Minister of Labour, Citizens' Services and Open Government Margaret MacDiarmid congratulated British Columbia's Open Government team today for winning the silver medal at this year's Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC)/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Awards.

The Province earned the award for work done to develop and implement B.C.'s Open Government policy, and recognizes the Province's outstanding leadership and contributions to advancements in public policy and management.

Announced in July 2011, and written into law through amendments to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act in the fall of 2011, B.C.'s Open Government initiatives have resulted in government sharing more information with its citizens, and have provided more opportunities for them to participate in decisions that make a difference in their lives.

B.C. has made a number of innovative changes as a result of Open Government, including being the first province to open up thousands of datasets via the DataBC website. Since DataBC’s launch, more than 2,600 datasets have been released. This data is free, searchable and available for anyone to use and repurpose.

The Province has also hosted a series of hackathons, encouraging and challenging developers to use the data available to come up with useful applications for the public, and recently launched its first official mobile application, the BC Health Service Locator app.

The IPAC awards recognize leaders showing major organizational transformation and outstanding performance. Criteria include courage, execution, impact, collaboration, innovation, results and whether the project can be replicated in other jurisdictions. This year IPAC received nearly 100 submissions from across Canada.

The Province is committed to the evolution of B.C's ongoing Open Government transformation, including increasing levels of transparency, innovation and improved service delivery.

Full award details are available at: www.ipac.ca

Contact:

Melody Wey
Ministry of Labour, Citizens' Services and Open Government
250 508-5030