Member Update, March 15 2023

The following important message from the DBplus team and your employer is shared at the request of your union Local.

Dear Local Y046 Employees:

We are excited to announce that your purchase package is on the way! (Mailed on February 27, 2023)

As a member of the CAAT Plan, you can now increase your DBplus pension by making a pension purchase.

While waiting to receive your purchase package, we encourage you to visit the DBplus purchase webpage, explicitly designed for the City of Whitehorse employees. You will get access to information that will help you decide if a purchase is right for you, such as FAQs and links to online tools.

From this page, dive into CAAT’s DBplus purchase resource pages to learn about the three pension purchase stages:

Learn (understand your options)

Return (submit your forms)

Earn (complete your purchase)

 Before you make your purchase decision, plan to attend an information session to learn more.

 We invite you to attend one of the four 90-minute service purchase–group presentations facilitated by CAAT Pension Plan on March 28th & 29^th.

These sessions will ensure that you have a strong foundational understanding of the process and will answer any questions you may have.  A limited number of 20-minute in-person one-on-one consultations will also be available for sign-up.  We highly encourage you to attend a group session prior to attending the one-on-one consultation in order to tailor the meeting to your specific needs.

If you are not able to book an in-person one–on–one consultation, additional virtual one-on-one consultations will be made available from March 28^th to April 28^th .

Please visit https://www.caatpension.ca/members/whitehorse to register.

We are looking forward to seeing you at one of the group sessions. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please, don't hesitate to get in touch with [email protected]

Thank you!

per Lindsay Schneider,
Director, People and Culture
City of Whitehorse

and Local Y046, Whitehorse Municipal Workers

Hi Everyone – as promised, we wanted to provide you with a quick update on last week’s initial bargaining sessions with the Employer.

As you’re likely aware, though your locals have merged for administrative purposes and are now Local Y046, the bargaining certificates are still separate and at this stage we have to approach bargaining the same way we have in the past as Y023, and Y022 – Transit.

Last week, your bargaining teams were able to meet with the Employer and exchange bargaining proposals based on the input we received from you. We believe that we have tabled fairly comprehensive packages that seek to improve your collective agreements and address a number of concerns that were brought to our attention.

Though there is still lots of work to do, we feel that last week’s sessions with the Employer were positive and are optimistic that this will continue as we move forward in the bargaining process. We are scheduled to meet with the Employer again at the end of January and early February.

In the meantime, we would also like to get your feedback on how things are going with your new Benefits provider. If you have the opportunity between now and January 10, we encourage you to provide us with some of your thoughts through the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GLPHWBP

We will continue to keep you updated as things progress and please sign up for email updates if you haven’t already done so.

Have a safe and happy Holiday Season, and all the best into the New Year!

I'm Joshua Paddon, PSAC Regional Representative and your negotiator for this round of bargaining with the City of Whitehorse. I wanted to take a moment to provide you with a brief update on where we’re at in the bargaining process.

First and foremost, we want to thank everyone who took the opportunity to submit input for this round of collective bargaining. With the assistance of your bargaining teams, we have been reviewing and prioritizing the input we’ve received, and have begun preparing for our initial bargaining session with the Employer.

We’re currently scheduled to meet with the Employer in mid-December and are hopeful for a positive round of collective bargaining. Between now and then, we will be meeting to examine and finalize our proposal package. Shortly after that session, we’ll be sure to provide you with an update.

Secondly, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank your bargaining teams and alternates for putting their names forward to be a part of the bargaining process. Though this work can often be taxing and the discussions lengthy, your bargaining teams are dedicated to the memberships diverse needs and to improving your agreement and working conditions.

Please don’t forget to make sure your personal email address is up to date so you continue to receive bargaining information and updates as we move along.

I’m looking forward to working with you and your teams throughout this round of bargaining. Stay tuned.

Joshua Paddon,
Regional Representative,
Public Service Alliance of Canada