Cheryl Greenhalgh has been re-elected to serve a two-year term as a member of the HSA’s Board of Directors, representing HSA members in Region 3 from several worksites spanning from Burnaby Hospital to Eagle Ridge Hospital and SHARE Community Services in the Tricities.

Greenhalgh is a medical radiation technologist at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, where she serves as a steward, in addition to her role as the union’s Secretary Treasurer for the past two years.

Registration Information:
Stewards and/or Supervisors may register by logging into My Events Registration. Workshops are listed under Steward Education events.
 
Basic Steward Training (3 days) 

One of the features of the new Community Health collective agreement that expires on March 31, 2022 is a $40 million fund for low wage redress. This is different than the comparability monies distributed in the agreement that expires March 31, 2019 because it will be applied to a greater number of positions. You can find the collective agreement language HERE on the first page under “Low Wage Redress.”

HSA members have been invited by CoDevelopment (CoDev) Canada to participate in its 2019 Canadian delegation to Honduras and Nicaragua.

On Tuesday, February 19 the BC NDP government introduced Budget 2019. Following from the Throne Speech, the budget allows us to see the actual investments being made in critical program areas and the new initiatives government has prioritized for the coming year.

Budget 2019 continued to build on the government’s focus on increasing affordability for families and strengthening health care and social services. There were a number of new programs and policies introduced worth highlighting:

Last fall, HSA announced a $3 million Professional Development Fund funded by the provincial government aimed at supporting health science professionals to undertake professional development to increase specialization, improve health care service to rural and remote areas of BC, and meet ongoing requirements for professional development.
 

The David Bland Memorial Award is awarded annually to an HSA member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the area of occupational health and safety and who has made a meaningful difference in the lives of their fellow HSA members. 

The award was established by HSA's board of directors to honour HSA member David Bland,  a vocational counsellor from Richmond Mental Health  who was killed at his workplace by a former client. 

Health science professionals working in hospitals and communities throughout the province have voted to accept a new collective agreement that recognizes the value of health science professionals on multi-disciplinary health care teams.

Yesterday was a big day in provincial politics, as MLAs from across the province were back in Victoria and the Spring sitting of the Legislative Assembly got underway. To open the session, the Lieutenant Governor, Honourable Janet Austin, delivered the Speech from the Throne.

The Throne Speech is an opportunity for government to lay out its agenda for the coming year and highlight themes and issues they intend to address. While the speech does not reveal details, it does provide insight into areas of importance for the government.
Here’s a snapshot: