The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
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Quebec Regional Executive Meeting - June 2, 2017

EXECUTIVE MEETING

QUEBEC REGIONAL COUNCIL

JUNE 2, 2017, 9 A.M.
ESTRIMONT SUITES & SPA - ORFORD

1. CALL TO ORDER

- Present: Yvon Brodeur, Réjean Michaud, Robert Tellier, Benoît Pelletier, Steve Parent, Renaud Guiard, Patrick Sioui, Lyne Larocque, Damien Noël, Christian Tremblay
- Absent: Richard Doyle

As Chair, Yvon called the meeting to order after establishing quorum.

2. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Moved by: Renaud Guiard. Seconded by: Lyne Larocque.

  1. READING AND APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

Benoît pointed out a small correction to be made to the previous minutes.

Moved by: Benoît Pelletier Seconded by: Robert Tellier

  1. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES OF THE MAY 4, 2017 MEETING

Item 4. Establishment of a new Haut-Richelieu Branch:
As requested, the Director sent a letter to the Presidents of the affected Branches (Montérégie and Cowansville). The Cowansville President approved of the new Branch while the Montérégie President sent some emails indicating his disapproval.
A discussion ensued and the Executive approved of the new Branch. The rules for establishing a Branch have been followed and Yvon will let Linda Martel know of our recommendation.

Item 13 a) Transfer of the Iqaluit Branch to the National Capital Region:

Following a discussion with Isaac Omole at the last Regional Council, Mr. Omole informed us that their Branch was not interested in leaving the Quebec Region. We are much more aware of their reality than the NCR.

Item 5. Information sessions on pensions and insurance:

Yvon has a teleconference today with Nancy Lamarche to talk about this. He will get back to us as to whether the sessions, to be given by Steve and Réjean, will start in September 2017.

  1. DIRECTOR’S REPORT

The Executive Committee has met once since our last meeting.

The last Board of Directors meeting was problematic; approving the agenda alone took close to three hours.

  1. TREASURER’S REPORT

Robert presented his written report dated May 31.
Our bank balance is sufficient to carry out our activities.
Questions were asked about some of the spending over the past few months. It was decided that if the Region purchases games as part of an event, it will have them drawn at the end of the event. The Quebec City Branch’s request for $1,000 to hold a meeting on June5 was approved unanimously.

  1. REGIONAL COUNCIL (FOLLOW-UP)

Lyne asked why all of the young people invited had Regional Council member status, while some official substitutes had not been invited. Yvon replied that the two substitutes in question registered late and that the invitations to the young people attending were sent after the registration deadline. Only one young person was an observer. Yvon apologized for not having informed the Regional Executive at our last meeting. A suggestion was made that, for next year, the committee selecting members for the Regional Council be the same as the committee in charge of the Regional Executive election.

Lyne asked who was in charge of membership for the Young Professionals Committee. She was told that it is officially the Executive’s responsibility. However, the job was given to the members of the Young Professionals Committee during the pilot project. The work currently being done by the Strategy Committee will result in clear procedures for membership. We will invite the current members of the Young Professionals Committee to share their views with us on their structure and procedures. This will be submitted to the Executive for approval.

The approach will be the same for all regional committees established in the past few years. Everything must be in accordance with our current By-Laws and the procedures to be established by the Strategy Committee. Ideally, the process will be close to completion by February 2018 so that the Executive can present a final product to members at the next Regional Council.

In response to the resolution adopted at the last Regional Council (observer from the Young Professionals Committee at Executive meetings), Lyne moved that a member of the Young Professionals Committee be included de facto in the Training Committee, as well as the Mobilization Committee. A discussion followed and the Executive was mainly against the motion. It was felt that there is already an opportunity for members of the Young Professionals Committee to be involved in these committees through an invitation by them.

Steve, seconded by Robert, moved that a member of the Executive (Renaud) serve on the Young Professionals Committee to provide a liaison between the two groups. The maximum number of committee members must be identified beforehand, but the Executive unanimously approved this motion from the outset.

Note by minute-taker: Yvon left the meeting between 1:45 and 2:15 p.m. for a teleconference with Nancy Lamarche. Réjean took over as Chair during that time.

  1. MEETING WITH BRANCH PRESIDENTS AND COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES

June 3 retreat: Renaud announced that there was still no agenda for tomorrow’s meeting. Using the minutes from last year’s meeting in Nicolet (January 2016) as well as our own ideas, we prepared an agenda to be given to the participants the following day.

  1. STEWARD COUNCIL

No official committee has been established. The current Training Committee (Robert, Benoît and Yvon) has handled the job to date, and they gave us a framework for the agenda:

- Friday afternoon: panel with Lucie Morneau, mediator with the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board, Valérie Charette and one other person;

- Friday evening: after dinner, disco; Steve is in charge of communicating with the DJ;

- Saturday morning: workshop on grievances and disciplinary action followed by a review of case law;

- Saturday afternoon: talk by Dr.Serge Marquis (spouses invited).

  1. PIPSC AGM,NOVEMBER 2017:

Yvon said that there were 20 spots for Quebec Regional members and that invitations were sent to those concerned. Two people are currently on the waiting list: Vicky Painchaud and Stéphanie Fréchette. The AGM is expected to be bilingual (with Lyne co-chairing the meeting): awaiting confirmation from the Board of Directors.

  1. REGIONAL AND NATIONAL COMMITTEE REPORTS

Training and Education: Robert and Benoit

Robert will be meeting with the FTQ Training Committee on June 20 and with PIPSC’s Training Committee on July7.

Human Rights: Patrick

The Committee met on Monday, May29. Shirley Friesen, Chair of the Committee, was absent and Steve Hindle replaced her.

Patrick noted that they are having problems with the employment equity statistics. An analyst will prepare a report.

Finance: Benoit

Benoît said that the PIPSC financial statements had been published. There is a profit of about $1.1 million versus a budgeted loss of $1.5 million. Their next meeting is scheduled for June23 and 24.

IT: Christian Gaboury

No report for the time being. Christian will not be attending the next IT Committee meeting because it is on a Saturday.

Young Professionals: Denis Caissy

No report at the moment. Denis will be attending our strategy meeting tomorrow.

Status of Women

Meeting planned for June9 in Laval: Yvon will be attending and will be funding 50% of the meeting through his Director budget. The remaining 50% will be covered by Debi Daviau’s discretionary budget. A meeting is scheduled for September12 and 13 and should be paid for by the National Office. Similar to our voting for Renaud as the liaison person for the Young Professionals Committee, we asked Lyne to do the same for the Status of Women Committee. A motion to that effect was tabled and Lyne was elected unanimously to serve as the liaison person.

Official Languages

Yvon informed us that a document had been prepared and presented to the Board of Directors for a bilingual AGM. It was recommended that the document be sent to the Advisory Committee.

By-Laws Committee

Lyne said that the next meeting is set to take place on June26.

  1. UPDATES ON FILES BY THEIR LEADS

Branch Liaison

Renaud will be chairing the strategy meeting tomorrow. There will be no more Branch Presidents meetings this year. Nothing is planned for Friday morning prior to the Stewards Council.

Hotel Accommodation

Damien reminded Benoît, as a member of the Training Committee, that as soon as the dates and number of participants are known for the training schedule, he would like to be told to go ahead, as soon as possible, with the reservations. Benoit said that he would confirm with Damien the number of rooms, participants and special needs for the activities, including the details on arrivals, dates, etc.

Damien went over the hotel selection criteria being used to assess the bids and to meet our specific needs for the next Regional Council and Stewards Council.

After some careful thought, we arrived at a consensus and gave clear instructions to Damien. He will analyze the bids based on our assessment criteria and will give us a report at the next meeting.

Visibility and mobilization items

Nothing special to discuss.

Training and Education Committee: see item 11.

13. STRATEGY COMMITTEE: UPDATE BY THE CURRENT COMMITTEE

Steve and Patrick
Steve informed us that he has not received any feedback since he sent a new version on April24, 2017 (which includes the comments submitted by Réjean). Given that time was running out, it was proposed that the Regional Executive meet on Friday morning before the Stewards Council to work on the document. In the meantime, feedback was welcome.

14. OTHER BUSINESS

  1. There was no other business.

15. ROUND TABLE

No other topics were discussed during the round table.

16. NEXT MEETING AND ADJOURNMENT

The next meeting is to be held Thursday, September14 at the Manoir des Sables in Orford, the day before the Stewards Council.

The meeting was adjourned.

Moved by Lyne.

Seconded by Renaud.