May 1, 2024, 18:00
Royal Canadian Legion / 3500 Fallowfield Road, Ottawa
All Executives Were Present:
Daniel Shen (President), Beverley Miranda (Vice-President), Bobson Wong (Treasurer) Steve Anderson (Secretary), Zhidan Guan (Member at Large), Liming Sun (Member at Large), Nghia Lam (Member at Large), Nancy Desroches (Member at Large)
The President of the IT Ottawa West Subgroup, Daniel Shen, welcomed all delegates and guests and called the meeting to order at 6:04 PM.
AGENDA A draft agenda was presented.
MOTION To adopt the agenda as presented. M/S Steve Anderson, Lisa Chau. CARRIED.
PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES
- It was noted that the partial value of one laptop mentioned in the 2023 AGM minutes had been recovered from PIPSC.
MOTION To adopt the May 16, 2023, AGM minutes as presented. M/S Daniel Shen, Steve Anderson. CARRIED.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
- Daniel Shen informed all those present of: the ITOWSG events held during the past year (2 Lunch n Learns, Bowling night, our AGM… and a paintball event will be held soon), general subgroup business (the impact of the April 16 federal government budget, that the majority of IT members across Canada are located in the NCR, that these are located in a relatively small number of subgroups), contracting out (3254 policy grievances were filed, with the first 8 being dropped/cancelled), the new IT training fund (the IT Group has created an Executive Committee that is looking into this issue – the training fund is allocated annually and will be on a “use it or lose it” basis).
TREASURER’S REPORT
- Bobson Wong explained the financial report and took questions from the floor (examples: the amount designated for lunch n learns, and how communications costs were calculated).
MOTION To adopt the 2023 financial statement as presented. M/S Bobson Wong, Beverley Miranda. Carried.
- Bobson Wong presented the budget for 2025.
MOTION To increase the promotional items amount to $5300, using the $800 projected surplus. M/S Patricia Williams, Lisa Chau. Carried.
MOTION To adopt the 2025 budget as amended. M/S Bobson Wong, Jason Peng. Carried.
ELECTIONS
- The Election Committee was comprised of Beverley Miranda, Kerry Leiba-Morgan, and Jason Peng. Beverley read out the part of the ITOWSG bylaws that explains how elections are to be run.
- The positions up for election were: President, Secretary and three Members at Large. All positions were for 2-year terms.
- There were 2 nominations received in the ITOWSG mailbox: Daniel Shen for President, and Zhidan Guan for Member-at-Large.
President
Three nominations were received: Daniel Shen, Nino Mangione, Steve Anderson. Each candidate gave a two-minute speech. Daniel Shen was re-elected as President.
Secretary
Steve Anderson was the incumbent position holder and declined from the position. Zhidan Guan was nominated from the floor, and he accepted. No other nominations were received: Zhidan Guan was elected by acclamation.
Members at Large
Six nominations were received: Jeffrey Gao , Nghia Lam, Pierre Leger, Robert Metcalfe, Steve Anderson and Yazhuo Zhang. Each candidate gave a one-minute speech. Nghia Lam, Pierre Leger and Robert Metcalfe were elected.
At the end of the announcements of Election results Beverley asked for a vote to destroy the ballots:
M/S: Beverley Miranda/Patricia Williams: CARRIED
GUEST SPEAKER
- Eva Henshaw, the A/PIPSC President, spoke and answered questions from the delegates present. She gave a comprehensive overview of the status of Return to the Office and the government’s real estate footprint decreasing. She said PIPSC has concerns with employees being forced to go into the office “just to sit on Teams”, problems with Health and Safety and first aid coverage for employees, and that the ability to hire the best people anywhere in Canada is being unnecessarily restricted. She informed everyone of a rally being held the next day, and an upcoming bargaining unit press conference on this topic. A delegate suggested that we should not be “…going back to the office to babysit the contractors.” She also emphasized that the reduction of 5,000 positions through attrition in the federal budget made no sense given that the employer is desperately trying to fill many jobs – such as nursing positions in northern areas.
- She ended by inviting any further questions through her email address president@pipsc.ca, which is continuously monitored.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION Adjournment. M/S Steve Anderson, Daniel Shen. CARRIED. 8:59 PM
Minutes recorded by Steve Anderson, ITOWSG Secretary