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TRANSCRIPT
A Word from the President
It is with great pleasure that I present you with this first issue of the APRUO Newsletter. I hope that it will become an indispensable information tool for all retired colleagues, helping to strengthen the ties between them and with the university.
To be sure, this Newsletter will improve with time, thanks in great part to your collaboration, your comments and suggestions. So please don’t hesitate to submit to us your suggestions, ideas and even texts of general interest for retirees for subsequent issues ([email protected]).
This first issue does not pretend to be other than a simple letter of information, but we would like eventually to publish a newsletter that would compete, by its presentation and the richness of its contents, with those of the retiree associations of other Canadian universities. If this interests you, you may consult some bulletins among the list provided on the web site of the College and University Retiree Associations of Canada (CURAC) at http://www.curac.ca/member-association-newsletters/.
Membership in the Association
You should by now have received by post a letter of invitation and the membership form for 2018. If you have not already done so, I invite you to return this form to us as soon as possible. If you have not received it, you will find a copy of the membership form along with this message. It is also available on the APRUO web site. You simply have to print the form, complete it and return it to the address shown at the bottom of this page.
[email protected] h#p://web5.uo#awa.ca/www5/apruo/
141 Louis-Pasteur, pièce 117, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5
Newsletter of the Association of Professors Retired from the University of Ottawa
Fall 2017
We need your help:
a) Administrative Committee :
We are in urgent need of relief at the level of the Administrative Committee since there are two vacancies to fill and because some members are already on their last mandate. I strongly encourage you to submit your candidacy immediately to [email protected]
Since there is only one woman among the nine members of the Committee, I particularly, but not exclusively, invite our female colleagues to present their candidacy. As requirement, one must be bilingual, be able to attend one meeting per month from September to June, and be able to enjoy the pleasure of working with a formidable team of retired professors.
b) Newsletter :
We are searching for an editor-in-chief as well as a team of volunteers, not necessarily on site, to assume the tasks such as page layout, translation and revision of texts, research of material of interest to retirees, etc. With a team of several persons, the work could be shared and would not impinge too much on the precious time of each person. Please indicate your interest to us at [email protected].
The APRUO and the forthcoming negotiations
Negotiations for the next Collective Agreement will begin in January. For the first time since its foundation, the APRUO will be represented by two members of its Administrative Committee (AC) on the APUO Committee that prepares the requests of the professors and the retirees. A sub-committee of the AC of the APRUO has already prepared a list of our priorities, with an emphasis on health care.
One must say that the benefits offered to retired professors by the University of Ottawa do not compare well with those offered by other Ontario universities. We hope that the presence of representatives of our association on the APUO committee will contribute to the reestablishment of a certain equilibrium.
Health and Travel Insurance : New Recommendations
According to a comparative study of various suppliers of health and travel insurance, Ms. Maureen Castella, associate director of benefits (Human Resources), recommends the two following suppliers whose programs are offered to residents of Ontario and Quebec, provided that they have worked in Ontario.
a) Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP): https://www.otip.com/For-Retirees.
b) Municipal Retirees Organization of Ontario (MROO): http://www.mroo.org
According to Ms. Castella, the programs offered by these two suppliers offer a better quality/price ratio than the program "Follow Me" at Manulife. Nonetheless it is strongly advised that you inform yourself in detail of the advantages and disadvantages of each plan: cost, admissibility conditions (age, medical examinations...) and thevarious options such as health, dental, travel), etc.
The CURAC association is affiliated with two suppliers, one for travel (Medoc) and one for health (RTO/ERO). Also CURAC offers programs that are very advantageous for retirees under certain conditions. You can find all the details at this address:
http://www.curac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/2/TripInsurance.pdf
As for the plan offered by RTO/ERO (Retired Teachers of Ontario / Enseignants retraités de l’Ontario), Ms. Castella will compare it to the two plans she proposes and will inform us of the results as soon as they are known.
Finally, a supplier offers plans made to measure for individual needs, based on the results of a comparative study of 14 suppliers of health and travel insurance. It can be found at Securiglobe : https://www.securiglobe.com/en/
On-Line reimbursement of health claims (HCSA, no. 14101)
It is now possible to submit requests for payment to Manulife directly online, even from a mobile phone by using their app. You don’t even have to include the receipts unless they are specifically requested. For these cases, the digital copies can be attached directly online. Nevertheless it is always wise to keep the original receipts. The reimbursements will be made much more rapidly if you use this online system. For more details inquire at Manulife’s web site: https://www.manulife.ca/for-you.html
New Policy of Confidentiality:
Mr. Neil Courtemanche, the Associate Director, Pension Plan, has informed us that the university will soon adopt certain measures that will change the rules of confidentiality regarding personal information.
Therefore the Administrative Committee of APRUO will no longer receive the monthly list of new retirees unless they previously had given permission on the consent form which they will receive from Human Resources at the moment of taking their retirement. This will also apply to requests for the United Appeal as well as for invitations to special events held by the faculties and services of the University. The same applies to those who have passed away unless the person had authorized it while still living.
It goes without saying that without consent it will be impossible for us to obtain
the names of new retirees or the names of the deceased colleagues and to update our database. It will also be impossible to keep retirees informed of new information concerning them along with the activities of our association and the services we are able to provide.
The same understanding obliges us, even when consent is given, not to divulge the information to a third-party in any way.
Therefore we ask all those who are starting their retirement to fill out the consent form, but if they don't wish to do this, to at least send us their names and their email addresses.
Those who are already retired but are not currently members of APRUO and who have not received our recent postal mail are asked to fill out and return our membership form that is available from our web site (h#p://web5.uo#awa.ca/www5/apruo/ This form is the only way for us to contact you.
College and University Retiree Associations of Canada (CURAC) By André Lapierre
APRUO is a member of CURAC, a non-profit federation of around 40 higher education retiree organizations across Canada. It brings together nearly 15,000 individual members to promote the interests of their member associations. It promotes mutual assistance and exchange of useful information. For instance, newsletters of member associations are posted on the CURAC website. CURAC is also a policy-based organization with various committees that submit position papers used to lobby senior levels of government. It offers group property and vehicle insurance as well as extended health care and travel programs. APRUO was an active participant at the recent Annual General Meeting of CURAC that took place last May here in Ottawa at Carleton University. For more information on CURAC and its various programs, please go to their website at www.curac.ca
Scholarship Fund
For the past few years, the APRUO was able to offer three $1 000 scholarships to undergraduate students, this in accordance with the suggested goal as described in the Scholarship Fund’s Terms of Reference.
Three scholarships will again be offered in 2017-2018.
The three recipients in 2016-2017 were Elizabeth Cowan (Teacher Education), Julian Upton (Communications) et Michael Del Mastro (Science and Engineering.)
Miscellaneous:
- Library Registration: In-person registration will now be valid for three years instead of one year.
- President's Reception for Retirees: This reception will take place during the next trimester. We should be receiving an invitation soon.
- Online forms and payments: The University is presently setting up a system that will allow online operations such as filling various forms (membership in associations, scholarships...), as well as payment to appropriate accounts (including our association's account).
- United Way Campaign: Link received from the University: https://www.unitedwayottawa.ca/uottawa/. The email message sent on November
16 applied only to active employees, as many of you may have noticed. This situation has now been corrected and retirees may now be able to use the link to make their online donation to the United Way.
- T4, T4A Income Tax slips: These will henceforth, beginning in 2018, be sent directly to us by the Royal Bank (RBC) rather than by Human Resources Services, as was previously the case.
- From Human Resources: We were informed that the Retirement Benefits file has been entrusted to Ms. Pasquale Donovan ([email protected], 613-562-5800 ext. 2335) while the Benefits section is still under the responsibility of Ms. Maureen Castella ([email protected], 613-562-5800 ext. 1873).
- Visit our website: (http://web5.uottawa.ca/www5/apruo/). It contains other news and many information items as well as links that will surely be of interest to you. Among other items you will find the names and email addresses of members of the Administrative Committee, a detailed list of the main benefits offered by the University, the minutes of Administrative Committee and Annual General Meetings, the names of colleagues who have passed away during the previous year, etc.
In memoriam
We would like to offer our deepest condolences to the families of colleagues who have passed away since the end of May:
Gwendolyn R. Gill (Faculty of Health Sciences) May 30, 2017; Henry A. Hubbard (Faculty of Common Law) June 8, 2017; René Guy Bédard (Faculty of Education) June 17, 2017; Agatha Sidlauskas (Faculty of Social Sciences) August 3, 2017; Réjean Robidoux (Faculty of Arts) July 9, 2017; Christine Margaret Johnson-Lussenburg (Faculty of Medicine) July 13, 2017; Stewart Thoden (Faculty of Health Sciences) August 10, 2017; Pierre Michaud (Faculty of Education) August 30, 2017; Eugene Marc Roberto (Faculty of Arts) September 29, 2017; Robert John Cornett (Faculty of Science) October 17, 2017; Father Léonce Paquet (Faculty of Arts), October 25, 2017.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my colleagues from the APRUO Administrative Committee for their support and for all their work at the service of retired professors. They are Charles Belleau, Léo Benoiton, Rachel Grondin, André Lapierre, Vasek Mezl, Bernard Philogène, Hubert Watelet and George White.
Many thanks also to those among them who sent me their comments and suggestions for this newsletter, and especially to Léo Benoiton. André Lapierre, Vasek Mezl and George White for their translations.
Finally, I would like to offer to all our readers my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Pierre Calvé, EditorPresident, APRUO
[email protected]#p://web5.uo#awa.ca/www5/apruo/
141 Louis-Pasteur, pièce 117, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5