What the role is.

The President is the chief executive officer of OPSEU. Full-time. Paid. Salary is set by the Board and ratified at Convention.

Convention delegates elect the President from among the 28 Board members-elect, on the second-last day of Convention, by secret ballot. Majority required — run-off rounds if needed.

What the President actually does.

Runs the union's operations day-to-day. That means authority over staff, regional offices, campaigns, communications, political strategy, and any operational decision that isn't specifically reserved for the Board or Convention.

Chairs the Executive Board and the Executive Committee. The President sets the agenda for both. That means the President decides what issues come before the Board and in what order. If something isn't on the agenda, the Board doesn't discuss it unless it forces the issue.

Sole interpreter of the Constitution. When there's a dispute about what a constitutional provision means, the President decides. The Board or Convention can overturn it, but in the moment, the President's reading governs. Before finalizing an interpretation, the President must consult the Executive Committee.

Chief spokesperson for the union on policy matters. When OPSEU is at Queen's Park, in the media, or in political conversations, the President represents 155,000 members.

Has oversight power over locals. The President can authorize investigations into locals (with Board approval by two-thirds vote), approve or reject local bylaws (cannot unreasonably withhold — locals can appeal to the Board), and impose emergency trusteeships through the Executive Committee for up to 30 days.

Appoints replacements to Convention Committees and can convene special Regional meetings to fill Board vacancies.

Can participate in debate at meetings but must vacate the chair while doing so.

Their relationship to local presidents, EBMs, and delegates.

The President is not a local president's direct point of contact for day-to-day issues — that's staff reps and Regional Board members. But the President has overall authority over the union's operations, which means they shape how much support flows down to locals, how staff are deployed, how responsive regional offices are, and what gets prioritized.

Members have the right to attend any Board meeting and to make a formal presentation to the Board with 10 days' written notice. The President chairs those meetings.

The President also has the authority to assign members to attend any local meeting and to attend any local meeting themselves with voice but no vote.

If the President leaves office, the First VP/Treasurer automatically becomes Acting President and continues to hold both titles until the next Convention elects a new President.

What you're voting for at Regionals on March 21

• At each Regional election meeting, delegates elect 3 people to the Board. Then from those 3, delegates elect 1 to be the Regional Vice-President. The remaining 2 serve as Members-at-Large. Delegates also elect 1 alternate.

• Any actively employed member in the region can run — even if they're not a delegate — as long as their nomination is signed by at least 2 members from the region and submitted to the President at least a week before the meeting. Delegates can also be nominated on the floor.

• The term is roughly 3 years — from adjournment of Convention to adjournment of Convention in the next election year.

What an EBM actually does.

• Constitutionally, every EBM has the same vote and the same responsibility: uphold the Constitution, implement Convention decisions, formulate policy between Conventions, and oversee the union's officers, staff, and subsidiary organizations.

In practice, what that means for your region:

• They vote on the budget. OPSEU's annual budget is over $100 million, funded by member dues at 1.375% of gross pay. The budget covers staffing, regional offices, campaigns, technology, Convention, bargaining costs — everything. Every EBM votes on it. If your EBM doesn't understand the budget, they're approving spending they can't evaluate.

• They vote on staffing direction. The Board sets objectives and policies on personnel administration. It doesn't hire or fire individual staff, but it decides how many staff there are, how they're classified, and what the priorities are. When members say their locals have cycled through 3 to 6 staff reps in a single year, or that some staff rep bundles include 16 locals with 60% or more in bargaining — the Board is where those workload decisions get made or not made.

• They vote on trusteeship. The Board can investigate and place locals under trusteeship by a two-thirds vote. That means taking over a local's operations, finances, and elections. Your EBM votes on whether that happens to locals in your region or anyone else's.

• They receive the approved minutes of every Board meeting. Those minutes are distributed to every local president after each meeting.

Their relationship to local presidents and delegates.

• This is the part that isn't written in the Constitution but matters in practice.

• Your 3 Regional Board members are supposed to be the link between your region's locals and the provincial Board table. Local presidents deal with staff reps and regional office on day-to-day issues. But when something is a Board-level problem — a policy decision, a budget question, a structural issue with how locals are organized or staffed — the EBM is supposed to be the person who carries that to the table and brings information back.

• Every EBM has a published work phone number and email through OPSEU's head office. Local presidents should be able to contact their Regional Board members. If your local president has never heard from your EBMs, or doesn't know who they are, or has tried to reach them and gotten no response — that's information about whether the relationship is functioning.

• The Regional Vice-President has a slightly different role than the other 2 EBMs because they sit on the Executive Committee — the 10-person body that meets at least 8 times a year and handles day-to-day executive oversight, financial supervision, and policy recommendations between full Board meetings. The Regional VP has access to more information and more decision-making than the 2 Members-at-Large. That means delegates at Regionals should think about which of the 3 candidates they want in that VP seat — because it's a meaningfully different role with more access to the inner workings of the union.

• The Executive Committee can also make non-budgetary expenditures up to $10,000 per item and $120,000 per year.

First Vice-President/Treasurer

What the role is.

• The First VP/Treasurer is the second-in-command and the union's chief financial officer. Full-time. Paid. Same salary terms as the President — set by Board, ratified at Convention.

• Elected at Convention the same way as the President — from among the 28 Board members-elect, by secret ballot, separate vote, on the second-last day.

What the First VP/Treasurer actually does.

• Prepares the annual budget. The First VP builds the budget in consultation with the Executive Committee. The Board reviews, amends, and adopts it. Then the First VP presents it at Convention, where delegates can direct changes before adopting it. The budget includes forecasts of quarterly revenue and expenses, capital expenditures, cash flows, and the union's projected financial position at year-end.

• If the budget isn't approved by the start of the fiscal year, existing budgetary provisions continue in effect. If the Board and Convention still haven't approved a budget within 4 months of the fiscal year starting, the Board's version takes effect retroactively.

• Recommends the external auditor. The Board recommends a chartered accounting firm to Convention based on the First VP's recommendation. The auditors report to the Officers, who then provide the full report to Convention delegates and a summary to every local within 60 days.

• Reports all compensation publicly. At every Convention, the First VP is required to report the current salary and allowances for the President and First VP, the salary levels for every category of union staff, and the honoraria, per diem, and expenses received by every Board member since the last Convention.

• Acts for the President when the President is absent or incapacitated. This is not a ceremonial backup. The First VP takes on the full duties, responsibilities, and salary of the President on an acting basis.

• Sits on the Executive Committee. Same access, same meeting frequency (at least 8 times a year), same role in financial supervision and policy development as the Regional VPs.

Their relationship to local presidents, EBMs, and delegates.

• Typically, the First VP/Treasurer is not a direct contact for local-level issues. But the budget they prepare determines how much money goes to regional offices, how many staff reps are hired, whether technology gets upgraded, what campaigns get funded, and how much comes back to locals in rebates. When local presidents say dues money flows up and never comes back down — the budget process is where that gets decided, and the First VP is the person who builds the first draft.

• The First VP also assists the President in all duties related to running the union, which means they're involved in operations, staffing decisions, and the general direction of the union, not just the finances.

OPSEU's Executive Board has 28 members. It is the governing body of the union whenever Convention is not in session. That means between Conventions, these 28 people make the decisions — about the budget, about staffing, about campaigns, about policy, about whether a local gets placed under trusteeship.

The 28 break down like this:

The President and the First Vice-President/Treasurer These are the only two people on the Board who do this as their job. Everyone else has a regular day job and serves on the Board on top of it.

7 Regional Vice-Presidents — one per region. They sit on the 10-person Executive Committee, which is the inner decision-making body that meets more often and handles things between full Board meetings. They are not full-time paid. They receive honoraria, per diem, and expenses.

1 Equity Vice-President — also sits on the Executive Committee. Recommended by the Board Equity Committee, appointed by the Board. Same compensation as Regional VPs.

14 Regional Members-at-Large — 2 per region. These are the other Board members elected at Regional meetings who did not become the Regional VP. They sit on the full Board but not on the Executive Committee. Same compensation structure — honoraria, per diem, expenses.

4 Equity Members-at-Large — Equity Board Members who did not become the Equity VP. Same Board vote, same compensation, no Executive Committee seat.

All 28 get an equal vote at Board meetings. The Board meets at least 6 times a year, with no more than 3 months between meetings. Quorum is two-thirds of members in office — so roughly 19 of 28 need to be present for the Board to act.