The exceptional accomplishments of B.C.'s Interior and Northern public service employees were recognised with the Premier's Innovation and Excellence Awards, Premier Christy Clark announced.

"I would like to congratulate each of these recipients for their contributions," Premier Clark said. "They demonstrate the value of the professional public service. All of them are making a difference in their communities and helping to improve the lives of British Columbian families."

This year, more than 400 employees and teams from the Interior and Northern regions were celebrated for outstanding achievement and received awards in five categories including: Cross Government Integration, Innovation, Partnership, Organizational Excellence, and Leadership.

"These awards showcase the very best of the B.C. public service at work all across our province," Finance Minister Kevin Falcon said. "We are fortunate to benefit from the leadership, innovation and organizational ability outstanding public service employees bring to work every day."

John Dyble, Deputy Minister to the Premier, announced the award winners via a streaming online video presentation. Similar webcasts will honour Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island employees. The final celebration will take place in Victoria at a provincial award ceremony.

Videos of all Premier's Award finalists can be viewed online at: http://www.youtube.com/user/BCPublicService#p/p

A backgrounder follows.

Contact:

Sara MacIntyre
Director of Communications
Office of the Premier
250 580-7701

Jamie Edwardson
Communications Director
Ministry of Finance
250 356-2821

BACKGROUNDER

Premier's Awards honour Interior and Northern recipients

400 public service employees from B.C.'s Northern and Interior regions have received awards in Cross Government Integration, Innovation, Partnership, Organizational Excellence, and Leadership.

Organization Description Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Dave Francis LEADERSHIP CATEGORY - By working with First Nations, the forest industry and local government, Dave Francis built support for his ideas to shorten wait times on cutting permits in the District of Mackenzie. He successfully streamlined the approval process for issuing wood licenses by placing the onus on forestry professionals to meet standards that allowed his staff to focus their efforts on targeted reviews of projects with the highest environmental or economic risks. He and his cross-government team developed a new framework that eliminates up to 80 per cent of submissions with a target turnaround of 10 days instead of 40 days. In some priority situations permits are issued the same day. Dave has also been instrumental in maintaining jobs in the region by implementing employment programs that produced temporary jobs during the downturn in the forest industry. The program created 100 temporary jobs and provided Employment Insurance bridging for others. Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, Taku River Tlingit CROSS GOVERNMENT INTEGRATION CATEGORY - A unique agreement was signed by the Taku River Tlingit and government, solidifying how they will consult with each other in the future. The ministries of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Environment worked as a team to develop a shared decision-making model that included the establishment of a governance forum and a framework for collaborative wildlife management. The land-use plan creates investment certainty for more than three million hectares of land and resolves long-standing access, protection and mineral development issues that had created obstacles to development at the Tulsequah Chief mine. It also creates 13 new protected areas in areas significant to Aboriginal and community interests.

Energy and Mines, Infrastructure Royalty Credit Program INNOVATION CATEGORY - A cutting-edge infrastructure royalty program has boosted investment in B.C.'s oil and gas sector and helped build a year-round industry for British Columbians. The Infrastructure Royalty Credit Program directly supports The BC Jobs Plan by creating and sustaining jobs in the natural gas sector and by attracting new investment to the Province. The Province contributes up to 50 per cent of the original cost estimate of an eligible and approved road or pipeline project in the form of a royalty deduction. With infrastructure comes considerably greater investment in drilling activity that generates new provincial royalties for decades. To date, provincial royalty revenue is 2.5 times greater than royalty deductions. The program, the first of its kind in Canada, has stimulated development of new frontier areas rich in natural gas. As of Sept. 30, 2011, the royalty program has approved 84 new or upgrade all-season road projects and 115 new pipeline projects. Environment, Conservation Officer Service PARTNERSHIP CATEGORY - By using restorative justice principles, the Conservation Officer Service (COS) developed a restorative justice forum as an alternative to a lengthy court battle stemming from charges against Trail Tech Metals Ltd. The charges were made when the company discharged mercury into the Columbia River in October 2010. After only 33 days of discussing the issues at a Community Environmental Justice Forum (CEJF), Trail Tech Metals Ltd. agreed to all recommendations sought by the ministry and also looked for internal actions to avoid future discharges. The CEJF model is a first in Canada and is being viewed by federal natural resource ministries as a potential model to replicate. A key benefit of the restorative justice process is communities are involved in the process and see immediate results. The community of Trail received improvements for residents such as a water recycling project for the children's water park and walking trails along the Columbia River.

Ministry of Social Development, Regional Services Division, Region 5 - Northern Medical Task Team ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE CATEGORY - Ministry of Social Development's Regional Services Division established a four-member medical task team to ensure essential medical services, including medical transportation supplements were being delivered to northern clients. Processes were developed to serve clients in a timely and efficient way. The team developed partnerships with key stakeholders such as local airlines and travel agents, a list of visiting specialists serving clients in their communities and network processes to ensure the team proactively identified and managed all medically-related service requests. The team concept engages local community partners. On review one of the processes projected an annual costs savings of half a million dollars. The team is also identifying community health care centres where some specialist examinations can be conducted remotely.

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