Chalk River Professional Employees Group (CRPEG)

With the transfer from active contributors to the Public Service Pension Plan complete some of our members have been approached with the “opportunity” to cash out their defined benefit pension plans and invest this money with a local financial advisor or investment advisor.

Ultimately everyone is responsible for making their own decisions about retirement planning.  The CRPEG executive would like to remind you that there are a variety of considerations you need to take into account when removing money from any pension, but especially one with a defined benefit that is backed by the Government of Canada.  One of the unique benefits offered to qualifying members of the public service pension plan is access to subsidized medical and drug coverage.  This coverage is unique in the pension industry and its value cannot be over-stated.  Additionally, as a defined benefit pension, the amount of retirement income available to the member is guaranteed and it is adjusted annually based on inflation.

When seeking financial advice it is not always clear how the individual advising you is being compensated.  The Government of Canada has set up a web page about savings and investments that has advice on choosing a financial service provider and what questions you should be asking.  In Canada there are two classifications of financial services, a financial advisor who manages your money, and a financial planner who helps you plan for retirement.  Only the financial planner has a fiduciary (legal) obligation to always act in your best interest.  The Financial Planning Standards Council recommends that an individual consult both a financial planner and a financial advisor with the caveat that the best practice is to have these be two separate entities, to remove conflict of interest.

For more information, please see:  https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/savings.html

We are pleased to announce that the ratification vote of the new collective agreement has passed. The contract has therefore been ratified by the membership.

Thank you to all those who came out to last night’s (06/12/2018) vote.

Our next steps will be to work with the company to incorporate the new changes into the text of the agreement, sign it, and arrange for distribution of copies to the members.

With respect to increases and retroactive payments, we will discuss with the company their ability to respond and provide additional details where possible.

Thank you to our negotiations team for their dedication, professionalism, and hard work throughout the process.

We would also like to thank our volunteers and scrutineers for their time, commitment, and involvement.

Best wishes to all, and Merry Christmas!

A tentative collective agreement has been reached between Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and the Chalk River Professional Employee Group (CRPEG).

Two ratification meetings will be held simultaneously on 06/12/2018 at 5 pm at the Deep River Legion, and CRL Cafeteria.  Details of the agreement will be presented followed by ratification vote.

 

October 30, 2018 CRPEG held a special meeting to discuss negotiations of our collective agreement. All terms of the CRPEG offer of settlement and the CNL counter offer were shared with the members. The CRPEG negotiations team is now at a standstill with CNL. Our collective agreement expired December 31, 2017.

Over 360 members were in attendance at the meeting. Our members have cast an overwhelming majority vote in favour of strike action if an agreement cannot be reached.

 

As forwarded from CNS

The Chalk River Branch of the Canadian Nuclear Society is pleased to offer a seminar entitled “Applications of Accelerators to Nuclear R&D”:
Where:     JL Gray – Bennett Room (Back Entrance)
When:     Wednesday, May 31st
Refreshments/Reception at 6:00 pm, Talk at 6:30 pm
Who:      Dr. Bill Diamond
Price:     Free, Open to the Public

Summary

Accelerators have been used for research at the forefront of Sub-Atomic Physics since their earliest development.
The continuous improvements in accelerator technology required to support the user communities has led to very robust technologies for both positive-ion and electron accelerators. This talk will explore several applications of electron accelerators that are possible with the accelerator technologies that have become available in the past few years. Electron accelerators are gaining wider applications in the production of medical isotopes, particularly some of the emerging isotopes such as Sc-47, Cu-67 and alpha emitters used for targeted alpha treatments. Photonuclear reactions can be used for loop experiments to produce intense heat, neutron emission and a modest fission rates with uranium fuel inside a pressure tube. The final idea discussed is the potential to produce an intense pulsed neutron source for neutron scattering applications.

Speaker Information

Bill Diamond received his PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of Toronto in 1974 and then switched to Accelerator Physics for the next 23 years. He moved to the USA in 1976 for 13 years, working at Columbia University for two years followed by 6 years at Schlumberger-Doll Research Center in Connecticut (an oil services company) and 5 years at the Thomas-Jefferson Laboratories in Virginia. He worked on a variety of accelerator technologies ranging in size from a miniature (d,t) neutron generator for use in oil wells up to a high-energy superconducting rf electron linear accelerator at a new US Department of Energy facility in Virginia. Bill returned to CRNL in 1989 to work at the Tandem Accelerator Super Conducting Cyclotron (TASCC) facility. He conducted some key underlying research in high-voltage breakdown in vacuum before the TASCC facility was shut down in 1997. Bill then worked on developing novel mechanical components for CANDU reactors, including the CANDU 6, the ACR, and the Canadian Supercritical-Water Reactor (SCWR). Bill retired from CRL in 2010 and continued to work on several accelerator projects including facility design and safety analysis for a new Tandem accelerator facility at Queen’s University and as part of a small team at the Canadian Light Source, developing the use of an electron accelerator to produce the medical isotope, moly-99. Bill has worked on many aspects of accelerator technology, from underlying research through engineering, construction, operations and maintenance activities on at least six different types of accelerators. This experience, combined with many years working on CANDU reactors, enables Bill to bring a unique view to the topic of this speech.

A CNS membership is not required to attend this seminar; all are welcome. For more information, please contact Aidan Leach (613-584-3311 x44599 or 613-633-1158).

We mentioned we would let you know when the retroactive pay lump sum was expected in the March 31 update on salary increases. HR has confirmed that we should see the retroactive pay on the May 11 pay period.

If you were at the ratification vote you would have heard us talk about the CERI pension plan, and you may have heard that CERI is our plan B for our pension. CRPEG along with the other unions have formed a lobbying group with the express purpose of convincing the stakeholders, MPs, Treasury Board, and the PMO, that keeping CNL as part of the PSSA not only makes sense for the employees, is not the burden on the government as it was perceived but may also be a benefit to national interest in that it is an incentive to attract and retain talent to support Canada’s science and technology laboratory. Already in April this group spent a week talking to the various stakeholders and they had questions. The group is going back to Ottawa again in May to meet again with the answers to those questions.

They need your help. The group has put together a short survey they would like you to participate in that will give them direct input that they can use in their lobbying efforts. We would encourage you all to take a few minutes in support of us staying in the PSSA.

Forwarded on behalf of OPSE

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The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) in cooperation with North Bay Mining Week, MIRARCO Mining Innovation, and Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) North Bay Chapter presents:

Spark the Fire – Realizing the Untapped Potential of Ontario’s North

Ontario’s Ring of Fire represents a $60-billion multi-generational economic opportunity, arguably the world’s most promising mineral development project in more than a century. However, this potential is shrouded by both technical and societal challenges, multi-level political decision-making, dynamic risks, and palpable uncertainty.
The scale and complexity of these challenges makes the Ring of Fire a mega-project. As born problem solvers, it is time that Ontario’s engineers ask themselves:
How can engineers spark the fire and help realize the untapped potential of Ontario’s north?
Join engineering, industry, government, academic, and First Nations leaders for an important discussion on the future of Ontario’s north. On innovation, energy, infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and relations with First Nations Communities—our broad spectrum of presenters will be answering tough questions and charting the future development of Ontario’s north.
For all those of you who are interested in attending this event, Registration is now open. More details on the main event can be found at: https://www.ospe.on.ca/spark-the-fire.
For further information, please contact Patrick Sackville directly using the contact information provided below, and not PEO, PEO Algonquin Chapter or CRPEG.

Contact:
Patrick Sackville
Lead, Policy and Government Relations | Tel 416.223.9961 X 225 | patrick@ospe.on.ca

Well April 1 is here. New fiscal year, new budgets, and new charge numbers. The other thing you might have noticed in Oracle is that the new system shows your vacation as it is earned instead of what you are entitled to as it did in the past. See myCNL posting (http://mycnl/News/Company_News_2017/Access_to_your_leave_records.htm).

This change is due to an upgrade to the Oracle system and does not represent any change to the Collective Agreement. Per Article 13.03 of the Collective Agreement, members with 6 or more months of service shall be credited with their leave. As a result of this change you may encounter times when you see a negative leave balance. Managers are aware of the change in Oracle, and this should not affect any members from taking leave. If it does so, please contact us immediately.

We also recommend following the steps in the myCNL posting to create a future dated report to see what leave you are entitled to (e.g., leave entitled by 2018 March 31) and to ensure the upgrade correctly applied your leave details. If you find any errors you should contact your HR Representative to have the mistakes corrected.

The Benefits Committee is planning to once again go to market with our benefits plan. This is done from time to time to ensure that CNL employees get the best value plan. CRPEG is a member of that committee and we are asking for your input/feedback on changes to the benefits package, i.e., if there is any changes to the current extended health care or dental care options that you would like to see included in the benefits package. This is our chance to provide information on changes/enhancements as part of the Request For Proposals. Please provide your feedback to us by 2017 April 21 so that it can be considered.