Treasury Board President Announces $1.3 Billion-Per-Year Tentative Deal With PSAC

President of the Treasury Board Mona Fortier speaks in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 15, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said May 1 that the tentative deal Ottawa has reached with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) for 120,000 of PSAC’s members will cost taxpayers $1.3 billion per year.

“This wasn’t easy. We negotiated, we compromised, and we found creative solutions,” Fortier said at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

“And after many long days, nights, and weekends of hard work, we’ve reached fair and competitive deals for employees.”

Fornier said the negotiated wage increases of 11.5 percent over four years “are in line with the recommendations of the Public Interest Commission” and are “reasonable deals for taxpayers.”

Previously, the federal government had offered a 9 percent wage increase over three years, as recommended by the commission, while the union was asking for 13.5 percent.

The deal represents tentative agreements that apply to about 120,000 employees in the Education and Library (EB), Program and Administrative (PA), Operational Services (SV), and Technical Services (TC) Treasury Board bargaining units.

Those federal employees returned to work on May 1 after the tentative agreements were reached. Negotiations are still ongoing for a smaller PSAC group of around 35,000 workers at the Canada Revenue Agency.

The negotiated wage increases for the larger PSAC group of Treasury Board workers total 12.6 percent compounded over the agreements’ four-year lifespan from 2021 to 2024.

PSAC said in a May 1 news release that it secured an additional fourth year in the agreement that “protects workers from inflation,” as well as a pensionable $2,500 one-time lump sum payment that represents an additional 3.7 percent of salary for the average PSAC member in Treasury Board bargaining units.

According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the lump sum payment for those 120,000 employees will cost taxpayers $300 million.

PSAC President Chris Aylward said that union members “held the line together and secured a fair contract that keeps up with the cost of living, increased protections around remote work, and creates safer, more inclusive workplaces.”

“During a period of record-high inflation and soaring corporate profits, workers were told to accept less – but our members came together and fought for better,” he said.

“This agreement delivers important gains for our members that will set the bar for all workers in Canada.”

‘Right Deal for Employees and Canadians’

Fortier said the federal government has “always championed the collective bargaining process” and put all of its focus into negotiating a deal.

“This agreement proves that the right deal for employees and Canadians could be struck at the negotiating table,” she said.

On the issue of telework, the Treasury Board president said the tentative agreement “supports fairness, equity, and modernization.”

“A joint review will update our [telework] directive for the post-pandemic era”—which has not been updated since 1993—and “an additional mechanism will help address individual concerns,” she said.

PSAC had called on the federal government to give certain public servants the option to work from home full-time instead of the Treasury Board’s proposed “hybrid model,” which consists of two to three days worked in the office for full-time employees.

Fortier said all federal departments will attempt to resume normal activities “as fast as we can.”

The federal government and PSAC previously warned that the strike would impact passport processing, Employment Insurance claims, tax returns, and the agriculture sector.

Fortier said both negotiation teams worked “very hard” and that she believed they had come to a “fair and reasonable” deal for Canadians. “My kids were very happy to hear that I will be able to spend time with them after a long month of negotiation,” she said.

Peter Wilson and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.