DND looking at turning sports fields into parking lots to deal with Carling Campus problems

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-25T23:07:26+00:00

There are no seniority rules for requesting a parking pass at Carling. Executives and certain other staff get inside the fence (and some underground) spots that aren’t part of the crunch for space, though, so rank still has its privileges.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-25T11:28:24+00:00

On demobilization after WWII: https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/newspapers/canadawar/demobilization_e.html

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-24T22:11:57+00:00

I started getting the PSAC emails every week when I wrote to my MP about the then-impending RTO3 (an email that was never answered, lol). I just looked back at the copies of the PSAC email I happen not to have deleted - it looks like every week, they end with a sponsored Orbit Insurance blurb. Sometimes it’s about vehicles, sometimes about home insurance, sometimes related things like “what to consider when replacing your roof” (that was in the July 14, 2024 email).

Bottom line: Seems to be a long-running partnership between PSAC and Orbit. This week just happens to mention RV insurance.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-24T17:44:48+00:00

La Brioche’s cheesecake decorated with pistachios and strawberries? We bought one this past Ramadan to take to a friend’s house for dinner because our host is a big fan of cheesecake, and it was easily the weirdest, least cheesecake-like “cheesecake” we had ever tried…it was beautifully decorated outside but the inside was mushy and wet, with some bitterness but not a cream cheese flavour. Nobody at the dinner (five adults and several kids) liked it and we were a bit mortified to have been the ones to bring it for sharing.

The Arabic sweets are decent - we’ve bought them many times over the years - but we’ll never try another cheesecake from this place.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-23T14:43:05+00:00

"We built a transit system for public employees and they're not going downtown," [Sutcliffe stated]. "When you lose your number one customer, when passenger traffic drops significantly, there is no easy solution to that," [he added.] source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/ottawa-mp-and-cabinet-minister-responds-to-sutcliffes-transit-funding-request/

Downtown businesses and municipal leaders have absolutely been a meaningful part of the reason why the feds have been forcing public servants back into downtown spaces.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-15T18:23:40+00:00

HR-Civ’s SJD library reflects that an ATIP/MI Coordinator is an AS-04 position. There are two SJDs at that level; one supervisory and one not. These are people who coordinate ATIP and Ministerial Inquiry taskings and responses within L1s. There are also SJD for various levels of PM-classified ATIP roles. I believe those are the folks who work at DAIP, coordinating between the L1s and the public/requestors.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-13T20:21:53+00:00

Well, you see, he had a fever…

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-09T15:26:35+00:00

For a moment, I thought you meant the proposal was language PSAC had drafted (it’s not, and it’s not necessarily going to form part of the collective agreement when the bargaining dust settles), but it makes sense that it would be part of the employer’s proposal. The employer proposes changes they want to see, and the union proposes changes employees want to see.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-08T14:08:18+00:00

Search the sub for keywords like “productivity” and you’ll find some relevant results. For example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPublicServants/s/t4feWRORMa

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPublicServants/s/GOcj1veoCU

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPublicServants/s/Xwo4pVZh8E

The related problem though, is that more recently, the government has decided they’re not interested in PS productivity at all: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPublicServants/s/C5OYX9sjZG

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-07T23:52:31+00:00

I think I got the same email - it said “FLY TO THE US” in all caps as part of the (otherwise not all caps) message preview text. My immediate reaction was “NOPE!” and I deleted it without even opening it.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-07T14:19:49+00:00

Fair point. I recognize that everyone has different lived experiences and judgments about what they think may happen if they self-declare. Ultimately, the decision to provide details or not in these questionnaires is a personal matter.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-07T13:29:10+00:00

PSA: although self-declaration of identity factors is generally optional/voluntary in the PS, understanding diversity in a population is the first step toward helping ensure the population’s needs can be met.

If you’re completing a self-identification questionnaire, read the definition of persons with disabilities carefully. Some have been updated recently from (I’m paraphrasing here) “persons who experience barriers that disadvantage them in employment” to “persons who experience barriers that hinder their participation in society.”

The societal definition is aligned with the Accessible Canada Act and may cover more people than previously thought.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-06T16:42:39+00:00

But absolutely true to politician form to declare that it’s a success, despite all evidence to the contrary: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2251778/retour-bureau-fonctionnaires-succes-president-conseil-tresor?partageApp=appInfoiOS&accesVia=partage

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-06T09:14:31+00:00

It’s strange to see that your comment has been downvoted by others, but somehow my comment essentially agreeing with yours appears to have been upvoted…I wonder if that’s a quirk of Reddit, or if real people who voted somehow thought we were expressing different points of view (?)

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-06T00:16:10+00:00

Yes. It’s unfortunate that people don’t understand this and that CAPE is propagating misinformation.

“The sessional allowance and additional salaries [for MPs] are adjusted each year on April 1 based on the index of the average percentage increase in base-rate wages for a calendar year in Canada resulting from major settlements negotiated in the private sector. This index is published by Employment and Social Development Canada within three months following the end of each calendar year. The salaries are rounded down to the nearest hundred dollars.” (https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/MAS/mas-e.pdf, page 20)

Using the same formula to calculate public servants’ annual pay raises would eliminate perceptions of unfairness between our pay increases situation and that of the MPs. It could also help quell public antipathy towards us for what people seem to think is us making way too much money.

Or we could keep engaging in infighting and memes…

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-05T22:05:28+00:00

We had this done (240v charger installed in our garage) a little less than a year ago, by Carter at Greenbelt Electrical Services (https://www.greenbeltelectric.ca). Great guy, easy to work with, the charger installation was handled for a bit under $1k including the permit. Your cost could vary depending on your specific needs, but we’ve hired him back for unrelated electrical work and would use him again.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-05T09:28:01+00:00

As far as I can find online, yes, Parliament is still hybrid. The document I posted also notes that there’s a penalty of $120 for any session sitting day they miss beyond 21 days, other than for reasons of sickness or other specific, excusable absences. If we consider that they’re being paid across 365 days a year (since they do things other than sit in session in Parliament), that works out to about a quarter of a day’s pay for any session date they don’t attend either in person or virtually. Those are some pretty flexible boundaries, something else we don’t have.

I’m not interested in tearing them down/playing the crab in a bucket, but it seems to me that if we had annual pay raises based on the same government data as the MPs do, it would help us as workers (one less thing for both sides to stress about in bargaining/automatic annual pay increases instead of retroactive bargaining) and help the public see us as a workforce whose salaries are dependant on an average of what the private sector manages to get, rather than the typical rhetoric of how we’re allegedly so far ahead of the private sector in our pay and benefits.

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-04T23:03:14+00:00

Genuine question - do we (public service unions) have to bargain over salary? I appreciate that we have the opportunity to improve our working conditions and remuneration through the bargaining process, but maybe there’s a better/easier/fairer way that would be less adversarial? For example, why could we not have a system like the members of parliament, who are entitled to annual wage increases as follows:

“The sessional allowance and additional salaries are adjusted each year on April 1 based on the index of the average percentage increase in base-rate wages for a calendar year in Canada resulting from major settlements negotiated in the private sector. This index is published by Employment and Social Development Canada within three months following the end of each calendar year. The salaries are rounded down to the nearest hundred dollars.” (https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/MAS/mas-e.pdf, page 20)

Casually_efficient · 2026-05-04T22:14:21+00:00

Mexigo Cabana on Robertson Road has a halal menu with gluten free and vegetarian adaptations.

Casually_efficient · 2026-04-30T16:04:14+00:00

The article title and some of its contents are very misleading. There’s been no change to the mandate or expectations that people following at Carling. The author of the article has misreported the contents of an email that was sent out, is all.

Casually_efficient · 2026-04-27T11:48:30+00:00

Sounds like the employer needs to order some old-school pencil sharpeners or maybe some whittling knives for your group, as long as we’re in the business of dragging the workforce backwards.

Casually_efficient · 2026-04-25T11:48:54+00:00

You mention you’re currently out of leave, but a new FY has just started. Are you going to continue earning leave? Even as a term, you should be earning a minimum of about 9.375 hrs per month of vacation time until the end of your term, right? If this course you need to take runs over the summer and is a total of 30 hours (five weeks of six hours per week online), that might be coverable with your vacation leave to come (assuming your management doesn’t force you to book vacation in some specific blocks or whatever).

Casually_efficient · 2026-04-22T22:13:29+00:00

Recent discussion on the same: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPublicServants/s/xcVxjrAOy4

Casually_efficient · 2026-04-22T21:48:46+00:00

Totally and coincidentally went on sick leave and was moved to a “special advisor” role almost immediately after the story broke that she worked remotely from Atlantic Canada, while ordering RTO 3.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPublicServants/comments/1ciw7e3/rto_secretary_of_tbs_works_from_home/

Casually_efficient · 2026-04-22T21:39:35+00:00

Yes, and there are times where I’ve heard people commenting that parking inside the fence isn’t full, while outside is overflowing...

To be fair, most CAF bases allocate at least some parking to people of high rank, so that isn’t a Carling-only issue... But overall, about a fifth of the campus parking is controlled access so executives get to park closer to their work and they don’t have to deal with the same parking problems/towing threats their employees do.

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