Excellence Canada announces the 2018 Canada Awards for Excellence Recipients

TORONTO, Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Excellence Canada is pleased to announce it will be celebrating the 34^th anniversary of the Canada Awards for Excellence on November 6^th. This year, 25 awards will be presented to outstanding Canadian organizations in recognition of their commitment to continual improvement and pursuit of excellence. Award categories include: Excellence, Innovation & Wellness®; Financial Wellness, Healthy Workplace®; and Mental Health at Work.

Excellence Canada's mission is to help organizations in all sectors become the best-in-class by implementing standards of excellence. Excellence Canada is a not-for-profit organization that certifies and recognizes organizations that embody these attributes: they are customer focused, competitive, financially and environmentally sustainable, are good corporate citizens, actively pursue strategies to improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of their employees and they create a healthy workplace culture that attracts and retains the best people.

The Canada Awards for Excellence is an annual awards program that recognizes outstanding achievements by organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors coast-to-coast across Canada.

Shirlee Sharkey, Chair of Excellence Canada, stated: "On behalf of the Board of Directors of Excellence Canada, I am very pleased to present the Canada Awards for Excellence to this year’s award recipients. These organizations epitomize excellence in the areas of leadership, planning, customer experience, employee engagement and process improvement. We congratulate the management and the teams at these excellent organizations."

Allan Ebedes, President and CEO of Excellence Canada, remarked: "Over the past 34 years we have recognized more than 650 outstanding organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors that have met the highest standards for quality, excellence, innovation, and healthy workplaces. This year we are delighted to be presenting another 25 Canada Awards for Excellence to excellent organizations. We are also honoured to be presenting the Board of Governors’ Special Recognition of Achievement Awards to three distinguished Canadians: George Cope, O.C., President and CEO, BCE Inc. and Bell; Peter Mansbridge, O.C., former CBC News Anchor; and to Rick Mercer, O.C., television personality and political satirist.”

The awards will be presented at the 2018 Performance Excellence Summit and Canada Awards for Excellence on Tuesday, November 6^th in Toronto.  For complete event details and registration, please visit www.excellencesummit.ca.

A FULL LIST OF THE AWARD RECIPIENTS FOLLOWS

For further information, contact:
Allan Ebedes, President and CEO, Excellence Canada, Tel:  416-251-7600, ext. 230  

Recipients of the 34^th  Canada Awards for Excellence, 2018

EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION AND WELLNESS® AWARD

The Champion of Excellence for the Excellence, Innovation and Wellness® category is Sun Life Financial. This award is based on Excellence Canada's Excellence, Innovation and Wellness® Standard and was developed by Excellence Canada in association with its partners and professionals from across Canada. 

Order of Excellence

• Architecture, Information Management & Project Management Office, Central Agencies I&IT Cluster, Treasury Board Secretariat - Province of Ontario

Platinum Award Recipients

• Ontario Parks, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks - Province of Ontario
  
  
• Peel Regional Police - Brampton, Ontario

Gold Award Recipients

• IT Source, Central Agencies I&IT Cluster, Treasury Board Secretariat - Province of Ontario
  
  
• Social Services Department, The Regional Municipality of Durham - Whitby, Ontario

Silver Award Recipients

• Cluster Applications Branch, Central Agencies I&IT Cluster, Treasury Board Secretariat - Province of Ontario
  
  
• Corporate Services Division, Law Society of Ontario - Toronto, Ontario
  
  
• Engineers Canada - Ottawa, Ontario
  
  
• Infectious Diseases Control Division, York Region Public Health - Newmarket, Ontario

Bronze Award Recipients

• City of Toronto - Toronto, Ontario
  
  
• Department of Internal Services, Province of Nova Scotia - Halifax, Nova Scotia
  
  
• Service Nova Scotia - Halifax, Nova Scotia

FINANCIAL WELLNESS

The Financial Wellness requirements were developed by Excellence Canada in association with its partners and professionals from across Canada. Organizations must demonstrate a strategic, integrated approach to employee financial wellness by demonstrating excellence in areas such as awareness building, the provision of education, financial programs and the provision of employee support. The awards will be presented by Sun Life Financial.

Certificate of Merit Recipients

• Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada - Toronto, Ontario
  
  
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada - Ottawa, Ontario

HEALTHY WORKPLACE® AWARD

The Excellence Canada Healthy Workplace® Standard was developed in partnership with Health Canada and in association with professionals from the health and wellness sectors.

Platinum Award Recipient

• The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Toronto, Ontario

Gold Award Recipient

• Manulife – Kitchener and Toronto, Ontario

Silver Award Recipient

• Alberta Blue Cross - Edmonton, Alberta

Bronze Award Recipients

• Purdue Pharma (Canada) – Pickering, Ontario
  
  
• University of Guelph – Guelph, Ontario

MENTAL HEALTH AT WORK AWARD

The Champion of Excellence for the Mental Health at Work category is Manulife. This award is based on Excellence Canada's - Mental Health at Work framework. The Mental Health at Work framework was developed by Excellence Canada in association with mental health and work safety professionals from across Canada, and the requirements incorporate principles and practices as outlined in the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.

Order of Excellence

• Michael Garron Hospital, Toronto East Health Network - Toronto, Ontario

Platinum Award Recipient

• The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Toronto, Ontario

Gold Award Recipient

• Manulife – Kitchener and Toronto, Ontario

Silver Award Recipient

• Bruce Power - Tiverton, Ontario

QUALITY AWARD

Excellence Canada recognizes the organizations that have received the “Grand Prix québécois de la qualité”, which is the highest distinction awarded by the “Mouvement québécois de la qualité” to the province’s top public and private sector organizations.

Gold Award Recipients

• Boa-Franc – Saint-Georges, Quebec
  
  
• Caisse Desjardins de la Nouvelle-Acadie – Saint-Jacques, Quebec

RECOGNITION OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

From time-to-time, the Excellence Canada Board of Governors recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to Canadian society and/or the global human condition. Past Award recipients have included Dr. David Suzuki, former Prime Minister The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Lt.-General The Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire, The Honourable Flora MacDonald, Sir Richard Branson, Mr. Rick Hansen, Ms. Margaret Trudeau, and Mr. Chris Hadfield. This year, in keeping with the Summit theme “Achieving Excellence in the Brave New World of 2018 – Preserve. Protect. Perform”, the Board of Governors is presenting the Special Recognition of Achievement Award to:

• George Cope O.C., President and CEO, BCE Inc. and BELL, in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the area of mental health, specifically the “Bell Let’s Talk” initiative
  
  
• Peter Mansbridge O.C., President, Manscorp Media Services, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Canadian and international journalism and for excellence in broadcasting
  
  
• Rick Mercer, O.C., comedian, television personality and author, in recognition of his outstanding contribution as one of Canada’s top political satirists and for excellence in broadcasting

PROUD SPONSORS OF CANADIAN EXCELLENCE

Excellence Canada gratefully acknowledges the support of the following organizations that have helped make this year’s events possible.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/122c0693-97cd-4ccb-9473-973a344ce46d