Bank of Canada security guard strike passes 100

The fall is here and with it will come long commutes, packed offices and the introduction of new legislation that will guide the public service moving forward.

With such a flurry of movement, it can be hard to keep on top of public service news.

So, here are some public service stories we've been following so you don't have to:

The Bank of Canada security guard strike has passed 100 days with no end in sight.

The workers, who are members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, rallied with labour leaders to mark the date.

Alex Silas, the Public Service Alliance of Canada national vice-president, told the Ottawa Citizen that reaching the 100-day mark is a "sign of the determination and resiliency that these workers are showing."

"They understand what they're fighting for and why what they're fighting for matters," Silas said.

This summer, Canada Industrial Relations Board found that the Bank of Canada violated the Canada Labour Code by using replacement workers during the strike.

The sides remain deadlocked in negotiations over a proposal by the Bank of Canada that would slash overtime opportunities and set a lower threshold for staffing numbers when a security guard cannot make a shift.

On Sept. 29, the Bank of Canada reached a tentative agreement with seven Montreal security guards, ending the strike in that location.

The security guards at the Bank of Canada's main location in Ottawa held a bargaining session on Oct. 2 but negotiations remain at a standstill, according to the union.

Canada Post is considering outsourcing its pension centre "effective February 2027," according to a letter obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

In the letter sent to the Union of Postal Communications Employees, Canada Post said that that it "intends to outsource certain work normally and regularly done" by unionized workers.

The pension centre "handles all transactional processing (data updates, member change, payments setup, etc.) through applications provided by AON, our current pension partner."

Canada Post now intends to "streamline processes, improve scalability and service consistency" by contracting out the rest of the pension centre work to AON.

Claudia Labonté, president of the Union of Postal Communications Employees, told the Ottawa Citizen that the pension centre is funded through the pension plan itself, raising questions about whether this is a cost-cutting exercise.

"It is speculative at this point, but what we see is the privatization of Canada Post by small increments," Labonte said.

The move could lead to about 20 employees at the pension centre being laid off, or in other positions at the crown corporation.

In a statement, Canada Post spokesperson Phil Legault told the Ottawa Citizen that the crown corporation is "currently reviewing options for how these services may be delivered in the future."

"If outsourcing proceeds, we expect many, if not all, affected employees would remain employed by Canada Post through existing workforce adjustment and redeployment processes," Legault added.

The federal government is investing $800,000 into an Ottawa-based defence technology company in its efforts to bolster defence spending.

H2 Analytics is an Ottawa-based defence technology company that specializes in "AI-enabled" software for training simulations.

"This platform streamlines the development and deployment of realistic intelligence simulations to address the training needs of defence and security sectors," Mona Fortier, MP for Ottawa—Vanier—Gloucester, said at the announcement of the funding.

The funding will help the defence company to "manage more complex training exercises, support multilingual coordination, and improve system performance as operational demands grow."

Hugo Hodgett, the chief executive officer of H2 Analytics, told the Ottawa Citizen that Ottawa makes sense as a hub for defence tech companies because the central decision makers for the Canadian military live and work in the capital city.

"At a certain point all roads lead (to Ottawa), and so the investment of not only the ability to access those people, but also the ability to have demonstration spaces and secure discussion areas and place that you can move from an idea and discussion into application," he said.

Scientists who work within the federal government are sounding the alarm on new legislation that will hasten approvals for major projects within one year.

Scientists, and members of Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), are warning that the speed of Prime Minister Mark Carney's new approval regime will "threaten the integrity of evidence-based decision-making."

The scientists are also slamming the federal government for their cuts to the public service, which has seen an impact on government scientists.

The federal government's spending review is set to reduce most department and agencies budgets by billions over the next three years.

"Our leaders should make informed decision using rigorous and independent science," Bryan Van Wilgenburg, president of PIPSC's applied science and patent examination group that includes government scientists.

"You cannot cut scientists and rush expert review without risking disaster," he added.

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