RE-ELECT Ryan Ward for Alternate Regional Executive Vice President

Welcome to my campaign for Re-Election as your Alternate Regional Executive Vice President for the Public Service Alliance of Canada (Ontario Region). Please e-mail me at ute.psac.labourcouncil@gmail.com or call me at (416) 508.WARD (9273)

Why am I running?

I am not running for myself, I am running for you, the members of the PSAC. I am not using this campaign as a stepping stone to something else, I am asking for your support to make sure that PSAC Ontario has the most capable and dedicated person who has the experience and ability to do this job to represent you the best. The reason I am running is because I have seen some areas that I am concerned about and am happy to lead the fight throughout this term.

Doing what is right with your money

The primary role of the Alternate REVP has been about leading the Finance Committee. As a member of the PSAC Ontario Finance Committee for seven years, I have worked tirelessly to ensure that Ontario Council is spending your funds in the best way possible. It is why I stood up in 2018 when the Finance Committee realized we were going to have a shortfall and convinced council to make the difficult choice to hold one of our meetings virtually to ensure that the funds would be okay for 2019 and 2020.

I am not about status quo, I am here to find more opportunities for our finances. As Chair of the Finance Committee, I have started to work toward that by giving our Ontario Council Members with the largest area to cover, the ability to properly utilize the funds allocated for the work they need to do. In addition, all Ontario Council members who need funds will have an easier way to obtain funds to conduct their work.

Many Area Councils and Regional Committees can only conduct a limited amount of business because they have limited funds to work within from the funds they receive. For 2021 and future years, these groups have additional committed funding to give more opportunities for our members to participate in advocacy, political action and fighting for our rights.

Sharing Information

We need to find better ways to share information for our members, not just among Locals within one component but among all components. We have members being told that they are only able to claim 1 hour of leave with pay for care of children who are in school from home, due to Covid. We have others within the same office being told they can take 4 hours per day. The information that employers are asking for is incredibly intrusive and there needs to be a better way to authorize leave in this matter. If we can share information among Locals, Regions and Components of what is working and what is not, there should be better ways to help and protect all of our members to ensure they get the time they need.

We can keep everything confidential so no one is identified in any way, we just need to disseminate what our members are going through to fight for all of them together. Members are being given very little choice in many ways, they can claim 1 hour of leave when in actuality they need 4 to 5 hours of leave per day to help their school aged children get through their education from home and their work suffers and they are being told they may not meet the expectations for the year. Others are choosing to take leave, in many cases without pay, to properly ensure their children are understanding the education they are learning and suffering financially because of it.

Equality for All

Equality for all encompasses several areas that are critical for us in the future. First, it is about ensuring that everyone is treated equal and secondly, that no one feels uncomfortable in any PSAC situation. We need to ensure that when someone shows up to a meeting, a rally, an event or anything the PSAC puts on, that they feel welcome and included. If there are any issues, they need to be communicated to the designed individuals, based on the constitution of the PSAC and handled efficiently and effectively.

We also need to stand up for everyone. That means standing up for our First Nations, people of colour, persons with disabilities, and women. I may have a disability and have learned so much about others with all types of disabilities, but I am always trying to learn more. It is why I hosted a weekly radio show in Ottawa for four years called Radio Abilities, a show about disability issues. I tried to bring in guests that could share valuable information about persons with disabilities to disseminate as much information to help me and anyone else who was able to listen to my show.

It is one reason I stood up for my friend Veronica Eastman, who went through a harrowing situation on her way back from a union training course. She asked me to write a resolution to promote the awareness of organ and tissue donation through www.BeaDonor.ca. She wanted everyone to know what donating your organs and tissue is about and I successfully was able to put this resolution through both the PSAC Ontario and PSAC National conventions in 2011 and 2012, to bring to light what doing a simple thing as signing up, will do for others during their time of need.

Political Action

I have been involved in politics since I was 12 years old. I loved going door to door and talking to electors about why they should support my candidate. For the past four years I have been chair of the Political Action Committee of Ontario Council. As part of my committee to political action, I have lobbied Members of Provincial and Federal Parliament regularly to discuss the issues that affect our members. I have hosted meetings and forums with elected members and candidates of all levels of government and will continue to do this for the rest of my life. In 2012, I was the last T1 counter representative working in Toronto Centre tax office and fought to keep them open, despite the intent to close them by the Harper Conservatives. In 2004, I was front and centre when the Call Centres across Canada went out on strike for 13 days in order to get a contract. We had a massive rally at the Government of Canada building at 4900 Yonge St in North York and I was on the microphone leading chant after chant, only 4 years after being hired by CRA. I have hosted forums in Toronto for elected MPs, MPPs and Ministers, I have taken the time to inform MPs and MPPs information they did not know about that our employees are going through and have been able to make change.

I attended the inaugural Power of Many Conference in Toronto that the Ontario Federation of Labour put on to defeating the Ford provincial government in 2022 and I will be front and centre to ensure that my Conservative MPs and MPPs here in Barrie are not re-elected.

Directly Chartered Locals

As a member of a component, I feel privileged that I have two bodies that represent me in all matters and that is not something all of us have available. The PSAC is a massive organization that should be able to help all of our members achieve the results that we are asking for. This is why I have publicly endorsed and have supported for many years anything our DCLs are asking for. As Region 5 rep, every time I was asked to help DCL 00555 (formerly UOIT, now Ontario Tech University) I went to Oshawa. When Woodbine was asking to bring their fight to the public during their Queens Plate weekend, I showed up. I want to do this for the rest of Ontario too. Whether it is our DCL 00401 Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service in Northern Ontario or our brand new academic DCL at Sir Wilfrid Laurier University, they should have all of the rights of any component. This begins with supporting G-31, to provide a seat on the PSAC National Board of Directors, and that is just the start.

When I attended Carleton University, I was a Shop Steward and was able to help create our inaugural collective agreement for the Students Association workers. This was the first foray that I had into the dealings of a union. It is why I ran within months of being hired at CRA, for a Director position at the Toronto T1 Call Centre. Now 21 years later, I’m still representing members.

Getting our message out

We need to get our message out even more than we do. This is why our Area Councils and Committees are critical, to share the issues that all PSAC members are dealing with. We need to find the stories though that resonate with the media and get this message out to the public. I have spent close to 30 years writing articles for various publications, I have spent many years as an editor, graphics designer, web designer, and broadcaster. We need to share the personal stories of so many PSAC workers that are affected by decisions that are made every day by all levels of government and private business as well.