The Public Service Award of Excellence 2020

Chulaka Ailapperuma
Canada Border Services Agency

Chulaka Ailapperuma’s Excellence in Profession guided his team to deliver the ArriveCAN application, enabling Canada’s Public Health Agency to manage contact tracing in the midst of a global crisis. His leadership across Government departments led to collecting information on over 1 Million travellers in three different languages which represents more than 1.3 Million downloads. Chulaka’s stellar contribution and professionalism inspired an accessibility certified tool crucial to controlling the spread of the Coronavirus and keeping Canadians safe.

Michelle Korbo
Indigenous Services Canada

Michelle Korbo is the Director of Jordan’s Principle for Indigenous Services Canada’s Saskatchewan Region. Michelle’s awe-inspiring dedication in fulfilling the mandate of Jordan’s Principle has positively impacted countless lives. She has consistently led an award-winning team forward in meaningfully addressing the health disparities and inequities often experienced by First Nations and Inuit children in Saskatchewan.

Peter Lake
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Peter Lake is a proud member of the Canadian Coast Guard. Peter recognized a gap in technology and designed a new Data Marker Buoy to assist Search and Rescue crews in locating persons in the water. His innovative design streamlines search processes, provides real-time data to responders and aids persons in distress.

Rebecca Kong
Statistics Canada

Rebecca Kong has embodied excellence at Statistics Canada recently leading major initiatives for the country. As an Assistant Director in the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, she has led the policing community in the reinstatement of collection of unfounded incidents and led her team in achieving numerous successful projects responding to emerging information needs related to cannabis legalization, #MeToo, resurgence of firearm related violent-crime, drug impaired driving, hate crime and organized crime.

Usability Testing Team
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

The Usability Testing Team has made the department a leader in integrating usability testing with clients into product development prior to launch. Testing in this way brings the client experience into the heart of service delivery. It has helped transform Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, step by step, test by test, into a place where services and products are designed for client needs as they are, rather than how we might assume them to be.

The Loan Reform – Forgiveness and Reimbursement for Indigenous Team
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and Indigenous Services Canada 

Should Indigenous groups be required to take on loan debt to negotiate their rights? This question guided the Loan Reform: Forgiveness and Reimbursement for Indigenous Groups team, nominated under the Excellence in Profession Category. The team demonstrated initiative and creativity to deliver on a $1.4 billion Budget commitment seeking to transform Canada’s approach to funding modern treaty negotiations and benefitted 234 Indigenous communities through the forgiveness and reimbursement of their loan debt.

Government Approach to the Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement for Tallurutiup Imanga
National Marine Conservation Area and Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area

Parks Canada
Transport Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Parks Canada, Transport Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada worked together as a single unit to develop a cooperative management agreement with the Qikiqtani Inuit Association that is a transformative partnership which creates a northern conservation economy and protect vast stretches of ocean, demonstrating true reconciliation with indigenous peoples. IIBA negotiations, a 2019 Budget proposal, Treasury Board approvals, and the development of four other legal instruments, were all required to form a complete and unprecedented package.

The Sexual Misconduct Research Program Team
Department of National Defence

The Sexual Misconduct Research Program, designed and delivered by researchers at National Defence, has been providing robust and reliable evidence and insights supporting one of the highest priorities in the Canadian Armed Forces, namely to understand, respond to and support affected personnel, as well as prevent future instances of sexual harassment and misconduct.

The Operational Communications Centre (OCC) Project Team
Royal Canadian Mounted Police

• Glen Byrne
• Amanda Feener
• Laura Harris
• Paul Reddy
• Cindy Bayers
• Christian Gallant
• Daryl Mahar
• Sandy Molloy
• Robyn Mosher
• Debbie Mumford

The H Division RCMP’s Operational Communications Centre Project Team is made up of experts from a variety of backgrounds to plan and execute the complicated task of developing the new Centre at the RCMP Headquarters in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Their collective dedication and professionalism has resulted in a new, state-of-the-art Centre with the most advanced technology to serve Nova Scotians with the highest safety standards for years to come.

Melissa Fairey
Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

Melissa Fairey has been transformational in her leadership in Indigenous consultation at the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. She has developed an innovative approach to assess impacts of major projects on the exercise of rights of Indigenous peoples, to support Ministerial decisions. Through collaboration, transparency and respect, Melissa’s approach cohesively integrates consultation and impact assessment while fostering Canada’s principles on reconciliation.

Taylor Williams
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

The government’s efforts to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in 2015-2016 generated 420,000 documents that were stored in a disorganized and inaccessible collection. Taylor Williams used artificial intelligence tools to sift and sort this historically significant collection to create a fully searchable digital archive. He reconstituted broken email threads, analyzed email attachments, identified near-duplicate records, located classified documents and organized the files by subject. This achievement was made possible through his excellence in data science, dedication, creativity, professionalism and collaboration with colleagues across disciplines.

Canada Emergency Response Benefit Team

Canada Revenue Agency
Employment and Social Development Canada
Department of Finance Canada
Shared Services Canada
Justice Canada

Nominated for the Exemplary Contribution under Extraordinary Circumstances is the Canada Emergency Response Benefit Team; an interdepartmental team from key government departments and agencies that mobilized to rapidly stand up financial relief for Canadians at an accelerated pace not previously seen in government. Over the course of this historic program, more than 27 million payments were issued, supporting 8.9 million Canadians and totaling over $81 billion.

MyGCPay Project Team
Public Works and Government Services Canada

The MyGCPay Project Team demonstrated innovation and client service excellence in developing and successfully delivering MyGCPay, a practical employee-centric tool that allows all public servants to better understand their pay. Under the extraordinary circumstances caused by the Phoenix system issues, MyGCPay has helped to restore public servants’ confidence in pay.

The Support team for astronaut David Saint-Jacques’ C3 mission onboard the International Space Station

Canadian Space Agence
Department of National Defence

The C3 Mission Support Team of Canadian Astronaut David Saint-Jacques Aboard the International Space Station demonstrated excellence and leadership, mobilizing the necessary resources at all levels to ensure flawless execution. The team also succeeded in inspiring Canadians across the country, connecting David live from space with thousands of students and educators across Canada, including remote Indigenous communities.

Annie Desgagné
Public Works and Government Services Canada

Annie Desgagné, in her role as Regional Director General, found an approachable way to demand excellence from everyone around her, and she expected the same from herself. She is an inspiring leader who brought a balanced leadership style to naturally build a team through a collaborative approach.

Ontario Regional Office Mentorship Program Team
Public Prosecution Service of Canada

In December 2019, Marina Elias, Amanda Hauk and Kate Strong created a formal mentorship program in the Ontario Regional Office to improve workplace engagement and morale through fostering connections, peer-to-peer learning and cross-team mentorship. This innovative program promoted a culture of collegiality and harmony, as well as career development opportunities. Presently, there are over 60 participants in this program designed to help build a respectful and inclusive workspace.

The Indigenous Recruitment and Engagement Team
Employment and Social Development Canada

The Indigenous Recruitment and Engagement Team has promoted a more diverse and inclusive culture at Employment and Social Development Canada via the incredible work they did and are still doing to attract and hire Indigenous employees. They are also challenging the barriers to employment that have long hindered the pursuit of employment with the Government of Canada for Indigenous candidates.

Abby Hoffman
Health Canada

Abby Hoffman’s distinguished career in the federal public service included major contributions across several fields, including the advancement of women’s rights, sport policy, women’s health, pharmaceutical policy, medical assistance in dying and health care policy. She led work that broke new ground and changed policies that have had a profound impact on the health of Canadians. She has always embodied an unwavering commitment to the public interest. Her knowledge, commitment and fearless devotion to common sense were inspirational and motivated employees to stretch their capacity and take risks.

André Latreille
Public Works and Government Services Canada

André Latreille’s outstanding career has been a constant drive to humanize the workplace. In 2017, André established the first mental health ombudsman office in the federal public service, as the culmination of a career of people-centred leadership. With the motto “People First,” he strived to make the public service a place that achieves results by providing optimal care to its people.

Captain Anthony Pott
Canadian Coast Guard

Captain Anthony Pott’s long and varied career with Canadian Coast Guard began upon his graduation from the Coast Guard College in 1982. This occasion sparked a lifelong career with the Canadian Coast Guard, with multiple career highlights including his achievement of the Commanding Officer position aboard the CCGS Terry Fox and CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, the Flagship of the Coast Guard, Senior Project Director for the class approved design for Canada’s first Polar icebreaker, CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, and more recently, in the acquisition and conversion of the Coast Guard’s three Medium Icebreakers (Molly Kool Class).

Tony’s distinguished career has always been marked by his true professionalism, hard work and his excellent sense of team. His vast knowledge of icebreaking operations and their connection to design requirements has been instrumental in the development of the Fleet Renewal Plan and the resulting funding it received in 2019.

Tony’s career has been a study in collaboration, professionalism and teamwork. His name is widely recognized throughout the Coast Guard as a leader in his field and the Coast Guard, as well as Canada as a country, are privileged to have had his loyal service for the past 37 years.

President

• Dr. Siddika Mithani
  Chair
  Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Members

• Tim Pettipas
  Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet
  Privy Council of Canada
• Stephen Burridge
  Deputy Director
  Global Affairs Canada
• Luna Bengio
  Principal Advisor to the Deputy Minister
  Office of Public Service Accessibility
• Diane Girouard
  Senior Web Developer
  Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada
• Kimberly Phillips
  First Secretary, Joint Delegation of Canada to NATO
  Global Affairs Canada
• Catherine Charron
  Speaker and project coordinator, Mental Health Team
  Statistics Canada

Secretary

• Mary Anne Stevens
  Senior Director, Workplace, Policies and Services, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer
  Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat