Increased allowance for using your personal vehicule

Recently, the government reviewed the allowance given to employees who use their personal vehicle for their work. The allowance, which is retroactive to April 1, 2022, is now $0.545 for the first 8,000 km in a given year and $0.485 for each kilometre after that. Despite the increase, we're still not covered for the rising price of gas, which was above $2.15 per litre this morning.

In the short term, the APTS will keep on demanding that the government set aside its rules and take these volatile prices into account. That way, you won’t have to impoverish yourself by providing care and services to Quebecers. In the longer term, however, we need to ask why you have to use your own vehicle to do your job, and why there isn’t a vehicle fleet, adapted to your needs, that would protect your health and safety. And while we’re at it, why not imagine that this fleet could be electric?

DECISION-MAKINNG BODIES
2022 Convention

Monday was the first day of our 2022 Special Convention, taking place in Québec City until May 19. While most of the proceedings will be dedicated to the work of modifying our Constitution, the Convention will also be an opportunity to officially launch the APTS political campaign and to deal with matters relating to cultural diversity, on the one hand, and sexual and gender diversity on the other. An overview of Convention proceedings will be published in the next issue of the Fil@pts – don’t miss it!

The APTS in General Council: looking back at our April 2022 meeting

The latest issue of The APTS in General Council is now available online – take a look and find out what your delegates did when they met in Jonquière on April 26, 27 and 28. Topics include consultations in view of the next round of provincial bargaining talks, a permanent mobilization structure, a plan for our provincial action priorities, and more.

COVID-19
More planning, less improvising

It looks as if the situation in the health and social services system will be as painful this summer as it was last year, which is why labour organizations are asking the government to work with them on a plan to make it through to the fall. Summer is coming and your morale is flagging, with temporary premiums at an end since May 14 and payments owed to you still affected by lengthy delays.

For more information, see the unions’ joint press release.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTION
WEBINAR | Achieving justice and resilience in the post-COVID economy

Public finances, relaunching the economy, the environmental transition – what new perspectives have opened in terms of how governments could (or should!) intervene in the economy? Our webinar will give APTS research officer François Desrochers an opportunity to talk about these issues. Part of the discussion will be based on socio-economic factsheets put out by IRIS.

The webinar will be given twice (in French). Sign up now!

• May 30 at 7 p.m.
• June 1 at noon

ORGANIZATION OF WORK AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
Ministerial action plan for long-term residential care: the forgotten ones

The Plan d'action pour l'hébergement de longue durée 2021-2026 unveiled on May 5 by minister Marguerite Blais leaves greatly to be desired despite its good intentions. “This plan is full of gaps,” says APTS president Robert Comeau. “It’s never going to produce results unless we get concrete measures to handle the many different categories of people living in long-term residences – and unless the expertise of professional and technical employees is used.”

For more information, see our press release.

Key factors to ensure that seniors can live a dignified life

As a member of the Coalition pour la dignité des aînés (CDA), the APTS endorsed that organization’s joint declaration, the outcome of the Estates-General it held on living conditions for seniors. The APTS took part in the event on May 3.

“Public and better funded services are central to the continuum of services for seniors,” said 3^rd APTS Vice-President Benoit Audet. “It’s high time that the government significantly increase the budgets for home care and support, improve the quality of services in CHSLDs and seniors’ residences, and focus on prevention so that seniors can continue to live a dignified and fulfilling life in their community.”

For more information, see the Coalition’s joint declaration (in French) and our press release.

No technology is ever neutral - and AI certainly isn't

Research initiatives in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) are more and more likely to focus on ethical problems. Today, there’s almost no AI basic research publication that doesn’t include questions on ethical implications – a notable change in relation to AI’s “first wave” in the mid-twentieth century. How did ethics get so interesting? What are the risks, and why are ethical issues so important in the health and social services sector? The second series of AI in Focus is a way for you to explore ethical issues related to AI and learn how you can identify them and, possibly, resolve them. Our first factsheet in the series is already online – we hope you’ll find it useful!

RESEARCH | Social work and Barrette reform

Step up and tell your story! Professors from the department of social work at the Université du Québec en Outaouais and the department of industrial relations at Université Laval are trying to understand the impact of the Barrette reform on the practice of social work. Researchers would like to document and analyze the transformation of social services, new institutional standards, their impact on management practices, and issues arising from these. The research project website (in French) will tell you if you’re eligible to participate and how to sign up if you are.