For those OPSEU staff who do not work at 1 Stone Rd, Guelph, please read this email as your support would be much appreciated.
OPSEU Staff at 1 Stone Rd, Guelph
You recently received an email (attached) indicating that parking fees at 1 Stone Rd will increase 10% on April 1. Are you willing to accept this increase when we have not had a salary increase in 4 years? The Employer has told us repeatedly there is no new money, find any increases or benefits from within!
Your OPSEU, AMAPCEO and PEGO reps at 1 Stone Rd have met and are working together on a strategy to stop this increase. We faced this same situation in 2006 and 2010 and we were very successful in defeating an increase.
Our strategy is based on the following:
1. Undue Burden in a Net Zero Salary Circumstance. OPS salaries have been frozen for 4 years. There’s no reason an expenses like this, controlled by the employer, should increase at a rate well above inflation. Parking fees collected at 1 Stone Rd go to ‘General Revenue’, not to improved service. This amounts to revenue collection with no link to quality or cost of services provided. If parking fees were eliminated, the facility would still deliver the same degree of parking lot maintenance as required for health and safety reasons.
2. Unfair Survey – Our Public Service Neighbours Get Free Parking. The “survey” used by the facility manager to justify this increase is inherently unfair and deceptive, consulting only a few local employers in Guelph who charge for parking. Within 500 m of our building, other public sector colleagues do not pay for parking, including the Public Health Agency of Canada (110 Stone Rd W), Agriculture and Agrifood Canada (174 Stone Rd. W), Farm Credit Canada (120 Research Lane), and Wellington Dufferin Guelph Public Health (160 Chancellors Way). The two parking providers surveyed are the financially challenged University of Guelph (which is currently undertaking deep cuts to facility costs), and the City of Guelph (only considering its ‘downtown’ paid parking lots 3.5 km away and not free parking at other locations).
3. Financial Penalty and Discrimination Depending on Office Location. The application of ORC’s parking fee policy is random and inequitable. It amounts to an employment tax on employees at select locations. For example, at 17 provincially-owned buildings where OMAFRA staff report to work, ORC levies parking fees at only 2. In more than half of these locations, public transit is an alternative means of transportation which is an ORC criteria for paid-parking. Public transit is not an option for the employees working at 1 Stone Rd who drive from outlying communities to come to work. Driving and carpooling are the only options available to most staff.
This increase means $350 annually that I personally have to pay to come to work at 1 Stone Rd. I have colleagues in the ministry who work at other locations (Woodstock, Elora, Kemptville) and pay nothing. We hire students and pay them minimum wage and expect them to pay parking. There is no benefit to us in paying these fees, it is a straight cash grab that is indiscriminately applied to some staff and not others. We have to stop this!
We can’t do this alone. We need your support. Very shortly, we will share with you how you can support stopping the increase. For now, talk to your colleagues and help spread the word. If anyone has a connection to Agricorps, we need to get them involved too! This affects everyone who works at 1 Stone Rd (including managers)!
For those OPSEU staff who do not work at 1 Stone Rd, Guelph, please read this email as your support is much appreciated.
OPSEU Staff at 1 Stone Rd, Guelph
As you can see from our rationale in the letter below, there are unfair practices being applied to who pays and how much for parking. Anyone who has joined or returned to the ministry after April 1, 2014, now pays $40/month. So you can see that with these increases, the government’s goal is to have us all paying $40/month just to come to work!
Please support this protest of increased and discriminatory parking fees by doing the following:
Print and post the attached poster outside your office/cubicle.
Personalize and send the letter to Minister Brad Duguid bduguid.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org and cc the names at the bottom of the letter (and any of the names from the Other Resources)
Help spread the word by sharing the letter and poster with other tenants (Agricorp, OSCIA, etc.) in the building and management (they are impacted too!)
(Date)
Hon. Brad Duguid
Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure
8th Floor, Hearst Block
900 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 2E1
RE: Unfair Infrastructure Ontario Parking Policy
Dear Minister Duguid:
It has been announced that parking rates charged to OPS staff at an Infrastructure Ontario building in Guelph will increase April 1, 2016. While the increase is an issue unto itself, the IO announcement has given light to a much greater discriminatory practice warranting your concern and attention.
Undue Burden in a Net Zero Salary Circumstance. OPS salaries have been frozen for 4 years. There’s no reason an expenses like this, controlled by the employer, should increase at a rate well above inflation. Parking fees collected at 1 Stone Rd go to ‘General Revenue’, not to improved service. This amounts to revenue collection with no link to quality or cost of services provided.
Unfair Survey – Our Public Service Neighbours Get Free Parking. The “survey” used by the facility manager to justify this increase is inherently unfair and deceptive, consulting only a few local employers in Guelph who charge for parking. Within 500 m of our building, other public sector colleagues do not pay for parking, including the Public Health Agency of Canada (110 Stone Rd W), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (174 Stone Rd. W), Farm Credit Canada (120 Research Lane), and Wellington Dufferin Guelph Public Health (160 Chancellors Way). The two parking providers surveyed are the financially challenged University of Guelph (which is currently undertaking deep cuts to facility costs), and the City of Guelph (only considering its ‘downtown’ paid parking lots 3.5 km away and not free parking at other locations). City of Guelph staff are provided with free parking passes at the paid lot surveyed.
Financial Penalty and Discrimination Depending on Office Location. The application of IO’s parking fee policy is random and inequitable for two reasons:
· It amounts to an employment tax on employees at select locations. For example, at 17 provincially-owned buildings where OMAFRA staff report to work, IO levies parking fees at only 2. In more than half of these locations, public transit is an alternative means of transportation which is an IO criteria for paid-parking. Public transit is not an option for the employees working at 1 Stone Rd who drive from outlying communities to come to work. Driving and carpooling are the only options available to most staff.
· As of April 1, 2014, all new staff at 1 Stone Rd. are paying $40/month for outside parking, whereas existing staff will pay $28.70/month under the new proposed fee structure. This is 30% more than others for parking in the same lot, depending on when they signed up! 1 Stone Rd employs students (whom we pay minimum wage) and single income families and this inequity between coworkers is unfair and impacting morale.
Minister Duguid, you would be correct in assuming that most employers in Guelph accommodate their employees’ mode of transportation to work by providing on-site parking for free. They do not rent it to them.
It is my hope that you will intervene to eliminate this unfair and discriminatory IO parking policy as it truly amounts to a financial penalty applied selectively to employees based on where they report to work and when they started work.
Respectfully,
Add your name and contact information
c.c. Premier Kathleen Wynn
Hon. Deb Matthews
Hon. Jeff Leal
Guelph MPP Liz Sandals
Dr. Deb Stark
David Morley Senior Vice-President, Business Strategy and Communications at IO david.morley@ infrastructureontario.ca
Steve Lipsett, Vice-President, Asset Management South, IO. steve.lipsett@ infrastructureontario.ca
Other resources to send the letter to:
Key Leaders:
- Premier – Kathleen Wynne premier@ontario.ca
- OMAFRA Minister – Jeff Leal jleal.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
- Deputy Premier & President of the Treasury Board Secretariat – Hon. Deb Matthews debmatthews.onmpp.ca
- Guelph MPP: Hon. Liz Sandals lsandals.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
- Mayor of Guelph: Cam Guthrie mayor@guelph.ca
- Other local MPPs (from your home riding if you commute into Guelph)
www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_current.do?locale=en&ord=Riding&dir=ASC&list_type=all_mpps
Opposition:
- Patrick Brown (Conservative) patrick.brown@pc.ola.org
- Andrea Horwath (NDP) ahorwath-qp@ndp.on.ca
Infrastructure Ontario (IO) (Responsible for Government Buildings) – an agency of the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure
- Hon. Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure bduguid.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
- David Morley Senior Vice-President, Business Strategy and Communications at IO david.morley@infrastructureontario.ca
- Steve Lipsett, Vice-President, Asset Management South, IO. steve.lipsett@infrastructureontario.ca
OPS Senior Management, and other Ministries and Agencies
OMAFRA:
- Dr. Deb Stark, Deputy Minister – deb.stark@ontario.ca
AgriCorp:
- Murray Porteous, Chair of Board – contact@agricorp.com
- Doug LaRose, CEO – contact@agricorp.com
MOECC:
- MOECC Minister – Hon. Glen Murray gmurray.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
- Paul Evans, Deputy Minister – paul.evans@ontario.ca
MNRF:
- MNRF Minister – Hon. Bill Mauro bmauro.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
- Bill Thornton, Deputy Minister bill.thornton@ontario.ca
MCSS (for Ontario Disability Support Program, ODSP):
- MCSS Minister – Helena Jaczek, hjaczek.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
- Janet Menard, Deputy Minister Janet.Menard@ontario.ca