2026 AGM and Conference
We thank CSSEA’s members, associates, government partners and sponsors for attending this year’s AGM and Conference, Leading for Change. Your engagement, discussion and presence contributed to a successful event that we are enormously grateful for. CSSEA welcomes any feedback on the event and encourages all attendees to complete the post-conference evaluation. To show our gratitude for taking the time to complete the evaluation, CSSEA will be entering all responses (with contact details provided) into a draw to win a pair of JBL wireless headphones, compliments of TELUS. CSSEA will close the survey at 5pm on October 30 and winners will be notified the week of November 2. CSSEA’s 2027 conference will be taking place in Kelowna from October 13-15 and we encourage you to save the date in advance.Available speaker presentations have been posted on our conference website and we will continue to addpresentations as they are submitted.
2026-2028 Board and Panel Members
Members met at their respective divisional panel meetings during the AGM to select their 2026-2028 panel representatives. Updates are as follows:
Indigenous Services
Virge Silveira was appointed to the Board and will serve alongside Board Chair, Adam Calvert. Ginna Berg and Melanie Hudson will continue to serve as Chair and Vice-Chair respectively.
Community Living Services
Brandon Arnett from NEXUS Community Support Society and Mark Zuberbuhler from Developmental Disabilities Association joined as new members of the CLS panel and Brandon was also appointed to the Board for the term 2026-2028, taking over the spot vacated by Anita Sihota. He will represent CLS on the Board alongside Ryan Cucheron and Dawn Hein, whose terms both expire in 2027. Tammy Khanna and Dawn Hein were re-appointed as CLS Panel Chair and Vice Chair respectively.
2026-2028 CLS Panel Members:
Brandon Arnett, NEXUS Community Support Society
Jennifer Fowler, Inclusion Parksville Society
Tammy Khanna, Independent Living Housing Society
Mark Zuberbuhler, Developmental Disabilities Society
General Services
Tim Veresh was re-appointed to the Board for the term 2026-2028 and will join Jaye Russell, whose term expires in 2027. Darius Maze and Sanjeev Nand remain as Chair and Vice-Chair respectively, while Dan Steenburgh from Interior Community Services joined the panel for the first time.
2026-2028 GS Panel Members:
Navreen Gill, Burnaby Family Life
Darius Maze, Kiwassa Neighbourhood House
Dan Steenburgh, Interior Community Services
Tim Veresh, PLEA Community Services Society
CSSEA acknowledges and is deeply grateful to Fernando Coelho, Ann Kutcher and Anita Sihota, who have stepped down from their board, panel and bargaining roles at this year’s AGM. We thank them for their tenure and expertise in leading best practices on many sectoral issues over the years. We also congratulate new and returning panel and board members. For a list of CSSEA’s complete Divisional Panels, please click here and for a list of our full Board of Directors, please click here.
Community Social Services Awards of Excellence
We thank all those who joined CSSEA in celebrating this year’s 11th annual Community Social Services Awards of Excellence, sponsored by TELUS. The event was powerful, emotional and inspiring, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to share the stories of our four outstanding recipients:
Rising Star – Mykola “Nick” Zrazhevskyi from Venture Living
Hero – Charles Lafferty from PLEA Community Services Society
Leader – Lori-Ann Ryser from Active Care Youth and Adult Services
Legend – Bernadette Spence from Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society
Members who were unable to attend the awards can view this year’s recipient videos here. We encourage members to consider nominating an outstanding individual for next year’s awards, which will be celebrated in Kelowna on October 14, 2027. Nominations will open next March.
Collective Bargaining Update
Since the ratification of the collective agreements, CSSEA has been working with the CSSBA on the time-consuming process of finalizing and formatting the new agreements. The Community Living Services and General Services Collective Agreements are now available online. They are currently listed as drafts because they are unsigned; however, they are otherwise finalized and will be replaced with final versions once signatures are obtained. Because the agreements are available online, CSSEA will not be providing printed booklets for employers. Should an employer still wish to order print copies, we will advise on the process, including costs (printing and shipping) once we are at that stage with the Unions.
We continue to work with the CSSBA to finalize the Indigenous Services Collective Agreement, as it varies from the other two in substantive areas. We are aiming to complete that process within the next several weeks and will post them once complete.
The Employers Interpretation Guides have also been updated to reflect the changes in the 2025-2029 Collective Agreements. Please note that to access the page, you need to log in to the Members Area of the CSSEA website.
On September 28, 2026, the CSSBA filed a policy grievance with CSSEA claiming some members have not yet implemented the 2025 and 2026 general wage increases, including retroactive pay. The Unions are aware that funders are working as diligently as possible to pass on the increased costs of the collective agreements to employers. Employers who have been identified as not yet paying the increased wage rates and retroactivity will be contacted by CSSEA for further updates.
HR Practitioners Meeting
While the conference may be over for another year, CSSEA continues to offer professional development opportunities – this time, targeted to practitioners at your agencies. We will be holding a virtual HR Practitioners’ Meeting on December 3 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, where CSSEA staff will present on managing challenging employee files. The session is free of charge, though online registration is required.
Respectful Workplaces Module
Members are advised that a new access code has been generated for the Building Respectful Relationships module, developed in collaboration with the CSSBA. The 80-minute virtual course covers topics such as: power dynamics in relationships, emotions and their functions, recognizing conflict and creating a respectful workplace. It can be completed over multiple sessions and participants will receive a certificate upon completion. To access the module, visit CSSBA’s website and register for an account. Under access code, please use this new code: CSSE-ATQW-S2WD-FBHM-QJ22-BMLT1. If you have any access or technical questions, please contact the CSSBA directly by filling out this online form.