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President’s Report
Executive Council
June 2005

Betty Bannon - Item 6

2005 CONVENTION SAINT JOHN:

The National Office prepared all of the documents for the Convention Committees and then the Convention Committee reports. It was a flurry of activity in the office with all support staff and LRO’s participating in the preparations and were ahead of the deadlines that were set. I commend them all for their efforts. All documents were distributed both in hard copy and electronically to all locals. The resolutions were also on the web but have now been taken down and replaced with the Convention Committee Reports.

The Convention Host Committee has been putting the final touches on their activities and has been looking after the registrations for Fun Night. I hope that everyone got theirs in on time as I understand that there will be no exceptions for late comers.

The National Office support staff are now getting the Convention bags ready, as well as, the binders with the additional information required for the business to be conducted at the convention. We have also finalized the menus for the President’s Soiree, the Banquet and the Council “Last Supper”. Everything should be completed and packed well ahead of time as we are doing a little everyday.

ITPR NAMES:

As I reported to Council via e-mail earlier, the CRA Staffing Directive has now been amended to allow us to take a second person to the ITPR hearings and we will use this as one avenue for training. I have reviewed the names submitted with Shane and the following individuals have been selected for ITPR representatives: Brian Oldford, Célyne Houde, Dario Gritti, Louis Lamontagne and Gino Nasato. After the Convention we will be talking with these individuals and will map out a training plan for them. It will probably commence some time in the fall.

BUDGET IMPACT COMMITTEE:

The committee met for the first time on the Sunday of the last Presidents Conference and has met twice more for a meeting and once by conference call. The committee has sent out instructions and updates for the locals several times. There has been a great amount of work done so far by the committee and the locals but everyone should be aware that this is by no means the end of the campaign.

The members of the Cash and Client Service counters should be encouraged to participate in all activities since it is their jobs that we are attempting to save. This campaign requires the attention and participation of all 23,000 members. Not only do we need to engage the employer but also the members, public and the politicians. The major work with the members, public and the politicians will have to be done by the locals and members.

We have recently supplied the locals with “Certificates of Recognition” for the members that work in the Cash and Client Service Counter areas to be presented during Public Service Week. There has also been a second mailing of the postcards for the public for the locals to distribute and collect as they see fit. The postcard will also be revamped so it can be mailed directly to the Minister. These can be distributed throughout the summer at fairs, concerts, gatherings like Canada Day celebrations etc. that the public can sign and send directly via the mail. We are working on an on-line petition on our website and the PSAC will be having a “Fax your MP” link on their site. Each of the websites will be linked to each other. We have contacted the Royal Canadian Legion as well as CARP for 50 Plus and will be contacting the tax preparer organizations to enlist their support.

The “button” grievances are making their way to the 4th level immediately after receiving a reply at the first level or when the time frames for response are up and the “Leave Without Pay” grievances are being heard at each level. There also may be some other grievances relating to leave being questioned.

The committee met with Senior Management on March 22nd and expressed our position on the closures. On April 19th I met with Judy Wasylycia-Leis, the CRA NDP Critic, who raised questions to the Commissioner at the Finance Estimates Committee hearing. Questions on the closures were also raised by Monte Solberg, Conservative MP for Medicine Hat, Alberta at the same hearing. I have also met with the Commissioner on May 16 to discuss the same issues.

I cannot express how important it is to keep the pressure up on the employer from all sources. I believe that is the only way that we will be able to get the decision to close the Client Service and Cash counter reversed. I find it quite ironic that the CRA will no longer accept payments, since their mandate is Revenue based, nor assist the Canadian Public with their tax questions at a time they chose, but only when it is convenient for the organization. It doesn’t help to understand when their motto is “More Ways to Serve You” ……. just whom are they serving? Themselves or the Canadian Public?

AGENCY CLASSIFICATION STANDARD (ACS):

The Agency has finally announced that they are going to proceed with ACS with an expected implementation date of March 31, 2006 for the members covered by the PSAC Collective Agreement. To meet that date it will take focused and committed work by all parties. Two members of our National Staffing Committee, Kent MacDonald and Linda Cassidy, have been assigned the task of working with the CRA on this issue. The Bargaining Agent, the PSAC, has agreed to reopen the Collective Agreement to negotiate the salary bands when the time is appropriate. Although no dates for meetings have yet been scheduled, I expect it to happen shortly.

UMI:

A meeting was held by the Commissioner on April 25th to announce that the CRA was prepared to roll out the UMI (Union Management Initiative) nationally. The UMI Philosophy Statement was also agreed to by the parties. Our representative on the National Steering Committee will be Bob Campbell, 1st VP. That committee will be reviewing the training packages to ensure that it is appropriate for a National roll out. This is when we can focus on changing the training and the focus on ADR. I have already advised the CRA on more than one occasion that we have some major concerns regarding the ADR focus as it currently stands. There will also be a one day training session for the Presidents and the Commissioner and other Senior Management. Linda Cassidy, RVP Atlantic will be providing the one day session along with a Management representative.

CRA TERM COMMITMENT:

Although I attended two meetings on this since we last met I expect that the chair of the Staffing Committee will be reporting on this issue in more detail.

COMPETENCIES:

I attended a couple of meetings with the HR Advisory Committee regarding this issue but the Chair of the Staffing Committee will report on this issue in more detail.

WFA Client Service Pacific & Prairie/Finance & Admin:

Although I attended a meeting on May 16th regarding these WFA situations and sent out the discussion decks that were provided to us, I expect that the matter will be reported on in detail by the Chair of the WFA Committee.

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

The last few months have been busy with web updates including listing newly elected local officials in the online phonebook, updating committee reports, updating the convention website, and of course posting the resolutions and convention committee reports.

We have added a few new features to the website including a change of address form that sends the information directly to Sister Bastien; the ability to “subscribe” to various news email lists; and an online survey for the EAP committee. Shortly we will be working on an on-line petition for the Budget Impact campaign.

In March, we worked on April’s Newsletter and included information on the Budget impact. It was both timely and very well received according to the feedback that we have been receiving.

We have also started sending information via e-mail to our “news group” list that was established by the Membership Questionnaire. To date there has been only a handful of individuals who have requested to come off of the list for various reasons. Currently there are 339 individuals on this list.

However, we are running a little behind in our web updates due to our Web/Communications Officer also filling the roll as IT person temporarily. I will also distribute to Council a report on the Web site usage for 2004 and 2005.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

During the last few months we have updated the software on our Email server, re-configured our firewall, completed an internal hardware and software audit and hired an outside firm to do a technology audit. We have just received the final version of the audit report and I am going over it with Susan Duncan. I will be sharing the report with the Finance Committee and then the Council.

Many of the tasks performed over the last three months were ‘housekeeping’ and maintenance tasks designed to prevent problems down the road. These included making changes so that some servers such as AOL would no longer reject messages coming from our server and building a backup server so that we can have a backup of our systems.

We also encountered problems with some of the laptops which required some work in-house and some work done under warranty.

Other tasks performed are part of the regularly scheduled work for this time of year including configuring laptops for four RVP’s and making the transfer of data from the old to the new. We are also setting up laptops to be used by staff during Convention. Sister Duncan also assisted with Convention Committee meeting preparations to ensure that equipment was transported and set up as needed.

NATIONAL OFFICE STAFFING:

We have posted a Term Position for the Assistant Financial Officer since Stephanie Wolff will be going on leave in July to have twins in October. The deadline for applications is June 3rd. We hope to staff the position before Stephanie leaves so that the new person will be able to have some hands on experience while she it still here.

The Position Description for the IT Officer has been sent for Classification. I expect to have the results shortly. Our guess is that it will be a Band 8 or 9.

We also hope to post the bilingual Executive Assistant to the President position prior to Convention with the intent to be ready to conduct any interviews right after the convention.

DONATIONS:

NON UTE EVENTS:

GRIEVANCES:

Since our last Executive Council meeting, forty-eight (48) grievances, other than classification, were received at the National Office.

During the same period, seventy two (72) grievances were presented dealing with a variety of issues, including: two (2) suspensions, three (3) terminations and three (3) harassments.

. Mediation refused by employer. Referred to PSSRB and waiting for formal hearing.

. First hearing held May 25, 2004, ongoing.

There are presently one hundred and forty three (143) grievances in the National Office inventory, which have not yet been presented at the Final Level.

CLASSIFICATION GRIEVANCES

During this quarter, we received four (4) classification grievances.

APPEALS

During this period, no appeal was received in the National Office where the Union of Taxation Employees was requested to provide representation.

INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY REVIEWS (ITPR'S)

Since our last report, eight (8) ITPRs have been received in the National office and have yet to be scheduled.

Six (6) cases were scheduled and heard and four (4) cases which were continued previously were finalized. Decisions are pending in all ten (10) of these cases. Two (2) cases pending from the previous quarter were allowed.

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