UNION ORGANIZING
Demonstrations for the planet on Friday, September 27

The APTS invites you to take part as citizens, on a voluntary basis, in the demonstrations to halt climate change that will be held on September 27 across Québec. Consult this list of demonstrations on Facebook or on APTS website.

Demonstrators are invited to dress in green and wear a green felt badge, which your local union team will be distributing. For those of you who will be at work, you can contact your local team to plan or take part in an action that could be held in your workplace at lunch time.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTION
Electoral reform, now!

That message will be hammered home by members of the Coalition pour la réforme électorale, which was officially launched in a press conference on Sept 6. The APTS joined the coalition in August. The objective: to remind the CAQ government of its pre-election promise to carry out electoral reform before the next elections. Moreover, that’s what 70% of the Québec population wants, according to a recent Léger poll. To ensure better representation of the population, particularly with gender parity in the National Assembly, members of the public are invited to write to their MNAs and call on them to respect the will of the people. Visit the website Chaque voix compte.com to take part in the campaign.

Patient-focused funding

In the middle of the summer, Québec’s health and social services minister, Danielle McCann, published a notice in the Gazette officielle du Québec to introduce an experimental project aimed at implementing a new method of funding in the health and social services system: patient-focused funding. The APTS sent its comments to the minister, reiterating its opposition to this mode of funding in health and social services. Our arguments are presented in this document.

A review of free trade agreements in Canada

Despite climate change, the need to ensure a green transition and the deepening social inequalities, free trade agreements are aggravating the major problems facing us, while promoting ever-greater deregulation. Our governments nonetheless support these agreements. The Réseau québécois sur l’intégration continentale (RQIC), to which the APTS belongs, recently published a review of the free trade agreements supported by Canada entitled Le libre-échange aujourd’hui. The launch dates for this publication are September 10 in Montréal and September 17 in Québec City. For details, see the RQIC’s news release.

Inviting tax havens to the electoral campaign

For the next federal elections, the anti-tax-haven collective in which the APTS is a member (Collectif Échec aux paradis fiscaux) is proposing 12 info clips to illustrate "12 initiatives to end tax injustice.” The objective of this campaign is to convince federal political parties to adopt the demands put forward by the collective. It reminds politicians that they have to take the necessary measures to ensure that corporations and citizens pay their fair share of taxes, without exception. It’s a question of social justice and equity. Check out the first of the 12 info clips explaining what tax havens are (Qu’est-ce qu’un paradis fiscal?), on the APTS website.

SOCIAL SECURITY
Enhanced QPP co-ordinated with RREGOP

The RREGOP pension plan is co-ordinated with the basic Québec Pension Plan (QPP). This co-ordination means that when people receiving RREGOP benefits turn 65 and the two plans are complementary, the amount of their pension benefit is reduced in accordance with the amount of the benefit paid by the QPP. However, only the portion of the benefit payable under the basic QPP plan is taken into account in calculating the pension reduction ensuing from the integration of the two plans.

Enhancing the QPP by adding a complementary plan since January 1, 2019 in no way changes the current provisions of the public-sector retirement plans.

For further details on the integration of a public-sector retirement plan with the QPP, consult the Retraite Québec brochure.

Contribution to RREGOP while on leave without pay

If you’re considering taking leave without pay, it’s important to know that it would be in your best interests to use clause 26.05 of the national provisions of your collective agreement. You would then be able to keep contributing to RREGOP as if you were still at work. To do so, you have to notify your employer in writing before the start of your leave. This provision applies to leave lasting more than 30 consecutive days, and to part-time leave without pay of more than one day a week. If you don't use that clause, you have the option of buying back service when you return to work, but you have to buy back both your share and your employer’s share. It is financially more advantageous to use clause 26.05.