Spotlight on you! Recognizing the communications community for National Public Service Week 2022

By: Lina Sakkal, Junior Communications Officer, Communications Community Office

As part of the Serving Canadians Better Act passed in 1992, National Public Service Week (NPSW) was created to recognize the value of the services offered by federal public servants and to acknowledge federal public service employees’ contribution to the federal administration. This year, NPSW will take place from June 12 to 18. Over the years, NPSW has evolved into a national campaign that highlights the accomplishments and contributions of public servants from coast to coast to coast. For communicators, it is also a great opportunity to come together to celebrate the incredible Government of Canada communications efforts.

As always, the professional practice of communications is evolving at lightning speed. More than ever, it is important to understand and value the impact of effective communications and its critical role in connecting Canadians with their government.

The achievements of communications branches over the last year are a testament to the perseverance of our communications community, which works consistently to create new and innovative opportunities to keep employees, and the community, engaged and connected.

The Communications Community Office (CCO) recently highlighted the communications community’s accomplishments through its annual Government of Canada Communications Awards of Excellence. These awards recognize communications excellence in the federal public service and celebrate the communications community’s successes. They highlight high-impact initiatives, exceptional contributions, as well as best practices in communications. This year, we received 86 nominations from 30 departments for both the team and individual awards.

While our selected award winners highlight some of the exceptional work submitted through our nomination process, we know that the entire communications community’s efforts have made a difference in the lives of Canadians and to our country’s businesses, stakeholders and communities.

This National Public Service Week, we invite you all to take the time to celebrate the 60 team and 26 individual award nominees and winners of the Government of Canada Communications Awards of Excellence 2022. We promise that the passion and innovation of our winners, and those of our nominees, will inspire you for the year ahead.

With that, a special congratulations goes out to all of our winners, who were celebrated at a virtual awards ceremony in April. Watch the acceptance videos below to learn more about their exceptional work.

Team awards:

• Diamond Award: Statistics Canada – 2021 Census innovative communications campaign
• Golden Alliance Award: Canadian Food Inspection Agency – #PawsB4purchase communications campaign
• Insider Award: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – Leveraging storytelling and visuals for an inclusive workplace
• Lighthouse Award: Indigenous Services Canada – June 2021 National Indigenous History Month (NIHM) and National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD) public education campaign
• Regional Powerhouse Award: Fisheries and Oceans Canada – Communications to support the MV Zim Kingston response

Individual awards:

• Rising Star: Monica Poirier, Indigenous Services Canada
• Exceptional Social Leader: Kimberley Cameron, Department of National Defence
• Master Storyteller of the Year: Mandy Maier, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Digital Master of the Year: Alexander Jasperse, Health Canada
• Outstanding Career: Jennifer Hollington, Health Canada

Thank you to our federal communications community for all you do to keep Canadians safe, informed and connected to their government and to each other. We look forward to highlighting more of your work in the year ahead!

To learn more about National Public Service Week and the Government of Canada Communications Awards of Excellence, check out the resources below:

• Prime Minister Trudeau’s 2021 message on National Public Service Week
• Message from Interim Clerk Janice Charette for National Public Service Week 2021
• National Public Service Week: Serving Canadians Better Act
• Communications Awards of Excellence 2022

You can also learn more about some of the innovative work that our #GComms community was nominated for this year:

• Advancing reconciliation through Indigenous-led and co-created content
• Best practices for communicating in a digital world
• Rising to the challenge: Navigating internal communications in an endemic world
• Adjusting the nation’s largest survey to a pandemic