Held May 24, 2005, 7:15-9:00 PM at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Suites, Pinnacle Room in Ottawa.
- Registration and Call to Order
Merdon Hosking, Chair of ACFO, welcomes all those present and calls the meeting to order. He remarks that although he does not know the official ballot count yet, he has been advised by the scrutineers of KPMG, that the quorum was met and that the meeting can proceed.
- Opening Remarks
Merdon introduces the Board of Directors and Daniel Larose, new executive director, then passes the microphone to Dan, who introduces the National Office staff in attendance.
After introducing the Nominating Committee and the scrutineers from KPMG, Merdon explains to those present that they can ask questions at any time and advised that members can still vote.
A motion is brought forward by Merdon that the notice and certificate of the meeting not be read, which was moved by Milt Isaacs and seconded by Gabriel Najjar and therefore carried.
- Approval of the 15th Annual General Meeting Minutes (March 25, 2004)
There were no questions from anyone in attendance on the Minutes (Resolution #1).
- Annual Report
Jim Currier assumes the Chair of the meeting while Merdon provides highlights of the annual report and what ACFO has accomplished in the last year. The report had been distributed to members by mail prior to the meeting. He speaks about the changes to the Association, its incorporation, vision and mission, and how those changes in his view and that of the Board serves and will serve the members better.
Secondly, he talks about the release of 
Checks and Balances II, a paper commissioned by the Association dealing with certain issues in the Financial Administration Act. The collective bargaining committee spent quite some time last year preparing for negotiations and is now at the table, bargaining on behalf of its members.
The Association also continued and will continue to challenge the Employer in other ways, for example when it comes to classification challenges and exclusions. Merdon is proud to note that the Association managed to bring the number of exclusions down to 13% from 20%. As always, he says, he wishes the Employer would do a better job listening, but small steps in the right direction are being made, and the Association will continue to hammer on the road.
He then discusses the sponsorship funds that have been providing significant revenue to the Association, which is currently in a strong financial position.
In closing, Merdon takes the time to thank his colleagues, ex-colleagues and staff for making his years at the Association rewarding and fulfilling.
Merdon then resumes the Chair and leads the discussion on Resolutions #2 and #3. There are no questions about Resolution #2 or the Bylaw #1, which with incorporation has replaced the old Constitution. There is however a discussion about Resolution #3 concerning the location of the Chair of ACFO. One member stands up and remarks that this came as a total surprise to the membership and that there should have been some discussion or communication about it before members were presented with it in the booklet. He wonders what would happen if there were actually a conflict where the Chair were to live outside of Ottawa, but the membership voted that the Chair is to live in Ottawa. The response from Merdon is that that will have to be resolved by the new Chair, who might have to call a meeting or go back to the membership with this or another question.
Don Caldwell asks whether anyone is aware of other unions with presidents residing outside the national capital region while their membership is primarily in the NCR. No one is aware of that. It is also mentioned by a member that it is interesting because not only the membership, but also the national office is in Ottawa. He believes it would be expensive for the Association to have a Chair residing elsewhere and does not see the value added at all.
Al Green from the PEI chapter, says that it is the executive director who runs the day-to-day operations of the organization and as long as it's cost-effective, he doesn't see a problem with the Chair residing elsewhere. Moreover, he says, the Chair might actually retain his or her day job, so that the Association does not have to pay a salary, so that there is potentially cost-savings. He also would like more chapters to be established in the NCR in order to be more pro-active.
Aldo Spadaccini talks about the logistics and the operations. He says a Chair needs to meet PMs, ministers, people from Treasury Board and the Comptroller General's office, and they need to be met whenever they have time. With these logistics, it doesn't make sense to him operationally to have the Chair not reside in Ottawa.
The last speaker is Victor Muscat, who calls upon people to vote in the best person for the job, regardless of where they live.
- Financial Report
Lucia Stachurski presents the 2004 financial reports and explains the Association's rationale, its conservative way of budgeting and the reasons for certain surpluses. For one, these surpluses come about because of conservative and careful forecasting, but also because some action items and spending has been moved to this year. For example, a vacant labour relations position was only filled in 2005, the document tracking system is now in the process of being implemented and the collective bargaining committee did not start bargaining until early this year. The floor is then opened to questions.
Bill Loney asks about the equity portion of the investment types. He asks whether the Association has a mandate from members to invest in the manner it does and expresses some concerns with the high risks. Lucia responds that Renaldo Saikali from ScotiaMcLeod recently took over the portfolio and is making sure that it is balanced and conservative. He is also working on making some changes to the work his predecessor did in order to balance it better. She also mentions that members can call head office for monthly statements and that all decisions are reviewed by the Finance Committee.
Don Caldwell asks whether more members are needed for the finance committee and volunteers himself.
Mike Bennett asks about the storage system and its portability should the Association move. Lucia explains that this is an electronic document tracking system that is mobile.
Shelley Lavallee asks what kinds of expenses are covered under the statements of operational Board and member expenses. They cover for example salary compensation for members of committees and travel expenses, Lucia says.
Another question is asked about investments: why are they all short-term? The answer is that the Board felt it needed to be able to have easy access to resources for example to purchase a building to house headquarters and since the Association is in a conciliation/strike position, possible job actions would require access to cash. Also, the Finance Committee is currently reviewing all investments and will come with a recommendation in September. Who knows, maybe the decision will be made at that time to go with some more longer term options.
- The 2005 Budget
Lucia explains the switch to portfolios and notes that as of January 2005, budgeting has been and will be done according to portfolios, held by a Director on the Board. Again, this budget is quite conservative, and therefore forecasts a deficit.
Aldo Spadaccini asks about the differences in forecasting of the Compensation and Benefits Committee and the budget for collective bargaining. Lucia explains that these are services such as lawyers, communications, a negotiators, consultants etc. and that the apparent overlaps in reporting will be eliminated this year because reporting will be done by portfolio.
Don Caldwell wonders whether there should have been a strike fund. The answer is that the short term investments cover this and that the Board chose not to, mainly because they do not want to jump the gun and are looking towards strike action first. Mike Bennett remarks that a strike fund is also a two-edged sword, because it would be public record and Treasury Board could also find out how much is in the fund and how long the Association could survive, which would not be a good thing.
A member asks whether there will be more detailed reporting next year, to which Lucia answers that that would be up to next year's Finance Committee. This is also up for Board discussion, as public financial records could fall in the wrong hands.
Lucia takes a minute to mention that this is her last meeting and that she has to leave the Association due to a career move. She's enjoyed her time with the Association and especially thanks Merdon and Gene (Szabo) for getting her involved. She encourages members to get involved. Merdon thanks Lucia and sends regrets and greetings to everyone from Gene and proceeds to ask whether there are any questions about Resolution #6, or the appointment of the Auditor. Mike Bennett asks whether it is in the new Bylaw that the auditor can only remain in that position for three or four years, as was the case under the old Constitution. Merdon answers that there is no timeline and that this auditor has been retained for the last six years, which Mike believes is a bit long. Merdon says that the Board will review the minutes of the meeting and will review his comments regarding this matter.
- Nominations Committee
Merdon introduces John Leduc, who together with Bernard Homolk (regrets) and himself forms the Nominations Committee. John then introduces the candidates for Chair (Don Caldwell, Jim Currier, Milt Isaacs) and Directors (Robert Loiselle, Arjun Patil in absentia, Tony Bourque, Gabriel Najjar, Randy Anderson). After a last call for ballots, he declares voting closed. The scrutineers from KPMG are sent off to do the final vote count and to prepare their report. While waiting for the report, the floor is opened for "other business".
- Other business
Mike Bennett brings up the fact that after reviewing Association communications such as the website and the AGM booklet, the Association has not commented on the shared services project. Merdon explains that the Association has been watching the pilot project at NRCan and has requested repeatedly to be formally briefed, but to no avail. As soon as the Association is informed of a plan, it will be made public to the membership. Aldo raises a concern, having some inside knowledge of the pilot project as an employee of NRCan. He says that the initiative is happening and will keep rolling, and will ultimately cost jobs. The Association needs to get involved now, at the ground floor. Merdon says that he's been in touch with NRCan and that he knows that they have asked Treasury Board to involve unions, but that so far, they have not yet done so. It may be something to bring up at the bargaining table in the fall.
Dino Testa asks how many votes were required to make the elections valid. There are 100 votes required, which KPMG had assured before the meeting, had been cast.
After a short break, John receives the results and announces the vote count:
A total of 476 votes were case for Chair, 1348 for the Directors and approximately 450 for each of the six resolutions. The results, as tabulated by KPMG, were as follows:
Chair:
Milt Isaacs: 220 (elected)
Don Caldwell: 163
Jim Currier: 90
Directors:
Robert Loiselle: 385 (elected)
Tony Bourque: 346 (elected)
Arjun Patil: 256 (elected)
Randy Andersen: 234
Gabriel Najjar: 124
Resolutions:
#1 Approval minutes of 2004 AGM
Carried 452-3
#2 Approval of Bylaw number 1
Carried 434-9
#3 Location of Chair
Carried 261-193
#4 Approval of 2004 financial statements
Carried 440-7
#5 Approval of 2005 budget
Carried 434-16
#6 Appointment of auditor for 2005
Carried 439-11
A copy of the scrutineers report is submitted to the Chair to be kept with the minutes of the meeting. Merdon thanks John and congratulates all those elected.
- Adjournment
Merdon asks for the motion to adjourn the meeting, which is moved by Al Green and seconded, and thus carried. The meeting is declared terminated.
