The Voice - Spring 2009

Recognizing Excellence

I am very pleased to introduce a special edition of The Voice, dedicated to celebrating outstanding accomplishments of both individuals and teams within the IM and IT communities.

This year's Information Management and Information Technology Community Recognition Awards were recently presented by Peter Bruce, Deputy CIO for the Government of Canada, at the DPI gala hosted on April 30th as part of the 2009 Professional Development Week activities.

These awards were established to acknowledge and honour excellence in IM and IT practices and leadership, and to recognize, share and promote these exemplary practices across the Public Service of Canada.

I would like to add my congratulations to everyone who received an award as well as to all of those who were nominated. Your efforts are appreciated!

Nikolas Florakas
Director General, ORO

First, a word about teams...

For many of this year's winners, success truly relied on the collective efforts of many talented and dedicated individuals. Although we would have liked to include the names of each and every team member in these acknowledgements, space limitations made this impossible. As a compromise we have included the name of the person who accepted the award on behalf of their team.

IM — Community Building:

The first award of the night was a team award, presented to the Information Management – Records and Document Management Team of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Joel Barrette graciously accepted congratulations on behalf of everyone who worked on the development of the FINTRAC IM Awareness Program.

IM — Shareable Business Improvement:

Kudos next went to Aude Lortie for her work on the development and professionalization of IM practices in Transport Canada. Through her work on the IM file in the Quebec region, Aude played a key role in building capacity in the Quebec federal community, and contributed to Transport Canada's national success.

IM — Leadership:

The final IM Community award was presented to Alexandra Freeland to acknowledge her leadership in the implementation of an organization-wide e-Access (RDIMS) solution and supporting IM processes at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Working tirelessly as an information management champion, Alexandra is recognized by her peers within the IM Community as a leader in the development and implementation of IM best practices.

IT — Community Building:

There were 2 winners in the IT Community Building category. How apropos that both were team efforts!

The first award went to the C-50 Working Group at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Paul Armstrong accepted on behalf of the team members responsible for CIC's Intake Pilot for Federal Skilled Worker applications that established a new immigration processing centre at Sydney Nova Scotia.

The second IT Community Building award was presented for the collaborative efforts of the IT Shared Services Planning Team. Don Lalonde accepted on behalf of colleagues from Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, and Industry Canada who worked together on the Industry Canada Pilot Project to validate a Shared Services Adoption plan.

Congratulations to all IT Community Building award winners!

IT — Shareable Business Improvement:

The Health Products e-submission Team at Health Canada was acknowledged for development of an electronic system to facilitate international collaboration on new drug submissions. Health Canada, in participation with the European Union, the United States and Japan, is providing international drug companies with the ability to submit electronic drug submissions, shortening the time to submission -- and thus the time to approval – for new "life-saving" drugs. Mark Gill accepted on behalf of his colleagues. Great work, everyone!

IT — Leadership:

The final award presentation acknowledged Brent Martin of Public Works and Government Services Canada for his leadership on the Identity and Access Management – Authentication Services Initiative. Brent was instrumental in leading the analysis and development of recommendations to support the Next Generation Identity and Access .Management Service.

Final words...

The ORO would like to once again congratulate all winners, and also thank everyone who took the time to submit nominations this year, as well as those who volunteered as jury members to review the submissions. This shows the depth of the passion and commitment of individuals across the IM and IT communities.

Now, as we wrap up a great year of community achievement, we're already looking forward to the future. Planning for next year's awards will begin in earnest in September.

If you have comments or suggestions to offer, please e-mail us at: oro-bgc@tbs-sct.gc.ca