Presidential Election 2025

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Thank you for considering me for the role of President of HSA. Throughout my time with HSA (as Steward, Lead Steward, Member-at-Large, and Regional Director and through participating with the Political-Action, Governance-and-Policy, Elections, and Resolutions Committee), I’ve demonstrated my ability to empathize with members, recognize multiple sides of presented issues, and contribute to solutions. Working in a busy facility delivering front-line care, I have firsthand experience with the challenges our members face around shortages and pressures of bedside practice.

As HSA President, I will utilize the knowledge and experience I’ve gained through advocacy, lobbying (provincially/federally), and government relations work as I work to meet our shared needs at negotiation tables. Having run in our last provincial election, I have important experience and have cultivated relationships that are vital to standing up for public healthcare, patients/clients, and our workers. I plan to:

• Strengthen collective bargaining power to secure better wages, benefits, professional-development opportunities, and working conditions. Our wages must reflect cost of living and complexity/uniqueness of HSA members’ work and education/training.
• Address concerns around our classifications system by creating avenues for members to provide feedback and work collaboratively to find practical, effective solutions that build off existing foundation.
• Amplify lobbying efforts and work with governments to improve healthcare work.
• Work transparently so members are confident in our efforts while enhancing communication channels, keeping members informed/engaged.

I understand that our collective agreement received varying responses and will not dismiss the concerns about its presentation and rollout. As President, I understand I will need to deliver unpopular messages; my leadership style and my promise is that I won’t shy away from conflict, I’ll be transparent, open to feedback, and prepared to work with you to build a stronger union and public voice for healthcare.

My hands-on approach involves seeking forward-thinking, long-term solutions that reflect the various occupations within HSA. My work, education, and direct involvement with our members on front-lines give me a unique, informed outlook of members’ experiences.

I stand alongside you in my work, and I will stand up for you as President. I bring a fresh perspective and eagerness to work alongside you. In my work, community involvement, and our union, I focus on transparency and honesty as core tenets of my leadership; I kindly ask for your trust in me as HSA President, and for your vote on April 10, 2025.

Sarah Kooner

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Dear HSA members:

I have worked with Island Health since 2014 with roles at both Royal Jubilee Hospital and the Victoria Health Unit. As a union steward since 2019, I played a key role in negotiating our department's 24.09 Agreement and have supported members with various issues, from vacation time to displacement.  This 2025 convention will be the 5^th that I have attended. My partner and our three children reside in Victoria.

I am compelled to offer my candidacy for HSA union president after the shocking discovery that HSA had signed a recent settlement agreement permitting private agency workers to do the same job for substantially more pay. This Trojan Horse settlement agreement has seen one agency physiotherapist at RJH, balloon to three within months. It is alarming to think that this trend may continue, and one must ask: when will higher-paid agency staff replace your profession’s positions?

Perhaps the only positive aspect to this settlement agreement has been the revelation of what market wage and incentives are required to solve our short staffing and related workload issues. The numbers are staggering: agency wages up to 30 percent higher and housing bonuses up to 5000 dollars a month, resulting in total remuneration of up to 70 percent higher!

When you consider that HSA wages over the last 35 years have increased by approximately 144 percent¹, whereas housing costs have increased by more than 600 percent² and the cost of a loaf of bread by 233 percent³, you can see how we have failed to ensure our remuneration keeps up to the true cost of living in BC. It should come as no surprise then that our employer has to resort to higher paid agency staff to fill positions.

This union needs to return to its core mandate: it needs to ensure higher and equitable remuneration for all its members through a demonstrated willingness to take job action.  The contracting out of public services would be unnecessary if member remuneration was equitable and market driven.

Fellow HSA members, I respectfully request your vote to pursue this agenda.

In Solidarity,

Matt Wenman, MPT, BSc.

1. Compare HSA April 1, 1989 - March 31 1992 Master Agreement with current.

2. Home in Vancouver in 1990 was $230,000 and 1,600,000 in 2024. (REBGV)

3. Bread in Canada in 1990 was $0.75 and $2.50 in 2024. Refer to Stats Canada and Canada Bread Price Index.

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To all HSA members.

My name is Don Mabon, from Victoria and have made it home most of my life. I am a Medical Laboratory Technologist at Island Health and HSA member for over 21 years and have been a General Steward at Royal Jubilee Hospital for the past 2.5 years.

We hear words like united, standing together, and solidarity from our union. However, I feel these foundations along with honest transparency and communication have eroded over recent years. Reclassification is a recent and perfect example. This was the catalyst in pursuing candidacy as President of our union. A message of victory continues to be delivered from the union, but I have seen how morally destructive it has been for so many. It is not modernized and does not recognize our professions and the specialized skills of each. This lit a fire inside of me and it became clear that the time to act and influence change was now.

I acknowledge that HSA has made some progress addressing the ongoing issues unique to each profession and work site. Issues that I am committed to hearing, learning from, and addressing. However, I strongly believe there needs to be a fresh perspective and new ideas in presenting these issues to Government and the public. We need stronger marketing in bringing them to the forefront of healthcare so that all have an appreciation of how dire the situation is. I will work with union staff to promote more powerful and emotional representation of our professions through new campaigns delivered on the most relevant platforms.

With a new Government now in place, it is important to build and foster healthy working relationships to facilitate the mandates they have, including incorporating an active role for Health Science Professionals in designing and implementing healthcare solutions. If elected, I promise to ensure that the Government hears our concerns and communicates these to HEABC and the Health Authorities.

It is also important to deliver an objective view when presenting information to membership. Any bias can be misleading to the uninformed member and could steer the vote in one direction or the other. I believe this happened with our last contract ratification. Unfortunately, some members I spoke with afterward thought a no vote meant a strike vote. The union is there for you, and I will promote this if elected.

Thank you.

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It is my honour to seek your vote for the President of HSA. I am proud of the work that we have done together in the past 4 years, and there is always more to do. HSA must continue to focus on higher wages, better working conditions and workplaces that ensure equal opportunity and access for all its members.

From acute care, cancer centres or child development centres, at counselling centres, transition homes and long-term care; our role as healthcare and community social services professionals is a vital part of providing care to all British Columbians. We face mounting pressures; at work, we are forced to provide more services with fewer resources, and then after hours we must deal with insurmountable increases in the cost of living.

Over the past 4 years, I have worked to structure our union to tackle these challenges. As HSA grows, I’ve continued to learn and adopt your feedback to make HSA stronger. We’ve achieved some of the highest pay increases over the past 20 years; we’ve distributed funds to members for professional development, college and licensing fees; we’ve incorporated new voices onto the Board to develop cohesive leadership; we’ve increased opportunities to hear from you through member engagement teams, steward networking workshops, equity caucuses and other online forums and tools like social media, texting and online videos.  We’ve implemented one-member, one-vote to give you a choice for your next president. We’ve sought your input to develop the next 5-year strategic plan; ensuring that your union incorporates members’ voices in all of its planning and decision-making.

Increasing the voice and recognition of HSA at provincial and national levels is another way I’ve worked to address our issues. From Victoria to Ottawa, I have been working to increase HSA’s profile with the government; because we know that the healthcare human resource crisis doesn’t just impact BC, with other provinces competing for healthcare workers to fill their shortages. It’s a nationwide issue and I aim to make HSA a leading voice nationally within our national union, NUPGE, to lobby for the federal dollars needed to tackle our issues.

Join me to build a stronger union and get the recognition we deserve. Re-elect Kane on April 10.  Visit my campaign website for more information: http://kanetse.ca