PIPSC SH Sub-Group Kingston AGM Minutes
1st ANNUAL General Meeting APRIL 24, 2025
MONTREAL STREET LEGION
Attendees: Gary Desbiens, Cindy Gagnon, Jess Whidden, Nicole Monk, Leasha Fuller, Jennifer van de Ven, Sarah Warner, Anya Myers, Troy Saunders-Cartier, Heather Parsons, Billie Timpson, Jay Timpson, Kharren Cusick, Tracey Clifford-Brown, Cindi Sangster, Paul Cervenko, Jennifer Ramirez, Stephanie Blasko, Jim Young, Eric Massey, Imran Ghaznawi, Ray Degbey
1810: Call to Order by G. Desbiens
Introduction of acting executive - GaryDesbiens President, Cindy Gagnon Vice President, Jess Whidden secretary, LeashaFuller Treasurer, Nicole Monk MAL Introduction of all attendees and locations of work
1815: Approval of Agenda - motioned by Jennifer van de Ven, seconder Anya Myers 1816 : Review of By-Laws for approval
- Amend By-law 2 - include (s) for profession(s) - Anya Myers first, second by Tracey Clifford-Brown
1820: Motion to approve by-laws with changes: Cindy Gagnon, second Cindi Sangster 1822: Annual Financial Statement presentation by Leasha Fuller
- Current budget $4,065.36
- Remainder of money exec can determine what events we can hold
- Revenue from PIPSC is based on members per group
1825: Motion to approve the budget Cindy Gagnon, second Billie Timpson 1826: Gary Desbiens discussing need for SH group in Kingston due to issues within Health Services and not Branch specific within Kingston due broad inclusion of many different departments
- SH issues: recruitment and retention, violence in the workplace is on the rise, need to focus on these issues
- Gary is consultation president for Corrections Canada and is also on the working group for consultation as well as Advisory Council for PIPSC and Kingston Branch President, but Stepping down from branch president in May too focus on SH group issues - 262 SH members in the Kingston area
- Family- work balance is a big issue in coordination now with return to work mandate
- New CA made a lot of strides, best in contract in a long time
- Would like feedback of what members would like to see with the SH group
- We have a vested interest in working together and to stand up and rise to the situation to make the government aware we are in a crisis and we need to stand together
- Eric Massey: you can get funding with SH group as well
- Questioning if people did not receive invitation to the SH subgroup meeting - if you use CSC/DND/employer email address the emails from PIPSC do not get through the firewalls - talk to your members at your sites and have them change emails registered with PIPSC or personal email
- Many communications from local, regional and national as well as newsletters will be missed using employer email.
1840: Introduction of Guest Speaker: ERIC MASSEY SH GROUP EXECUTIVE, NU Representative
- Eric was not re-elected this year after 12 years from the NU representative - Being replaced by Rachel Boyko, CSC Nurse in Edmonton
- Retro pay came today, heavy tax burden
- SH Executive represents many departments
- Executive is there to assist and answer all questions
- CWW notable issue in the last year
- Send issues to exec team (SH bargaining) for next bargaining and negotiation
- Will try for next bargaining to have more money come to CSC
- Regrets from Donald Moisan SW representative, who lost his re-election as well
- TBS did not want to increase security bonus but they did with PSAC so they had to for PIPSC
- Trying to build a new bargaining team in the next few weeks, check your PIPSC emails for surveys or SH website should have a QR code with a link
- Question: How does SH fit into PIPSC? Groups vs Branches?
- Branch represents all organizations and institutions, Subgroups are specific
- SH is not just nursing, we have other HC professions to negotiate with TBS each profession within SH being negotiated individually and not that one profession gets more so another gets less
- We have continued to fight for everyone, it is hard to negotiate for 12 different departments in 19 ministries so it is very difficult to negotiate with TBS
- Please encourage your colleagues to complete surveys
1915: Noted that ten stewards were present at AGM
1915: Elections Chair: Jim Young
- we will be electing president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, 5 members at large Nominated:
President (2 year term): Jen van de Ven nominated Gary Desbiens
- Closed at 1917 - Gary Desbiens accepted
Vice President (1 year term) Nicole Monk nominated Cindy Gagnon
- Closed at 1918 - Cindy Gagnon accepted
Treasurer (1 year term) Billie Timpson nominated Leasha Fuller
- Closed at 1920 - Leasha Fuller accepted
Secretary (2 year term) Tracey Clifford Brown nominated Jess Whidden - Closed at 1921 accepted by Jess Whidden
MAL are there to help engage members, come to meetings and be involved - meal and mileage is covered
3 Members at Large (2 year term)
- Nicole Monk nominated by Jess Whidden
- Yes willing to stand
- Jennifer van de Ven nominated by CIndy Gagnon
- Yes willing to stand
- Heather Parsons nominated by Gary Desbiens
- Yes willing to stand
- Anya Myers nominated by Cindy Gagnon
- Yes , willing to stand
- Billie Timpson nominated by Jay Timpson
- Not willing to stand, would be willing to stand for one year
- Jennifer Ramirez nominated by Troy Saunders Cartier
- Not willing to stand, would be willing to stand for one year
1929: voting for MAL 2 year positions for: Nicole, Jen, Heather, Anya
1934: voting closed for MAL 2 year position
2 Members at Large (1 year term)
- Billie Timpson willing to stand for one year
- Jennifer Ramirez willing to stand for one year
- Troy Saunders Cartier nominated by Sarah Warner
- Willing to stand
- Imran Ghaznawi nominated by Cindy Gagnon
- Not willing to stand
1939: nominations closed, voting for MAL 1 year positions for: Billie, Jennifer, Troy 1940: Gary Desbiens thank you for the nominations - will do his best to live up to members standards.
- Would like us to be united in this area
- Recognizes corrections is overwhelming in Kingston SH with over 160 members CSC, 40 DND, members from ESDC, Health Canada, radiation technologists at KGH, we run from Napanee to Prescott and north to highway 7, very large area to cover
- High interest in membership events and coordinating with other groups to do events for members
- We can only make a difference if we want to make a difference. You are your union. If your issues are not brought forward and heard, they cannot be addressed. If the issues are known, they can be presented to national
- CA is open to interpretation
- Importance of using personal emails vs employer emails
- Started looking at ONA vs PIPSC policies with workloads and safe reports vs PSIs - - -Stewards are volunteers and they are there to support you in your decisions but you need to support and assist them in doing so
- Encourage people to apply to be stewards, management may not like when you are vocal but they will meet you at the table as equals
- all grievances go to SH and are used in bargaining with TSB
- Everyone under the federal government is covered by legislation if they are being pursued by a patient as long as you are found not at fault. It is recommended to have extra coverage with PLP, LAP is employee responsibility
2010: Report of the Election Committee results of Election by Jim Young President (2 year term) - Gary Desbiens acclaimed
Vice President (1 year term) - Cindy Gagnon acclaimed
Treasurer (1 year term) - Leasha Fuller acclaimed
Secretary (2 year term) - Jess Whidden acclaimed
3 Members at Large (2 year term) - Nicole Monk, Heather Parsons, Anya Myers 2 Members at Large (1 year term) - Troy Saunders- Cartier, Jennifer Ramirez 2012: Nomination to destroy ballots Gary Desbiens, seconded Cindy Gagnon
2014: Question Period?
- Local facebook group?
- Branch group will create local subgroup
- Will link facebook group to minutes “PIPSC Kingston Branch”
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AZon6SX75/
- Everything will be posted on the PIPSC website, minutes and events - Rule of thumb - once a month for an hour - go look stuff up
- PIPSC is working on restructuring website due to difficulty with navigation - Union dues is voted on at National AGM with over 800 voting members - PIPSC expanded from 53,000 members to 65,000 members - Thank you Eric for coming from Quebec to meet with us today
- Thank you to Jim Young who runs good elections
- Let’s make next meeting bigger and better
2025: Meeting Adjourned