Winnipeg Area Council - Minutes 29 October 2015
Attendance:
Gus Mardli- committee chair
Yvonne Hein, Agriculture
Gloria Kelly, UNDE
Greg Ballendine, USGE
Tanya Lachance, DCL
Frank Janz, USGE
Tim Cashin, Stats Canada
Lorelei Topnik, USGE
Chris Little-Gagne, UNE
Matt Tijani, Agriculture
Jim Miller, Agriculture
Stephanie Primrose, DCL
1- Call to order 5:37 by chair Gus Mardli
2- Round table introductions took place as there were new people in attendance.
3- Harassment statement was accepted. Moved by Chris Little-Gagne - seconded by /Frank Janz- Motion Carried.
4- Agenda adopted as presented by chair. Moved by Stephanie Primrose seconded by Lorelei Topnik. Motion Carried
5- Secretary was not present so minutes of previous meetings were not available. Minutes of previous meetings will be presented at next meeting.
6. Treasurer report presented by Lorelei Topnik - Information to come as report information was not available from regional office but we do have funds available as required.
7- Update on federal election by Gus Mardli, committee chair:
We did work in two targeted ridings and say positive results in one of the two ridings. We had to work under the guidelines of PSAC national. We do not as Union support any particular party but we do ask people to vote and to vote for the person they feel best serves the needs and beliefs of the union membership Asked for feedback on what we did:
(A) Yvonne Hein, Agriculture Canada- missed the debate in Winnipeg Centre question - Does he spend most of his time in Salt Spring Island in BC than in his riding as he was questioned about. We do know he has property there but he has lived in his riding and now lives in Osborne Village.
(B) Tanya Lachance-DCL, We did an excellent job as a team to make sure Harper was not reflected.
(C) Stephanie Primrose, DCL- what impressed me was the voter turnout and PSAC had a role to play in that. Especially happy with the increases in turnout of aboriginal voters.
(D) Chris Little-Gage- UNE - The PSAC media campaign worked. We now have to take care and know who is appointed to what in the new government. We will need to have our members on the ground getting to the newly elected members to make them aware of what we need as public servants. Going forward we also have to now begin to work with our brothers and sisters in the province in advance of the upcoming spring provincial election.
(E) Tim Cashin - Stats Canada - Was a bit surprised at the losses suffered by the NDP but glad Daniel Blakie was able to win because there is little provincial organization out there within the NDP. The provincial election will be interesting.
(F) Frank Janz, USGE- USGE was out early talking to members about voting. Did a lot as a component within our membership. There was a lot of frustration about the mobilization within PSAC regional even with the marching orders from PSAC national convention. We knew this was coming for years so why are we scrambling once the writ was dropped. The overall message has to be continually get out and vote. As go forward we need to have ducks in row well ahead of time. Those I vote cards were really successful but they came to late.
(G) Jim Miller, Agriculture- Surprised at the size of the liberal majority. Agree there will be issues in the provincial election because of the one percent increase in the GST. We have to do our best to block the provincial conservatives.
(H) Matt Tijani, Agriculture - Disappointed in the NDP collapse but glad that Harper Government is gone. Have to consider what need to do to effect change in a positive manner. Should be some piece of mind in the next few years. From the phone banks we had good response to calls asking our members to vote in a manner that is supportive of our needs. We have to remain proactive and not sit back and let the next three years roll by.
(I) Greg Ballendine, USGE - Concerns - we have to learn from our tardiness and lack of advance planning. But we did come out with Harper gone. We did not do a good job of letting people know the changes in how we could vote. It's hard to measure our success. We have to do a lot better with communications.
(J) Lorelei Topnik, USGE - Really a good idea to engage our members and ask them to vote. Startling to realize many of our members did not even realize there was an election and how it could impact them.
(K) Gus Mardli- Really believed we helped make a difference with our membership. We need to look at how the liberal campaign was such a success. While happy Harper is gone we have to remember what the liberals did to us in the past. Have to hold their feet to the fire. Our work is far from done as this is a majority government. There were promises and we have seen what has happened in the past so cannot be complacent. Don't know what the direction will be from national now on.
(L) Gloria Kelly - Our members were engaged in this election. What we have to do is engage the new MPs as we have new batch of them.
8- Roundtable:
(A) Reminder of training session for Stewards followed by an evening session on training courses for coming year - Thursday 5 November.
(B) Training model needs to change and be geared to adult learning.
(C) Education - trying to get more people out there we have to upgrade and be more engaging, challenging and dynamic.
(D) PSST complaints - can we get a list of who is trained across the region as not all components have a strong group of people trained.
(E) Seasonal celebration 2015 is the responsibility of the human rights committee this year- more to come on this. Tentative is 15 December
9- Next meeting date: TBC
10- Meeting adjourned at 19:30