Following over two decades with Sunlife as a service provider, the Government of Canada awarded Canada Life Assurance Company (Canada Life) the contract to administer the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP). 

Following an 18-month preparatory period, this change went live on July 1, 2023. The transition has been chaotic and poorly executed – leaving public servants having to navigate major hurdles in order to access their benefits.

Our members’ concerns about this handover were on full display both at the Parliamentary Committee and the PSHCP Partners Committees this month.  

At a December 7th hearing on Parliament Hill, members of the opposition raised the failure to adequately plan and implement the updated PSHCP with senior leadership at both Canada Life and Treasury Board Secretariat. It was clear that opposition parliamentarians have been paying attention to the ongoing advocacy of federal unions and the Retirees' Association with respect to the handover. 

While improvements to customer service wait times were noted, officials could not explain why Canada Life did not take common sense measures in advance of the handover. They also could not address Canada Life's lack of understanding of the basics of healthcare practices, insurance policies, or administrative best practices.  

Treasury Board officials remained tight-lipped on the reasons why Canada Life failed to anticipate and solve the many challenges now being faced by plan members during the year-and-half before the changeover occurred. 

On December 19th – at a subsequent meeting of the PSHCP Partners Committee – PIPSC President Jennifer Carr reiterated these concerns to these same Treasury Board officials and senior leadership of Canada Life. While both parties have taken meaningful actions to improve plan member experience, PIPSC and our partners from other unions and the National Association of Federal Retirees are still waiting to see true accountability for Canada Life's egregious lack of planning. We continue to work with the Treasury Board to share with them best practices for health benefits.

PIPSC has published a comprehensive member guide on the updated plan. This guide includes information on how to navigate some of the more complex plan changes, how to challenge Canada Life decisions, and how to benefit from 90 percent drug coverage through our ServicePlus partner pharmacy, Mednow.

PIPSC, other bargaining agents, and the Retirees' Association continue to pressure the Treasury Board to demand better of Canada Life. This is not the level of service we expect or were promised. We thank our members for their ongoing patience through this frustrating transition and are taking measures to protect your interests.

Hundreds of thousands of Quebec public sector workers are on strike. This round of collective bargaining negotiations has been going on for several months, and the strike began on November 6, 2023. This is the longest public sector strike in Quebec in the last 50 years.

These workers, represented by Front commun, deserve a fair deal. They come from the health, education, social services, and CEGEP sectors – fields that are predominantly dominated by women. Through the pandemic and beyond, they have worked tirelessly to keep their sectors afloat despite the lack of resources, subpar pay, and onerous working conditions.

It’s clear that their employer, Quebec’s CAQ government, has been devaluing the work of our Quebec peers. The proposed agreements have not met their justified demands for catch-up salary, protection against inflation and better working conditions.

PIPSC wholeheartedly supports our peers striking with Front commun. Quebec public sector workers deserve better – they deserve a fair deal. 

There is power in union solidarity. While PIPSC members in Quebec are not in a legal strike position and are required to attend work as normal, we encourage our members to show support and join a picket during their unpaid breaks or outside of working hours. Let’s help set the standard for all public sector workplaces.   

Front commun is an alliance comprised of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), the Central des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), and the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS). Together they represent over 420,000 members and are negotiating as one voice. 
 

PIPSC President Jennifer Carr is proud to be part of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) delegation attending 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC – more commonly referred to as COP28.

The conference has been held annually since the first UN climate agreement in 1992. The COP conferences are intended for governments to agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change.

The labour movement has an important role to play in these conversations – and they are of particular importance to our members.

“PIPSC represents climate change researchers, science policy advisors, and professionals in the nuclear energy sector,” said PIPSC President Jennifer Carr. “Those perspectives will all be key in building a just transition, and I am attending COP28 this year to ensure those crucial voices are represented at the table.”

To shine a light on the voices of workers, the CLC presented an event called How it Works: Workers and Work in Canadian and Global Just Transitions. 

From a 360-degree perspective, this event covered workers and work through global just transitions, beginning with a discussion between senior government ministers about government experiences working with unions to shift key economic sectors. The CLC presented an innovative and unique worker-focused blueprint of policies based on best practices, worker opinions, and economic modelling – built with Canadian workers and international expertise and best practices.

It is with great sadness that we announce that Paul Skinner passed away peacefully on September 2, 2023, at age 68. Paul was surrounded by family including his wife Anna, and daughters Marena and Melanie.

Paul served nine years as BC/Yukon Region AFS Representative and then as the BC/Yukon PIPSC Director. Including his service as a steward at the subgroup and branch level, Paul was a union leader for PIPSC for 18 years.

Paul dedicated himself to the labour movement, immersing himself in the pursuit of fair working conditions and equitable treatment for all PIPSC members. His tireless efforts as a union leader touched the lives of countless PIPSC members, empowering them with a voice and ensuring their concerns were heard.

The mini-budget update – otherwise known as the Fall Economic Statement – given by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland on November 21, 2023, heavily prioritized housing and affordability for Canadians.

We continue to strongly advise the government to tackle its goal of fiscal restraint by addressing the costly outsourcing within their IT departments. 

The government identified $691 million per year in new spending reductions at federal departments and agencies. These savings were found as part of their ongoing spending review, over and above the $15 billion already announced in Budget 2023. Few details were provided, and we remain concerned about potential job losses or service cuts. 

The FES ominously pledged to “return the public service closer to its pre-pandemic growth track.” This would be hard to achieve without a budget freeze and attrition, at the very least. The growth in the public service is on par with the growth in Canada’s population. On a per capita basis, Canada’s public service is at the same size as it was in 2012, despite providing more services to an aging population. It is misleading for the government to promote a narrative of unfettered growth when the public service has only been keeping up with the growth in the country’s population.  

The government’s dependency on outside IT Consultants is destructive and fiscally irresponsible. By reducing outsourcing and bolstering in-house capacity through employee empowerment and upskilling, we will reach the goals outlined in the Fall Economic Statement and improve services to Canadians.   

Now is the time for the government to hone in on our recommendations and work to develop a long-term, strategic approach to IT within the government.

Bright spots in the Fall Economic Statement include improvements to the Competition Act that will protect Canadians from price gouging by companies that have unfair monopoly power. Many of these changes are in line with recommendations made by PIPSC members at the Competition Bureau. If implemented accordingly, this will represent the most comprehensive set of reforms to the act since it was first instituted forty years ago.  

The FES also showed that “net actuarial losses” due to the government’s pension liabilities are now in fact surpluses, meaning public service pensions are a contributor to the government’s fiscal health. 

The government also announced its intention to continue with the implementation of the Digital Services Tax at the end of 2023. This measure will make it harder for the big tech companies to avoid paying Canadian taxes by booking profits in tax havens. Recently, there has been international pressure to stop or delay this change until an international solution can be implemented. Staying the course is the right response.

With the announcement by the Front commun intersyndical du secteur public québécois that a second strike sequence will take place from November 21 to 23, and the announcement by the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE) that an indefinite strike may be called as of November 23, the closure of schools and daycares will likely create childcare challenges for some employees.

To mitigate these challenges, we recommend that members explore the following options in discussion with their immediate manager:

• flexible working hours,
• use of family members, friends or alternate care arrangements, 
• teleworking or modified work arrangements.

If none of these options are viable, and you are unable to work because of the closures, contact your steward immediately for advice and guidance on the leave available under your collective agreement. We are of the opinion that, due to the unpredictability of rotating strikes, employees may, depending on their individual circumstances, be entitled to take family-related leave in this context.

We will assist you in determining whether an individual or group grievance should be filed, particularly for any discrimination based on gender or family status.

We have all been appalled by the bloodshed we’ve witnessed in the past three weeks. 

The conflict in the Middle East has taken a personal toll on PIPSC members with a direct connection to the region. We have members who have lost loved ones in the Hamas attacks on October 7. Members who have lost loved ones in the Israeli response. Members who are worried for the safety of their loved ones across the region. And members who are facing growing Islamophobia, antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism in our own communities. 

We send these members our deepest condolences and our solidarity. We are in contact with the Muslim Federal Employees Network and the Jewish Public Servants' Network to monitor the experience of our members in the workplace and in the community. We stand united against any expression of hatred. We support our members in creating hate-free spaces for dialogue, engagement and solidarity at a time of grief and division. 

PIPSC has added our support to a growing list of labour and civil society organizations in support of a ceasefire and humanitarian relief. Palestinians, Israelis, and all people in the region deserve to live in peace and security and with justice for all.

We invite all our members to reach out to colleagues inside our union who are directly impacted by this war. This is a time for solidarity and engagement. It’s also a time to reject hatred in all its forms. As a public servant, you are able to engage in rallies, petitions, letter-writing and other political actions that do not promote violence and/or hatred – but you must do so on your personal time (outside of work hours, during paid time off, etc.). If you have any additional questions or concerns, we encourage you to contact your steward.

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PIPSC has put out a detailed guide for members of the Public Service Healthcare Plan to help navigate some of the more complex plan changes and explain the appeals processes when a claim is denied.  Members are encouraged to review this document before reaching out to Canada Life, which continues to face significant and unacceptable backlogs in its PSHCP customer support centers.  Members seeking information on their plan or have general questions, can read through our comprehensive guide and FAQ on our website before reaching out to the Canada Life call center.  A webinar is also available to explain the updated plan.

For client issues, Canada Life is prioritizing urgent matters - such as coverage for high-cost drugs.  Minor administrative and coverage errors will be addressed as capacity increases - please expect a significant delay.  Should Canada Life deny a final appeal or should you not be able to reach them for an exceptionally urgent matter - such as costly treatment coverage - PIPSC can attempt to intervene and ask your claim to be given priority.  We note that PIPSC does not have access to your Canada Life account.

PIPSC, other bargaining agents and the Retirees' Association continue to pressure the Treasury Board to demand better of Canada Life.  This is not the level of service we expect or were promised.  We thank our members for their ongoing patience through this frustrating transition and are taking measures to protect your interests.

All members (even those who don't have the PSHCP) are reminded that, through Service Plus, they can benefit from 90% coverage on prescription medication when filled at our pharmacy partner Mednow.  

The public service healthcare plan covers most PIPSC members and their dependents, including retirees working in the Core Public Administration and at many separate employers.

A live stream of the PIPSC convention 2023, including the Annual General Meeting, will be available to members in good standing. The live stream will be of the main plenary and AGM business only. 

If you would like to access the live steam you will need to register by November 21st using the following link: REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.