Public Service Award of Excellence recipients honoured

Deputy Premier Tom Rideout and the Clerk of the Executive Council, Robert Thompson, today presented the 2005 Public Service Award of Excellence to four individuals and two groups of public service employees at a formal ceremony held at the Fairmont Hotel in St. John's.

The award recognizes individuals and teams in the public service of Newfoundland and Labrador who have demonstrated exceptional performance in their work, and have positively impacted the quality of the work environment or the quality of service delivery to clients in the areas of leadership, valuing people, innovation or service delivery excellence.

Individual award recipients are Stephen Noel, LAN Administrator with the Office of the Chief Information Officer; Dr. Amir Ali Khan, Manager of the Hydrologic Modelling Section with Environment and Conservation; Ed Jackman, Client Services Officer with Human Resources, Labour and Employment; and Alison Earle, Assistant Deputy Minister with the Rural Secretariat.

Team awards go to the Socio-Economic Spatial Analysis (SESA) Unit (Brett Forsey, Alfred Power and Conrad Power) of the Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency in Finance, and the Companies and Deeds Online (CADO) Implementation Team (Lorne Barbour, Cordell Deering, Bruce Gellately, Douglas Laing, and Lorraine Vokey) with Government Services.

"All throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, thousands of men and women in the public service provide essential services that make our province a wonderful place to live," said Deputy Premier Rideout. "We recognize how seamlessly these services are provided on a daily basis and how they are fundamental to ensuring the quality of life we know and love in our province. It is an honour to participate in this ceremony as these recipients stand before their colleagues, families and friends, and join the others who have exemplified a similar excellence in program and service delivery."

The Clerk of the Executive Council Robert Thompson reiterated the deputy premier�s sentiments and said that the commitment of the many employees who serve the public as best they can and work toward creating a better province and a better public service is evident in the work showcased at this event. "Everyday, within government, we strive for excellence - excellence in policy and program development, excellence in service delivery, excellence in client relations, excellence in job performance, excellence in fostering good working relationships. The Public Service Award of Excellence is our way of showing the pride we feel in these employees."

For additional information on this year�s recipients, check the Public Service Award of Excellence Web site � www.gov.nl.ca/excellence.

Media contact:

Lori Lee Oates, Communications, (709) 729-3733, 729-0360
Melony O�Neill, Communications, (709) 729-0557
Doris Walsh, Communications, (709) 729-3812, 691-7478

2006 05 30                                       2:20 p.m.