Welcome to the Toronto & Area Branch of the National Association of Federal Retirees. This is one of the oldest branches of the Association, as we celebrate sixty (60) years, having stepped up on Dec. 31,1964.
Over the years there have been many changes to the boundaries of the branch. In May 1999, the York Branch was formed by splitting off members of York Region. And in 2018 with the dissolution of the Oshawa Area Branch, we added members from the southern portion of Durham Region (Oshawa, and parts of Whitby, Ajax and Pickering) to our Branch
In addition to news of our annual general meeting and regular members meetings, from time to time you'll find information here on Association advocacy events as well as national events.
We invite you to take a minute to learn more about our branch website, and to learn more about our advocacy priorities. And please be sure to like Federal Retirees on Facebook.The Association advocates on your behalf to protect and maintain your pension benefits. The Association regularly meets with elected and government officials (MPs, Treasury Board, PSHCP, PDSP, PSPIB, etc.). This is our most important mission — to protect the pension and benefits you have earned through your career in the public service. Together with our pension coalition partners we represent over six million pensioners advocating for pension security in retirement.
Our branch assists in sharing the wealth of information for retirees regarding their benefit entitlements and great discounts through our preferred partner program in areas of health, travel, home, and auto insurance, travel destinations, and hotels, to name a few.
As of Jan. 31, our branch has 2470 members with approximately 7% of our members living in the Durham Region and the balance in Metropolitan Toronto.
The branch membership is spread over of 29 federal ridings.
The branch historically has held a minimum of two members meeting a year, the annual general meeting in May and a regular members meeting in October. Since COVID-19, these meetings have been conducted by Zoom.
For many years the branch has maintained an office on Danforth Ave. in Toronto. The board announced at our members meeting on Nov.12, 2024 meeting that it was considering closing the office.
During COVID-19, our office was closed by the landlord, and since then, there has been limited usage of the office, due to health and technical issues. The executive, for the most part, has been able to keep the branch running from home. It was also felt the cost of maintaining an office is not warranted. During our January board meeting it was agreed that the board would begin taking steps to close our physical office in 2025.
Over the next few months, the executive will be taking the necessary steps to close the office. This includes reviewing all documents on file, purging what we don’t require, keeping what we are legally required to retain in electronic format, backing up all computer files, and disposing of all physical assets.
The executive will continue to communicate with our members by email and use Zoom for any meetings for the foreseeable future.
There is a definite need for more members to step up to help prevent the branch from ceasing to operate.