Courageous, Bold and Visionary: Honouring the Leaders in Canada's Public Sector

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - February 05, 2016) - The Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and Deloitte announced the winners of its IPAC/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Awards program for outstanding leadership in public policy and management.

Six organizations, four winners and two honourable mentions from across Canada were recognized at a gala celebration on Thursday night at the Sheraton Hotel in Toronto. Winners were selected from a judging panel for demonstrating outstanding leadership through innovation, strategic thinking, and effective collaboration and partnerships, which are critical for the success and advancement of communities across Canada.

Quotes:

"The public sector is ripe for transformational change. Taking on today's challenges requires bold ideas and bolder action, and we see that in this year's finalists. We see leaders with the courage to challenge conventional wisdom and mount major attacks on the status quo -- something that's not normally associated with the public sector."

Frank D'Onofrio
Distinguished Public Servant in Residence at Ryerson University's Department of Politics and Public Administration and 2015 Advisory Committee Chair for the IPAC/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Awards

"There's a tremendous amount of vision and leadership in the public sector and these awards enable us to showcase this and share the great work that's taking place."

Paula Gallagher
Partner, Deloitte, Consulting and Judge for the IPAC/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Awards

The 2015 IPAC/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Award winners include:

TVO | TeachOntario

TVO plays a key role at the digital vanguard of Ontario's public education system -- and its TeachOntario (www.teachontario.ca) online platform is yet another example of TVO's leadership in action. Developed by TVO in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Ontario Teachers Federation, the TeachOntario platform capitalizes on new digital technologies to provide Ontario educators with a one-stop space to connect, share, learn and collaborate. Teachers and educators from Windsor to Moosonee use TeachOntario to discuss issues, offer insights, explore new ideas, improve lesson plans and co-create new resources for everyone's use. Its up-to-date content for educators by educators that reflects today's curricula, teaching methods, challenges and opportunities. And TeachOntario is truly professional development for the 21^st century: the online platform is available around 24/7, enabling educators to learn and contribute when, where and how they want. TeachOntario participation has risen rapidly, from 15 educators in 2014's beta test to more than 2,300 today, more than a third of whom are active, regulator contributors. The first-of-its-kind platform is now home to nearly 90 teacher-driven collaborative working groups on variety of subjects -- all striving to develop and share leading practices that can be used to improve student outcomes across the province.

Integrated Funding Models Leadership Team (Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Local Health Integration Networks, and St. Joseph's Health System) | Implementing Integrated Funding Models in Ontario

Five years ago, staff at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH), a part of the St. Joseph's Health System (SJHS) approached Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care with an idea that they felt could help address the challenges involved in transitioning surgical patients from hospital care to follow-up care at home or elsewhere. They proposed that for certain patients -- those undergoing lung cancer surgery, for example -- the Ministry would provide a single "envelope" of funding to support the integrated provision of care in the hospital and beyond. The Ministry agreed to take part; later, encouraged by the positive outcomes of the SJHS experience, it encouraged other Ontario healthcare providers to submit their own innovative, patient-centred, solution-driven proposals that would make use of an Integrated Funding Model (IFM) approach. Rather than providing prescriptive direction, the Ministry provided a policy framework and empowered Local Health Integration Networks to take a leadership role themselves in determining how best to deliver integrated care. Bundled care supported by IFM has proven to be better, faster, and less expensive than traditionally delivered services: as well as improved efficiency across the system, patients report high satisfaction with their care, hospital stays are shorter, and readmissions are lower. Moreover, IFM has helped foster stronger relationships and better communication among healthcare partners. Today, IFM represents potentially the biggest reform in Canadian healthcare -- and an important step forward on the path towards truly patient-centred care.

British Columbia's Non-Profit Asset Transfer Program

In 2013, British Columbia's Housing Policy Branch (BC Housing) began to explore ways to ensure the stability of its social housing stock and quickly saw it faced significant challenges. While the province's 2006 Housing Matters BC strategy has made great progress in addressing homelessness and providing housing assistance to BC's most vulnerable citizens, a high proportion of renters in the private-market were still struggling. Large-scale public investment in social housing wasn't an option in the current fiscal environment, with governments keen to control spending and long-term federal funding winding down. How could BC preserve its social housing for future generations and help private renters without public funding? The solution was the Non-Profit Asset Transfer Program (NPAT) -- a seismic shift in how BC manages social housing. The NPAT program transfers ownership of nearly 350 provincially owned social housing properties to the non-profit housing associations that operate them. The transfer provides the non-profits with a strong asset base that can be used to leverage equity to fund repairs, renovations and redevelopment and better respond to the housing needs of their communities. The first program of its kind in Canada, NPAT ensures the long-term sustainability of BC's social housing -- without adding to the provincial debt or tax burden.

Regional Municipality of Peel | Peel Inclusion Resource Services (PIRS)

Until recently, Peel parents seeking support for their special-needs children found themselves navigating a complex, fragmented and inefficient system involving an array of agencies, consultants and childcare providers. So when Peel Regional Council decided to withdraw from direct delivery of childcare and reinvest those resources to address system-wide priorities, the Region and five partner organizations seized the opportunity to lead a significant transformation. Together, they embraced a bold vision to break down the barriers between their organizations and leverage their collective knowledge, experience and resources to provide integrated, streamlined special-needs support to Peel's childcare providers. Today, the co-created Peel Inclusion Resources Service (PIRS) model provides families with centralized intake and referral processes to find the right childcare provider for them. Licenced childcare centres are aligned with special needs experts and other support in their area to ensure more time can be spent helping children instead of travelling, and ongoing consultation enables these centres to continually grown their own capacity to deliver truly inclusive services. Collaboration among PIRS partners ensures common standards for service and excellence across the region. PIRS is proof that working together enables organizations to achieve a far greater impact than any one could achieve alone. Today, more than 1,300 children with special needs benefit from PIRS services, and 95% of Peel's licenced childcare centres receive PIRS support.

Please find the full list of 2015 award recipients below. Note that honourable mentions are not ranked.

For more information about the IPAC/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Awards, including a list of the advisory committee and all finalists, please visit: www.leadershipawards.ca

About IPAC
Founded in 1947, the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) is a dynamic association of public servants, academics, and others interested in public administration. IPAC is a membership-based organization that creates knowledge networks and leads public administration research in Canada. See www.ipac.ca

About Deloitte
Deloitte, one of Canada's leading professional services firms, provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services. Deloitte LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership, is the Canadian member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.