(OTTAWA, ONTARIO) - Service Canada has strengthened its capacity to deliver on its service commitment to Canadians with the creation of an Advisory Council, Belinda Stronach, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Minister Responsible for Democratic Renewal announced today.
The Advisory Council will review Service Canada plans, priorities, directions and progress, and provide feedback and guidance to the Minister on how to successfully manage and implement the organizational transformation.
"The Government of Canada wants the best expertise and stewardship possible as it moves forward in implementing its new approach to service delivery," said Minister Stronach. "This Council will provide Service Canada with an external advisory capability that is comparable to what some large corporations have, and in doing so help us to achieve the results that Canadians are expecting."
The Council's members have significant experience with large scale transformations in the public, private and voluntary sectors. The Council will meet a minimum of twice a year.
The following individuals have been appointed to the Service Canada Advisory Council for a two-year term.
Peter Cleveland, Chief Executive Officer, Cleveland Leadership Group Inc.
Ken Georgetti, President, Canadian Labour Congress
Ray Hession (Advisory Council Chair), Former Deputy Minister and Chair, Ontario Health Quality Council
Dennis Hopps, Professor, Business Program Co-ordinator, School of Business Management, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology
Nancy Hughes Anthony - President and CEO, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Vern Krishna, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa
Gilles Paquet, Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, and President, Royal Society of Canada
Kerry Peacock, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Public Affairs, TD Bank Financial Group
Ray Protti - President and CEO, Canadian Bankers Association
John Simke, President, Centre for Outsourcing Research and Education (CORE), and Senior Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Jean-Pierre Soublière, President, Anderson Soublière Inc.
Georgina Steinsky-Schwartz, President and CEO, Imagine Canada
"This Council builds on the steps we have already taken, including our Service Charter that explains what Canadians can expect and how they can provide feedback, and the Service Canada Office for Client Satisfaction where Canadians can register suggestions, compliments or concerns that will be followed up," said Minister Stronach.
Service Canada was launched on September 14, 2005, to provide a one-stop service delivery network for Canadians to get the information and services they need, whenever and however it is most convenient.
The Service Canada network brings together 320 points of service in communities throughout Canada; a national 1 800 O-Canada telephone service providing Canadians with information about all federal government services; and a range of on-line services at www.servicecanada.gc.ca. In 2006, Service Canada's points of service will more than double, primarily through mobile outreach, reaching 1.25 million more Canadians and providing access to many rural and remote communities that were previously under-serviced.
For more information on the Service Canada Advisory Council members, please see the attached backgrounder.
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For further information (media only):
Media Relations Office
Service Canada
(819) 994-5559
Public Enquiries:
1 800 O-Canada (1 800 622-6232)
TTY: 1 800 926-9105
servicecanada.gc.ca
The group of individuals profiled below will provide Service Canada with first-class insight into issues relating to the transformation of complex organizations; in-depth knowledge of public sector management and service delivery issues; wide-ranging expertise on the theory and practice of governance and accountability; and relationships with potential delivery partners for Service Canada in the private and voluntary sectors.
Peter M. Cleveland - Chief Executive Officer, Cleveland Leadership Group Inc.
For over thirty years, Peter Cleveland has demonstrated excellence in client service by setting strong strategic directions to create sustained, positive change for a wide range of both profit and non-profit organizations. In various executive positions with Ernst & Young Inc. from 1987-2004, his responsibilities included managing a full service office of more than 125 employees, strategic planning and providing senior management advice to multinational clients, as well as corporate restructuring and corporate finance assignments for clients. He has delivered multi-disciplinary assignments for both public and private sector clients ranging from accounting, marketing, business policy, business process improvement and human resource strategies to overall strategic planning and evaluation audits of government programs. Mr. Cleveland is currently Executive in Residence at the University of Ottawa, Co-Chair of the fundraising cabinet for the Ottawa Hospital, Member of the Discipline Committee for the Institute of Accountants of Ontario, and was Director of the United Way from 1997-2003.
Ken Georgetti, President, Canadian Labour Congress
Ken Georgetti was first elected President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in May 1999. Before taking on the responsibility of speaking for Canada's three million trade unionists, he spent 13 years as President of the British Columbia Federation of Labour. As President of the CLC, his personal priorities include the defence and strengthening of public medicare, organizing greater numbers of workers, providing lifelong learning opportunities, enhancing young workers' involvement in unions, increasing literacy levels for all Canadians and combatting child labour. He is a Vice-President and member of the Executive Board of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. He chairs the ICFTU Committee on Workers' Capital. He also sits on the executive of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Mr. Georgetti is the Honorary Chairperson of the Association of Learning Disabled Adults and actively supports the United Way and literacy initiatives across Canada. Mr. Georgetti's contributions to labour relations and the overall well-being of Canadians have been recognized by various levels of government. In 1998, he became the first union leader to receive the Order of British Columbia. In 2000, he received the Order of Canada.
Ray Hession - Former Federal Deputy Minister of Supply and Services and Regional Industrial Expansion; President of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation; Chairman, Ontario Health Quality Council
A former member of the Canadian Forces and graduate of the Royal Military College, Ray Hession is a former Executive Director, Information Systems, at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. He was named President and Chief Executive Officer of CMHC in 1976, and Chairman of the Board in 1979. He was appointed Deputy Minister of the Departments of Supply and Services and Regional Industrial Expansion in 1982. Mr. Hession returned to the private sector in 1987, where he has led a number of technology and consulting companies. In 2001, Mr. Hession was engaged by the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services to lead a major business transformation project that received the Diamond Award from Showcase Ontario as the best public-private partnership for 2001. Subsequently, the Ontario government engaged Mr. Hession to review and report on the integrated justice project in that province. In 2003, he conducted a review of the Canadian Firearms Program. More recently, Mr. Hession completed a comprehensive review of the Ontario Human Services Information and Information Technology cluster prior to his appointment as Chairman, Ontario Health Quality Council.
Dennis R. Hopps - Professor / Business Program Co-ordinator, School of Business Management, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology
Dennis R. Hopps is a professor of Accounting and Finance at Seneca College with international teaching experience of management development programs in West Africa, South America and the Caribbean. As Business Program Co-ordinator for the college, he is responsible for student counselling, recruitment and retention, curriculum development, and program advisory and other committees involving consultations with public, private and non-profit organizations. Mr. Hopps has extensive experience in providing professional management advice and technical assistance to a variety of complex organizations on the implementation of economical and effective management training and systems. He has spoken at numerous provincial, national, and international conferences, seminars, and workshops, and is currently developing a Workplace Education Unemployment Prevention Program to expand the traditional borders of workplace education to meet the needs of employees in the lower tier of the workforce. Mr. Hopps is Past President of HRD Canada, Past and honourary lifetime Member of the Executive Committee of the Ontario Society for Training and Development, and Executive Director of the People Development Foundation.
Nancy Hughes Anthony - President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
In her capacity as President and CEO, Nancy Hughes Anthony is the principal spokesperson advocating the policy positions of the Canadian Chamber's members to the federal government, international organizations, the media and the general public. Prior to her arrival at the Canadian Chamber, Ms. Hughes Anthony gained senior experience in the federal and provincial governments as well as the private sector, having served as a federal deputy minister, a senior advisor to the government of Prince Edward Island and as a corporate vice-president. Ms. Hughes Anthony is an Executive member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Business and Labour Centre, a member of the Board of Directors of HSBC Bank Canada, and the Co-chair of the Canadian e-Business Initiative. She is a Governor of the Council for Canadian Unity, and Vice-Chair of the World Chambers Federation.
Vern Krishna - Professor of Law, University of Ottawa; practicing lawyer with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Vern Krishna, a Member of the Order of Canada since 2004, has a Master of Laws from Harvard University, and a Doctorate of Comparative Law from Cambridge University. He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada (Ontario, 1983), and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1989. Mr. Krishna engages in a broad spectrum of practice including matters related to International Tax, Wealth Management, Tax Litigation and Personal Tax Planning. A bencher at the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1991, he is the first law professor to be elected Treasurer, a term he served from 2001 to 2003. As a national expert in the area of tax, he has been the Executive Director of the CGA Tax Research Centre of the University of Ottawa since 1991. A fellow of the Certified General Accountants Association of Ontario, he was President from 1995 to 1996, and Governor from 1985 to 1997. He has also been the Executive Director of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada's National Committee on Accreditation since 1983.
Gilles Paquet - Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa
Gilles Paquet did his undergraduate work at Laval in philosophy and social sciences, and graduate work in economics at Laval and Queen's. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow in economics at the University of California. Professor Paquet's research focuses on industrial economics, business-government relations, ethics, governance, public policy and management, and the regulation of socio-economic systems. He has been president of a number of Canadian associations, and President of the Royal Society of Canada (2003-2005). He has authored or edited 35 books on various topics - urban studies, multinational firms, governance - more than 200 chapters in books, and some 120 papers in various scientific journals, over and beyond penning hundreds of articles in magazines and newspapers. Over the last ten years, he has been the editor in chief of www.optimumonline.ca - a journal of public management. Professor Paquet is a member of the Order of Canada, and has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of London. He has been awarded a number of medals for the corpus of his work in social sciences and for his inter-disciplinary contributions. His last three books are Pathologies de gouvernance (Liber 2004), The New Geo-Governance : a Baroque Approach (University of Ottawa Press 2005), and Gouvernance : une invitation à la subversion (Liber 2005).
Kerry Peacock - Senior Vice President of Corporate and Public Affairs, TD Bank Financial Group
Kerry Peacock became Senior Vice President of Corporate and Public Affairs for the TD Bank Financial Group in September 2001, having been in the financial services industry for more than 20 years. Kerry's role is to ensure that the reputation of TD is protected and enhanced through effective communications to both internal and external audiences. She also directs corporate donations and sponsorships through TD's Community Giving program. Prior to this role, Kerry was Vice President of Internal Communications at TD Bank. She provided strategic counsel and oversaw the development and implementation of internal communications strategies during the merger of TD and Canada Trust, the largest merger in the history of Canadian financial services. Prior to assuming a communications leadership role at Canada Trust, Kerry spent 15 years developing extensive and broad-based retail banking experience. She worked in a number of customer facing and progressively senior roles including leading the national adjudication of personal and small business credit and running a district of retail banking branches. Kerry holds an MBA degree from the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario and is an Ivey Scholar. She is also a Certified General Accountant.
Ray Protti - President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Bankers Association
Ray Protti is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Bankers Association and has held several senior executive positions in the federal government. He was appointed to Ryerson's Board of Governors in 2003 and currently chairs the Employee Relations and Pensions Committee. Mr. Protti also sits on the Executive and Finance Committees of the Board. In addition to his work with Ryerson University, he is also a member of several business and academic advisory boards including the Institute of Corporate Directors Corporate Governance College, Toronto Community Foundation and the St. Joseph's Health Centre Foundation.
John Simke - President, Centre for Outsourcing Research and Education (CORE); Senior Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Over the past 25 years, John Simke has worked as a management advisor on strategic and performance improvement projects for several of Canada's largest corporations, as well as all levels of government. Over the last 10 years, he has led the firm's change integration, performance improvement, business process outsourcing and e-business practices, and its top-tier client relationship program. He manages several of the firm's largest client relationships. Mr. Simke is the author of numerous articles on strategic and financial management, and a frequent speaker on these topics. He was also the founding president of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships, an organization dedicated to furthering alliances between governments and the private sector. He has established CORE as an independent non-profit organization to enhance the productivity of Canadian enterprises and governments.
Jean-Pierre Soublière - President, Anderson Soublière Inc.
Jean-Pierre Soublière is President of Anderson Soublière Inc., an executive-focused consulting corporation with a number of corporate clients as well as clients from the federal and Ontario governments. Mr. Soublière is active in the National Capital Region and in the high technology industry. He is a member of several Councils and Boards of such institutions as the University of Ottawa, is Chair of the Harmony Foundation and Past Chair of the United Way of Canada. In 1998, he chaired the Government of Canada's Ad Hoc Industry Advisory Committee on Electronic Commerce. He was also a member of the Canadian e-Business Opportunities Roundtable and the Government On-Line Advisory Committee to the President of the Treasury Board. He was the moderator for the Government of Canada's Innovation Summit for the Ottawa-Carleton area, and served as an advisor to the Auditor General of Canada on Management Reporting. Mr. Soublière is currently leading a project to help optimize IT within the independent health care organizations in Eastern Ontario, including the 19 hospitals, home care, long-term chronic care, and primary care.
Georgina Steinsky-Schwartz - President and Chief Executive Officer, Imagine Canada
Georgina Steinsky-Schwartz is a former senior executive with Bata Shoe Corporation, Manulife Financial and Bell Canada. From 1978 to 1990 she worked for the federal government, serving as an Associate Deputy Minister in the Department of Regional and Industrial Expansion (1985-86), and as Deputy Minister for Supply and Services (1986-90). She has also served as a volunteer on the boards of many non-profit organizations. Ms. Steinsky-Schwartz has distinguished herself in the public, private and non-profit sectors, and has been an executive leader in handling change and transformation in large and complex organizations.
