1% wage increase mean that our members will be earning less over time as their incomes will not even keep up with the cost of living.

This one-year salary freeze has already been implemented for non-unionized public servants in New Brunswick.

We are working with all other bargaining agents to push back against this wage freeze.

COVID-19 continues to put unprecedented stress on members like you. As the number of cases continues to rise across the country, balancing work and life responsibilities remains difficult. Many Canadians are now facing a new series of school and childcare closures. 

Yet, the Treasury Board has made it more difficult for members to access ‘Other Leave with Pay (Code 699),' granted in our collective agreements.

PIPSC has filed a series of policy grievances against the Treasury Board’s guidelines for the use of Code 699 – following similar actions by fellow federal public sector bargaining agents. In addition to filing these grievances, we are keeping up the pressure in consultations with the employer on weekly calls with the Treasury Board and in COVID-19 labour relations meetings. We have also written to the Minister of Finance and the Minister for the Status of Women asking for them to intervene given these changes to Code 699 we see as disproportionately impacting women and other caregivers.

In November, we surveyed our members to understand how they’ve accessed Code 699 and other types of leave to manage with caregiving responsibilities or if they cannot access their work equipment to do their job. In the preliminary results, the vast majority of our members who accessed Code 699 since the pandemic began identified that it was for childcare duties. Of those members, the majority were women. 

The Treasury Board’s new guidelines leave it up to individual managers who may force employees to exhaust other forms of leave, such as vacation, sick leave, or leave without pay, inappropriately. As our survey has found, this is a discriminatory change that will have a larger impact on women, and caregivers, in the public service. 

The pandemic continues to wreak havoc – we must ensure those who need to access it are provided with fair access. We must protect those who are vulnerable to discrimination.

Get the help you need

If you have been denied access to Code 699 or forced to use inappropriate leave such as vacation, sick leave, or leave without pay, please reach out for support: 

COVID-19 HELP FORM

PIPSC Economist, Ryan Campbell, brings us the 5 takeaways from Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland’s 2020 fiscal update delivered on Monday, Nov. 30, 2020.

1. Public-sector science is integral

The government’s top priority remains a science-driven approach to containing COVID-19 and protecting Canadians. In this Fall Economic Statement, the federal government has provided $565 million for COVID-19 testing supplies and the distribution of rapid coronavirus tests.

Canadians are eager to have access to a safe and effective vaccine and the lack of domestic production has been identified as a weakness. This Fall Economic Statement didn’t answer all questions about the speed and efficacy of vaccination efforts in Canada but it did take steps to ramp up domestic production. The National Research Council will be part of the solution – they’re allotted $126 million over six years to produce 2 million vaccine doses per month at the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre. The public service remains at the centre of the federal government's pandemic response, led by Health Canada and the Public Health Agency.

2. No signs of austerity and a foundation has been laid for a green recovery

We can be thankful the government was not spooked by false threats from deficit alarmists. Yes, the deficit projection for 2020-21 has increased to $382 billion, a scale of spending not seen since WWII. But, this projection also showed the deficit has a natural downward trajectory, dropping, without any mention of austerity, to $121 billion next year and $51 billion in 2022-23.

As the health threat subsides, the need for government spending will go down as well. Even after this historically bad year, Canada’s debt is expected to remain less than half of the average debt in other G20 countries. Moderate debt levels and historically low-interest rates have made it easier for the government to fight the virus and repair the economic damage without financial constraints.

Investing remains the correct course of action to support our economy in these unprecedented times. This is especially true as the COVID-19 and climate crises converge. In this Fall Economic Statement, the federal government committed to prolonged stimulus spending even after the virus is overcome – committing to allocate 3-4% of GDP per year between 2021-24. This spending is over and above the $2.6 billion for green retrofits and $150 million for zero-emission vehicle infrastructure also announced. Spending is crucial to repair economic scarring resulting from the recent shocks and GHG emission reduction targets must continue to go hand-in-hand with the investment in job creation.

3. Tax fairness signals were sent, but more substance will be required

The federal government announced the intention to simplify the home office expense deduction for the first $400 claimed. This seems like a positive move but full details have not been released yet. We will provide an update as soon as we have all the information.  

As of July 2021, foreign tech and e-commerce companies will have stricter requirements to charge Canadian customers GST/HST. Up until now, Canadian counterparts were at a competitive disadvantage because they always had to add these charges. This common-sense adjustment is welcomed but long overdue. CRA professionals and other advocates for tax fairness have been recommending this change for years.

Slow but tangible steps were taken to close the stock options loophole – a deduction that acts as a subsidy for the wealthy. The Fall Economic Statement also announced the federal government’s intention to modernize the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) and committed $606 million over 5 years in additional spending at the Canada Revenue Agency to curb international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.

All together, tax-fairness announcements are expected to yield $2 billion per year in additional revenue. These changes are positive but represent the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. The government must now turn its focus to the super-wealthy and multinational corporations that hide their profits outside of Canada.

4. NAV CANADA and the commercial airline industry need support

Health threats and travel restrictions have wreaked havoc on the commercial airline industry through the pandemic. In the Fall Economic Statement, the federal government committed significant resources to airports and regional service providers. It also provided loans to other impacted sectors through the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program.

There was no mention of a final deal for commercial airlines, Negotiations are ongoing but this stands out as a glaring omission. NAV CANADA is a private, not-for-profit company that carries considerable overhead and is dependent on usage fees for revenue. NAV CANADA must be included in the final deal for the air sector while also receiving unambiguous access to existing programs like the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy.

5. After 30 years of unfulfilled childcare promises, the Liberals have a few months to deliver

COVID-19 has exposed the overwhelming lack of affordable childcare in Canada. Women have borne the brunt of this burden and have been leaving the labour market in the highest numbers in generations.

The finance minister used strong and supportive language, stating: “Canada will not be truly competitive until all Canadian women have access to the affordable child care we need”. Unfortunately, the financial commitment was small and the hard work and decision making was kicked down the line, much in the same way it has been for the last 30 years.

It would be shameful to make it through this global crisis and not learn from the lessons we’ve been given. Budget 2021 must include concrete commitments for a universal national child care program.

 Yves Cousineau is the 2020 recipient of the PIPSC Life Membership Award.

A tireless champion for members for two decades, Yves has served as a leader of the NR Group, bargaining teams, and at consultation. A role model of integrity and hard work, Yves has generously shared his wisdom and inspired the many stewards he has recruited and mentored.

The Life Membership Award recognizes outstanding service of enduring value to PIPSC by a regular or retired member who has demonstrated leadership for at least ten years. 

Mike Murphy is the 2020 recipient of the PIPSC Service Award.

A driving force who helped the University of Ottawa IT professionals become members of PIPSC more than 10 years ago, Mike is the group president. For years, he has worked vigorously to encourage members to unite in solidarity to conquer injustice at the bargaining table and in the workplace.

The Institute Service Award recognizes outstanding service over a significant period of time, above and beyond that which might be expected of any devoted member who has served on many constituent body executives.

PIPSC thanks the members of the Awards Selection Panel – Bert Crossman, Ralph Herman, and Nita Saville – for reviewing the nominations and for recommending these laureates.

Please visit the Awards page to learn more about the nomination process.

COVID-19 has put unprecedented stress on members like you. Balancing work and life responsibilities, setting up workspaces at home, dealing with school and daycare closures, and caring for loved ones has been a very difficult transition. 

The vast majority of federal public servants have been able to work through this crisis requiring no extra leave. However, those who needed more flexibility to attend to caregiving duties or deal with health risks, or those who could not perform their tasks at home when their offices closed, accessed ‘Other Leave With Pay (Code 699).’

To date, the use of Code 699 has been minimal. When it's needed – it's needed

Women, caregivers and those with health risks still need access to Code 699 leave to cope with the pandemic. 

It is a great disappointment that the Treasury Board has decided to change its guidance for management on the use of Code 699.  Even after conducting a GBA+ analysis on this change – identifying that the burden of child care and financial repercussions in the COVID era has disproportionately fallen on women – they decided to move forward. 

This updated guidance, which will be effective November 9, 2020, sets up new barriers that make this type of leave less accessible to employees. It emphasizes that Code 699 should be granted on a case-by-case basis, and only after remote or alternate work, or flexible work hours have been considered, and generally only after other relevant paid leave has first been used by the employee. 

Once all available options have been considered, and managers have consulted with their Labour Relations advisors, Code 699 could be available to an employee. 

However, this leaves it up to individual managers to force employees to exhaust other forms of leave, such as vacation, sick leave, or leave without pay, inappropriately. 

Get the help you need

We’re extremely concerned about the decision and limited access to Code 699. 

If you have been denied access to Code 699 or forced to use inappropriate leave such as vacation, sick leave, or leave without pay, please reach out for support: 

COVID-19 HELP FORM 

We’re fighting back

Public servants are fundamental to a successful recovery from the pandemic. We must support these workers to support Canadians. 

Last week we sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, and Minister for Women and Gender Equality, The Honourable Maryam Monsef, urging them to insist that this decision is reversed. The government’s response to the pandemic and its treatment of federal workers has been very commendable so far – this approach must not be changed now to the detriment of women and families. 

Throughout this pandemic, you have fought for Canadians, and your union has fought for you. For months, we have pushed back against the Treasury Board when they initially proposed to eliminate Code 699 entirely. Though progressive changes have been made we are disappointed with the conclusion they’ve come to and we are ready to push back again.

There is still time for key government ministers or the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer to step in and stop this change. 

If this policy is implemented as is, we will take legal action by filing a policy grievance to demand this change be halted.

Code 699 is rarely used – we must ensure those who need to access it are provided with fair access. We must protect those who are vulnerable to discrimination.

Women are being pushed out of the labour market across the globe, we cannot allow that to happen here. We must stand up for each other through this crisis.

 PIPSC members who are paid by the failed Phoenix pay system have experienced overpayments to their paycheques, as well as miscalculated pension contributions.

In April 2020, the pay centre suspended the recovery of salary overpayments and missed pension contributions as a temporary measure due to COVID-19.

The recovery of overpayments is resuming in October 2020. If you are facing financial difficulties, you may request that recovery payments be established at less than 10% of your gross bi-weekly pay when establishing a repayment plan. The repayment period of pension arrears can also be made over a period equal to three times the period of the deficiency. Call the government’s Client Contact Centre at 1-855-686-4729 for more information.

We’re continuing our advocacy to get you the compensation you deserve for Phoenix’s failures. Learn more about the Phoenix compensation that’s already available and expected, as well as what to do if you have a pay issue. Learn more about the days of leave that PIPSC members received in 2019 as compensation for damage done.