This year marks our 100th anniversary as a union committed to leading progress. 

To celebrate the role that members like you play in protecting and supporting communities, we invited Ottawa artist Ryan Smeeton to create a mural that represents the diverse work you do. 

Over the course of a month, Ryan worked to paint 100 years of progress. In this piece, he captured the importance of our members’ work and the spirit of PIPSC. 

“My goal is to create a mural that captures the spirit of PIPSC’s purpose: building community to act collectively to improve its members’ lives,” he said. “I represent this in my design with a linear composition featuring three figures; the first figure is seen pouring seeds from her palm, the second is seen holding a sapling, and the third is seen gazing out into the future.”

Ottawa photographer Cory Conty worked by Ryan’s side to develop a video time-lapse of the mural from concept to creation — truly bringing the project to life. 

At PIPSC, we’re excited to be kicking off a new century of accomplishment with a mural that honours the impacts of our members over the last 100 years. 

We will continue to celebrate our century of success at our AGM this November. 

We thank Ryan for helping us bring this mural to life, Cory for the stunning footage, and our neighbours at Dustbane for supporting this project. 

October 22, 2019

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Justin.Trudeau@parl.gc.ca

Prime Minister Trudeau,

On behalf of the 60,000 members of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), I would like to offer you my sincere congratulations for your re-appointment as our nation’s Prime Minister.

A collaborative relationship will be key to our ongoing success. Our work together to replace Phoenix has been productive and we will be pleased to see this back on the top of the government’s agenda.

Over the past four years, your government has replenished the ranks of public scientists and we look forward to the continued investment needed to tackle the climate crisis. We're also looking to make strides on tax fairness and the reduction of government outsourcing.

The high voter turnout in the National Capital Region reflects the engaged electorate, and many of our members cast their vote for a government that will invest in public services. PIPSC and our members are confident that we can continue to collaborate effectively to ensure that the federal public service meets the growing needs and aspirations of all Canadians.

To achieve this objective, the government must:

1. Ensure that public servants are paid correctly and on time, by introducing a fully funded, functional pay system developed in cooperation with its own information technology specialists, our CS Group members, to replace the disastrous Phoenix system.
2. Ensure that Canada’s public scientists have the resources they need to help our country face difficult health and environmental challenges.
3. Reduce costly and wasteful outsourcing on government consultants to 2005-06 levels, as you had committed to in the 2015 election.
4. Give the Canada Revenue Agency and our members the resources they need to collect the billions of dollars lost every year because of tax loopholes. We need to properly fund the infrastructure and public services Canadians depend on every day.

Once again, please accept our congratulations on your electoral success and our best wishes for your efforts in fulfilling the commitments you have made to Canadians. You have our assurance that we are ready to work with you and your government.

Sincerely,

Debi Daviau
PIPSC President

Every $1 invested in public service tax professionals will generate $4 in public revenue, an analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has confirmed.

“Regular people are paying their fair share of taxes. But large corporations and wealthy individuals can hire teams of high-priced specialists to aggressively game the tax code,” said PIPSC president Debi Daviau. PIPSC represents nearly 12,000 Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) tax professionals focused predominantly on corporate audits.

The PBO analysis was released as part of an election platform costing exercise and is a credible, non-partisan report. The analysis clearly shows that investing in the CRA will generate public funds for the services Canadians rely on.

Harper’s 2012 federal budget significantly undermined the CRA’s capacity to stop the richest corporations and individuals from ducking their fair share of taxes. Despite much-needed reinvestment in the CRA since 2015, funding levels are still $500 million below the 2012 cuts.

When Canadians were asked in a 2018 Environics survey whether it’s easier for corporations and wealthy individuals to evade or avoid tax than it is for average people, almost 80% of respondents agreed. When PIPSC put the same question to the auditors, economists, actuaries and other professionals at the CRA, the level of agreement was even higher: 90% said it’s easier for the rich to get around taxes compared to others.

“It is unfair that everyone else has to suffer while the richest individuals and corporations in this country are gaming the system to avoid paying their fair share,” said Daviau. “It’s time to invest in CRA auditors so they can bring fairness back to our tax system.”

With the federal election underway, the government is now in “caretaker mode” which has impacted the roll-out of our Phoenix Compensation Agreement. 

Current employees will have already received up to five days of paid leave in compensation. You can learn more about that process here. 

The claims process for former employees (and representatives of former employees and estates of deceased former employees) to receive compensation has been finalized. You will receive the salary equivalent of the leave days. However, this process could not be rolled out before the federal election was called and must wait until a new federal cabinet is established.

Work continues on the remaining phases of the compensation agreement and we are actively involved. The employer is creating a claims process for losses, interest and damages. It is anticipated that the process for these claims will be rolled out in two phases starting in 2020.

This new claims process will provide compensation for issues covered by many filed grievances. PIPSC has agreed to review and withdraw those grievances within 150 days of signing the compensation agreement. Because the federal election is impacting the employer’s ability to implement a large part of the agreement, PIPSC will be seeking an extension to the 150-day time frame to delay withdrawing existing grievances until the claims process is complete. The details of the compensation agreement can be found here.

We will continue to use the grievance process until the leave process has been completely rolled out.

Please read our FAQs for more information on the Phoenix Compensation Agreement. 

This week, students across the globe led us to the streets to call for climate action.

The strikes were started in August of 2018 by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. These #FridaysForFuture student strikes now take place in communities all over the world, including across Canada.

We stand in solidarity with the world-wide strikes for climate action.

Our public scientists confirm that climate change is a crisis in need of immediate action and only 20% of them believe Canada is doing enough.

“We must listen to the science. We must put the good work of our public scientists to use. As unionists, we must stand in solidarity with students across the globe in calling for climate action,” said PIPSC President Debi Daviau.

On this global day of action, directed at the UN Secretary General’s climate summit, we encourage each person in Canada to join the student-led strike in their own community.

Not all workers will be able to join the marches and rallies in person, but there are many ways to demonstrate solidarity and support for this critical call to action including, showing solidarity on social media, participating in actions on your lunch break, starting a conversation about reducing emissions in your own workplace, or raising climate action with your local candidates in the federal election.

Those who do join the strikes should first speak with their union and consult relevant legislation to understand the legal implications of their actions.

PIPSC marks the 50th anniversary of the coming into effect of the Official Languages Act on September 7, 1969, and the 10^th anniversary of the Linguistic Duality Day celebrated annually on the second Thursday of September throughout the public service of Canada.

The act establishes the equality of status of French and English. Accordingly, it sets out broad principles with respect to official languages in the federal public service.

Our overall position is that PIPSC supports bilingualism both as an organization, as demonstrated by our Policy on Official Languages, and in the public service of Canada.

Specifically, we support:

• The protection of both official languages, as well as Indigenous languages.
• The rights of all workers to work in their official language of choice – including full-time or part-time public servants and government contractors.
• The obligation to provide services in designated government offices in both official languages – whether service delivery is effected by full time or part-time public servants or government contractors.
• The work of the National Joint Council (NJC) on the upcoming reopening of the Bilingualism Bonus Directive, with an aim to better support the use of both official languages amongst federal government employees.

On March 2019, the government undertook a consultation exercise to review the Official Languages Act where PIPSC shared its views on improvements needed. Also, PIPSC staff and elected officials have participated in a town hall and forums, as well as joined other stakeholders at the Symposium on the 50^th anniversary of the Official Languages Act.

At the June Board of Directors’ meeting, PIPSC established a Standing Committee on Official Languages responsible for advising and making recommendations to the Board. The committee’s mandate will be presented and adopted at 2019 PIPSC AGM in November.

PIPSC’s Committee on Official Languages welcomes your comments and questions. Email us at gtlo_tfol@pipsc.ca.

Members like you play an important part in building, protecting and progressing communities across Canada. In celebrating the Institute’s 100th anniversary and the contributions of our members to our community, we’ve invited Ottawa artist Ryan Smeeton to create a special mural to honour the diverse impact of our members.

Ryan will paint the mural near our main office located at 250 Tremblay road. He has been a part of many inspirational public art installments and designed dozens of murals which can be identified by his unique style.

The mural will prominently display our 100th anniversary logo and be a source of beauty and inspiration for our work as a union. This is how the artist describes his concept for this mural:

"When I learned of the issues PIPSC has fought for, I was struck by the importance of your work … My goal is to create a mural that captures the spirit of PIPSC's purpose: building community to act collectively to improve its members’ lives. I represent this in my design with a linear composition featuring three figures; the first figure is seen pouring seeds from her palm, the second is seen holding a sapling, and the third is seen gazing out into the future.”

He said this concept represents the process of a PIPSC accomplishment from conception to implementation. First, the seeds of an idea are planted, then those seeds are nurtured so they can grow and gain momentum. Finally, the outcome is achieved – better conditions for members – and all those who collaborated to make those changes happen get to look towards a brighter future.

“As focal points within a composition, I strive to use figurative imagery that is stimulating, representative, and accessible,” Ryan said. “My goal is to create an engaging, eye-catching piece that will ultimately become a landmark in the area and will serve as a celebration of PIPSC’s successes, a source of pride for its members and staff, and an inspiration to continue Leading Progress."

As this year’s AGM marks the kick off of our 100th anniversary celebrations, there will be many projects and events coming up to celebrate our past and future success. The work on the mural will begin on September 9. The completed mural will be unveiled in late September 2019.

We thank our neighbours at Dustbane for their support for this project and their permission to use one of their walls for this mural.

The House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance launched its pre-budget 2020 consultations. As we have done in the past, PIPSC submitted a series of recommendations to make the next budget work for government employees. From ensuring the Phoenix replacement is brought in smoothly, to monitoring research metrics, we all win when large-scale projects are planned ahead and costed out. We invite you to read our 11 recommendations for Budget 2020.

READ OUR BUDGET 2020 RECOMMENDATIONS

Due to the upcoming federal election, there will be limited time to prepare Budget 2020. We expect the next government will not rush through the process and do the right thing by listening to Canada’s unions - our recommendations have been crafted to help the government avoid some of the costly errors made in the past. 

In the coming weeks, PIPSC will be launching our federal election toolkit that will enable members to learn what candidates support our priorities. We will be encouraging all Canadians to elect a government that protects public services and respects the people who provide them. 

As of August 27, 2019, Phoenix compensation days should be in your leave bank.

If you worked at least one day in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and were paid by Phoenix, you are entitled to compensation. You should have received two days of leave for 2016-17 and one day of paid leave for each year of the subsequent fiscal years. 

You will also receive a compensation day for 2019-2020 after the end of this fiscal year.

If you believe an error was made in applying the compensation days to your leave bank please contact your department's human resources team. You should have an email from your department with this contact information. 

Retired and former employees, as well as estates of deceased employees will be able to make a claim to receive the cash equivalent of the leave days. This process will be available in the coming weeks.

We are working now to ensure this deal is extended to members who work for the House of Commons and the Senate. These members have not yet received compensation days.

Individual cases of Phoenix errors continue to be treated and employees will still receive the pay they are owed. An expanded claims process for financial losses that were caused due to Phoenix will be released in the coming weeks. There will also be a simplified process for resolving more serious damages caused by Phoenix.

For more information please visit our frequently asked questions. 

Now, more than ever, workers must come together and take a stand for a living minimum wage, safe work conditions, adequate health benefits and a secure retirement.  

We have had a big year of wins at the bargaining table, advancement on Phoenix and real progress on protecting our sick leave.

PIPSC members are celebrating our collective strength in Calgary, Ottawa, and Vancouver.

Join a PIPSC Labour Day Event

Medicare, minimum wage and parental leave were won thanks to working people across Canada. This is why every year on Labour Day, Canada’s unions celebrate working people as we all continue our work to improve the lives of all Canadians.

Unions across Canada are welcoming you to Labour Day events, parades and picnics.

Attend a labour event in your community!