Prince Edward Island

 A  luncheon was held for  the offices of Service Canada, USGE and RCMP in Montague on Wednesday, August 11th.

A Think Public event was held on Saturday, July 31st at the South Shore Actiplex in Crapaud. This event included face painting, distribution of pamphlets and answering questions on pensions and public services. The “Public Services are Cool” coloring books designed by summer student Racheal Francis, were also distributed and sparked many questions regarding public services. T-shirts and Frisbees were also popular handouts. Hundreds of people attended this event and many of them stopped at our booth.

Once again this year, the PSAC participated in the Pride Parade in Charlottetown on July 17th.

PSAC representatives were in Charlottetown this weekend to present its pension petition to Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

On June 8th, Jeannie Baldwin PSAC REVP-Atlantic, joined Hassan Yussaf, CLC Secretary/Treasurer; Carl Pursey, PEI Federation of Labor; Mylo Murray, CUPE; Shelly Ward, UPSE: Eric Gauthier, CUPW; Everett Baker, Congress of Union Retirees of Canada; and Debi Buell, PSAC Federation of Labour Vice-President, for a presentation to PEI Premier Robert Ghiz and PEI Finance Minister Wes Sheriden.

PSAC members representing various Components were on hand at the National Day of Mourning ceremony held April 28th at Province House.  Attending the event were Ian LeClair, Laurie LeClair and Karolyn Walsh from UVAE 90001; Dawn Hardy and Angela Davison from UTE 90006; Jacinta Stewart from NAT 90040: and Gary Bannister, retired PSAC Representative.

UVAE 90001 members Jody Lapierre and Debi Buell participated in a fundraising event on March 30 at the Jean Canfield Building.  They were arrested and put in jail - for a good cause!  Money raised to "get out of jail" went to the Government of Canada Charitable Workplace Campaign.

For the fourth year in a row, Agriculture local 90004 purchased an Easter Beef heifer and donated hundreds of pounds of beef to the Charlottetown Food bank and the Summerside Salvation Army.This project not only shows support for the local Beef industry in troubled times, it also provides much needed protein to our citizens.  It also helps bring the PSAC/Agriculture Union  and local closer together as a working unit.The  donation was much welcomed by the community.

A Talking Union Basics (TUB) course was held March 6-7 at the PSAC Regional Office.Members took time out to celebrate International Women's Day by viewing a segment on Women's History followed by a short quiz.  All were winners and enjoyed sharing the prize which was an IWD Cake.Mary Doucette, UTE Local 90006 made an IWD display for the Summerside Tax Centre.

The Federal Budget released by the Harper Government has set a clear direction for balancing the budget within the next five years by targeting the federal public service through austerity measures. The budget freezes federal departmental spending with the goal of reducing the debt on the backs of public service workers.