SECRETARY-TREASURER’S MESSAGE

Ithought I would try to bring you up to speed on various topics for this issue of Fire Watch.

As I write to you all today, we are already at the end of our first quarter. I can report that we are currently operating just under budget. Exactly where we would want to be. We anticipate this being a more normal year than we have faced over the last several years. COVID restrictions reduced our meetings, travel, and substitutions. Each Committee Chair is given a monthly report on their spending vs budget before the Executive Board meeting. This enables them to keep a close eye on their respective budget lines.

To recognize Black History Month this year, your Association has offered to help introduce and distribute commemorative patches, collaborated on by a group of Black Firefighters and dedicated L3888 team members.

The colours used in the patches have significant meaning to the Black Community and are reflected in the Pan African flag, with RED representing the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry, and that was shed for liberation; BLACK for the people whose existence is affirmed by the existence of the flag, and GREEN for the growth and natural fertility of Africa.

The patches were also converted to stickers that have been placed on front-line operations vehicles. I was proud to have attended the launch event at station 143.

Several from your Executive Board, as well as members of the Human Relations and Equity Initiatives Committee, had the opportunity to attend the IAFF Affiliate Leadership Training Symposium. Training provided included streams specific to Human Relations, Union Leadership and Administration, Politics and Public Relations, Bargaining, and Canadian Specific workshops. Continuous improvement and succession planning have been an important hallmark of this term.

We recently updated our internal committees. Several years ago, we decided to utilize more “members from the floor” on our standing committees. This has proven to be an excellent way to keep people involved. We had close to 150 applications for committees. It becomes very difficult to choose. Many meetings are held between the Principal Officers and Committee Chairs. We try to balance a variety of things. Specifically, we look at resumes for specific experience, as well as ensuring we pick members from a variety of backgrounds and divisions. As well, we try to ensure that members who have special skills and training are not lost. To ensure that members understood the commitments and remuneration, this year we held an online committee fair in December 2022. This was an opportunity for members to show their interest, ask questions, and get detailed information on the expectations of each committee. The hope was that we would avoid members blindly applying for all committees, making it easier for us to make our choices. The list of successful candidates can be found in Union Notice #23-012.

We also recently created an Election Committee to oversee our upcoming Executive Board election. The committee is made up of members from all commands and one from Community Risk Reduction. Our Chair, Rob Ptolemy, is experienced, having sat on the committee several times previously. We ensured that the people chosen are some of our newer members, to ensure continuity in future elections. You can reference Union Notice

#23-013 for the committee list. Any questions regarding the election can be asked by using the committee e-mail: election@ torontofirefighters.org. Nominations will be held in March 2023 both online and in person at our March General Members Meetings. I want to wish everyone that decides to participate the best of luck.

Constitution change proposals are also due at the March meeting. Changes to the constitution can only be made once per year. If you would like to make a proposal, it must be sent to me before 6 pm on March 21, 2023.

Our current Collective Agreement expires at the end of 2023. Therefore, we will be asking our members to provide input on the types of things that you would like to see added, amended, or removed from the current Collective Agreement. You don’t need to let us know that you would like to see improvements to salary or benefits. However, if you have specifics, things we may not have thought of, we want to know. We will bring those requests to the membership for approval.

At our September General Meeting, we were asked to put together a committee to investigate all aspects of online General Members Meetings. I was tasked to co-chair the group with Sam Warnock. We have met several times to discuss options. A decision was made to ask the membership their feelings on the issue, so we put out a survey. The response was excellent. We have met to discuss the data, and I believe that the committee will be able to provide some recommendations quite quickly.

James Reed, Secretary-Treasurer Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association I.A.F.F. Local 3888