News release

Premier Recognizes Excellence in Public Service

Premier's Office

Government employees who developed a web-based tool to provide information to help in planning and improving Nova Scotia's communities and who made Joggins Fossil Cliffs a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, were among the recipients honoured today, June 15, with the Premier's Award of Excellence.

The award was presented to two teams and three individuals for contributions to Nova Scotia at a ceremony in Halifax. The recipients are all from Halifax except some members from the Department of Labour and Workforce Development team who are from Kentville, Truro, New Glasgow, Sydney and Bridgewater.

"The employees who've been recognized today have demonstrated some of the best attributes that Nova Scotia's civil servants have to offer," said Premier Rodney MacDonald. "They are examples of the many remarkable civil servants who bring their skill and dedication to their public service roles each day."

The Premier's Award of Excellence is the highest honour of the Nova Scotia civil service. Established in 2006 by former premier John Hamm, the award program recognizes Nova Scotian civil servants for outstanding contributions and achievements.

Employees are nominated by co-workers. Civil servants, highway workers, correctional workers and recent retirees are eligible for nomination.

An external selection panel considered nominations of teams or individuals that demonstrated achievements in leadership excellence, innovation and creativity, outstanding client service, and creative relationship building. The selection panel evaluated 24 nominations.

"Every year a selection panel receives quality submissions, which depict the great work Nova Scotians have come to expect," said Rosalind Penfound, commissioner of the Public Service Commission. "We value our employees and the award is one way to celebrate their achievement."

The premier presented the NovaScotian Crystal produced award to the recipients at the ceremony. NovaScotian Crystal is Canada's only producer of handcrafted crystal and was commissioned to create the award.

Winners of the fourth annual Premier's Award of Excellence are:

  • Crown Share Adjustment Payments Team In 2001, the Crown Share Adjustment Payments Team began building a persuasive case for a generous interpretation of legislation. In April 2008, after working collaboratively with other departments and external advisors on this complex accounting and legal case the team presented Nova Scotia's case to the Crown Share Adjustments Panel. The panel recommended that the government of Canada provide Nova Scotia more than $234-million for past payments, and future payments of about $633-million. The award was presented to team members Stephen McGrath from the Department of Justice and Chris Spencer from the Department of Energy.

  • John Calder, Senior Geologist, Department of Natural Resources A visionary proponent and driving force to have the Joggins Fossil Cliffs inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Mr. Calder was responsible for making the scientific case for inscription, providing scientific leadership to the project and to the interpretative displays, building consensus in the community, and co-authoring the nomination application. The project has also established the Joggins Fossil Institute.

  • Adela Teresa Escobar, Counsellor, Department of Community Services A dynamic woman from El Salvador, Ms. Escobar has won the hearts of her clients, caregivers and colleagues through her extraordinary commitment in being the only Counsellor for the Alternate Family Support Program. Supporting individuals with disabilities to live within a family setting in their home community, she has often been referred to as an ally for the greater good, forging bridges between team members, clients, support providers, policy makers and field staff.

  • Skill Development Coordinators Team, Department of Labour and Workforce Development The team played a lead role in responding to closures in industry by creating on-site and community response teams, conducting job vacancy studies in affected and nearby communities, developing transition centres for displaced workers, and arranging and providing direct programs and services to help workers find new employment. Award recipients are: Roger Peters, Louise Michalos and Joe Brown of Halifax; Renette Muise, Kentville; Colleen O'Connor, Truro; Robin Jardine, New Glasgow; Raymond Lefort, Sydney and Judy Purcell, Bridgewater.

  • Dennis Pilkey, Retired Director, Department of Finance Community Counts started as an innovative pilot project, based on an award-winning model of Community Accounts in Newfoundland and Labrador. It evolved under Mr. Pilkey's leadership into an ongoing program that provides data for and about communities for use by policy-makers, elected officials, program designers, and community developers. Mr. Pilkey was able to attract strategic partners from the government, community and academic sectors to contribute time, expertise and resources toward this common vision of a publicly accessible website.

For more information about the Premier's Award of Excellence, this year's recipients and their work, visit www.gov.ns.ca/psc/recognition .

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