Conference Updates

I was recently at two international conferences. The first was the meeting of CAFRAD - The African Training & Research Centre in Administration for Development which is based in Tangiers, Morocco. The conference included delegates from approximately 36 African countries as well as observers such as IPAC. The conference was quite interesting & involved a full day for the Board Meeting (went till past 22h00) as well as two days of presentations and discussions on different topics. I will be writing more about this conference in the next while. IPAC and CAFRAD are in the process of finalizing an MOU that will involve the exchange of information, research and knowledge in public administration.

The second conference I attended was the Annual Meeting of IIAS - the International Institute of Administrative Sciences. The conference took place in Helsinki and was attended by approximately 250 delegates from around the world. The theme of this conference was:"History and future of nation-building, The role of public administrations, civil servants and public finances in nation-building." It was a very interesting conference with a number of great keynote presentations, for example by Jocelyne Bourgon, former Federal Clerk on the new framework for public administration. I will be writing about this in the next week or so as it is very interesting and thought provoking. It is in line with my thoughts about the evolution of public administration from the "New Public Management" model that was espoused in the 1980's and 1990's. There were a number of very interesting workshop presentations, including one by Geraldine Fraser-Molekti and Demetrios Argyriades on the state of Democratic Governance. Also noteworthy was the presentation by the Egyptian Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Mr. Ashraf Abdelwahab. Egypt has made tremendous strides in e-government. I will be writing about all these presentations in future posts

I should note that IPAC is the Canadian "national section" of IIAS and we are reinvigorating our relationship with IIAS.

To those who have Monday off (it is Simcoe Day in Ontario), have a great long weekend.

Health Care - the battle is on

Well it seems that our friends to the south are in the midst of another Health care battle. The President wants health care reform that would provide coverage to the 50 million American citizens without coverage and also wants to make health care more affordable. Some of those who have come out against his proposals have once again decided to use the Canadian system as the whipping boy.

And then there are the illogical ones such as this so-called pundit...click here Did you understand that????

I will be posting some more on the US Health Care debate in the near future...stay tuned.

Health Care - Electronic Patient Records

I received a press release today from the National Governors Association in the US about the innovative strategies that many US States are using to achieve integrated health records. There could be some lessons for Canada in this as Electronic Health Records are key to reducing medical errors as well as reducing duplicate & triplicate tests. The brief came from the NGA Center for Best Practices.

Accelerating the Adoption of Electronic Prescribing examines electronic prescribing, or e-prescribing-the computer-based electronic generation and transmission of a prescription. E-prescribing improves patient safety and quality of care, increases prescribing accuracy and efficiency and reduces health care costs by making critical information available to health care providers. The use of e-prescribing will grow as states and others provide support for e-prescribing. In recent years, states annually have doubled the number of prescriptions sent electronically. If states stay the course, this rate of adoption will reach at least 50 percent by 2012, according to State Alliance for e-Health Call to Action for NGA.

Developing and implementing plans to promote e-prescribing can help governors achieve critical health reform goals: achieving higher quality care and enhancing the delivery of health care services. Several strategies are available to states to promote an e-prescribing agenda. These include:

* Developing e-prescribing policies;
* Incorporating e-prescribing into state publicly funded health programs; and
* Implementing financial incentive programs for e-prescribing.

This is very interesting development in the US. I recall a Rand Corporation study from 2005 that estimated the savings from EPR implementation in the USA in the billions of dollars. I will write more about this in the near future.

With the demographic trends and with health care making up close to 50% of provincial budgets, we must find all the efficiencies we can in the delivery of quality and accessible health care.

150!Canada

In just a few short years – on July 1, 2017 – Canada will turn 150 years old. It will be our sesquicentennial (trying saying that 3 times in a row quickly) – 150 years since that great experiment of Canadian Confederation was started. Why should you care you may ask. Especially, why start talking about it now in 2009??

Did you know that planning for the 1967 events – our Centennial year – started in 1958 and were at first led by Canadian Association of Adult Education? By that measure we are starting one year late.

1967 marked a period of rejuvenation and renewal for Canada – a time when anything was possible. In that time period, Canada grew up as a nation – a new flag in 1965, the start of many of our most cherished social programs (Medicare for example), and of course a year of celebration that included Expo ’67 in Montréal. I remember that time well. We had just moved from Montréal to Beloeil on the south shore. I remember taking the Metro and visiting many pavilions - I still have my Expo passport with stamps from the Canadian, US, USSR, French, etc pavilions. I also remember that year because the Canadiens were beaten in the Stanley Cup finals by the Maple Leafs (it is the last time that Toronto won the Cup, and of course my beloved Canadiens won many more times after 1967).

It was an exciting time when the potential of Canada seemed limitless and optimism was in the air – or are we looking back at that time with rose coloured glasses? We were all much younger then, so forgive the rose coloured glasses.

I think it is time once again to imagine the possibilities that the future can bring. That is why IPAC in conjunction with MASS LBP is organizing the 150!Canada conference that will be held in March 2010 in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre (The NAC was built in 1967).

We hope that this conference acts as a catalyst to the 2017 celebrations and we plan to bring together community leaders from across Canada to celebrate Canada and to develop a 150!Canada Declaration and Framework that will set out the principles and guide further planning of the Sesquicentennial.

Check out our 150!Canada website and add in your suggestions for 2017 as well as your memories and pictures from 1967. Stay tuned for more information on this important initiative including the exciting conference program, guest speakers and performers.

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind...40 years ago

Forty years ago, Apollo 11 took off with 3 astronauts - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins and journeyed to the moon. The lunar module, codenamed Eagle landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.

I vividly remember that night in 1969..we gathered in front of that old Black & White TV and watched the grainy footage of the lunar landing and then hearing those famous words as Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. NASA has put on their website enhanced photos of that historic voyage at NASA-Apollo

This lunar landing was the culmination of an extraordinary endeavor, led by the public sector. There was an incredible amount of innovation throughout the years that came about because calculated risks were taken to achieve the common objectives.

There are lessons for all of us from this incredible undertaking.

Innovative Management Reception

Well, I'm just back from the reception held for the 8 finalists of the IPAC Innovative Management Award co-sponsored by IBM Canada and KPMG. The reception was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto (where the finalists will be presenting to the jury tomorrow). It was a great reception - good conversation, fine wine and some finger foods.

I had an opportunity to address the 50 or so guests as did Kim Devooght from IBM and Richard Harris from KPMG. Quite a number of senior folks from the Government of Ontario, including Shelly Jamieson attended the reception.

As I mentioned in my previous post we received over 90 submissions, which underscores the innovative nature of governments right across Canada. It is important that we continue to celebrate public service in Canada and tell the public our success stories. This is the purpose of these awards and the other awards that IPAC runs.

Dylan from our office was taking pictures and I will post some of these in the next little while.

Innovative Management Award/Prix pour gestion innovatrice

Tomorrow night I am attending a reception for the 8 finalists in the IPAC Innovative Management Award for 2009. The award which was established in 1990 is co-sponsored by IBM Canada and KPMG. The theme of the award is "Turnaround" which coincides with the theme of the 2009 annual conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick. This year we received over 90 quality submissions. On Friday the 8 finalists present their projects to the jury. The winners will be announced at the annual conference. Stay tuned for pictures of the reception.

Demain soir je vais a une réception pour les 8 finalistes du Prix IAPC pour gestion innovatrice pour 2009. Ce prix qui fut établi en 1990 est commandité par IBM Canada et KPMG. Le thème pour 2009 est « redressement s» qui s’avère être le même thème de notre conférence annuelle au Nouveau Brunswick. Cette année nous avons reçu plus de 90 soumissions. Vendredi les 8 finalistes vont présenter leur projet aux membres du comite de sélection Les gagnants vont être annoncé a la conférence annuelle a Fredericton.


The 8 finalists are/ les 8 finalistes sont:

“Canada@150” Privy Council Office, Government of Canada

“WelcomeBC Web Site” - BC Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development, Ministry of Labour and Citizens’ Services,Service BC

“A New Approach to School Infrastructure”, ASAP Project Team, Alberta Infrastructure

“Collaboration Enhances Outcomes for Technological Innovation”, Information Technology, The City of Calgary

“Ontario’s Drinking Water Safety Net”, Drinking Water Management Division, Ontario Ministry of the Environment

“Patient Safety Indicator Public Reporting” Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care

“‘L’Accent sur l’avenir’ of French-language Services: Modernization of the traditional accountability paradigm & innovation in leadership training” Office des affaires francophones/Office of Francophone Affairs - Ontario

“Revenue Québec: Indices de richesse” Revenue Québec

Good luck to all the finalists! Bonne Chance aux finalistes!

Vanier Medal 2008/ Médaille Vanier 2008

On April 20, 2009 at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presented to Margaret Bloodworth the Vanier Medal. The award is handed out by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada to recognize an individual who has distinguished themselves throughout their career and contributed to public service in Canada. Margaret served as Deputy Minister in the Government of Canada. Here is a photo montage of the ceremony.

Le 20 avril 2009 a la Cour suprême du Canada, la juge en chef a présenté la médaille Vanier a Margaret Bloodworth. Une fois par an l’Institut d’administration publique du Canada remet, en témoignage de services éminents et exceptionnels, la médaille Vanier à une personne qui a fait preuve d’un leadership hors pair en administration publique et dans la fonction publique au Canada ou qui, par ses publications ou autres réalisations, a apporté une importante contribution au domaine de l’administration publique ou de la fonction publique au Canada. Voici un "vidéo" de la ceremonie.

New Blog Layout/Nouveau blogue

Well, I've decided to move my blog from being embedded on the IPAC site (with its limitations) to using Blogger. This way, I can create a more diverse and bilingual blog.

J'ai decidé de transferer mon blogue du site de l'IAPC au site "Blogger". De cette façon je pourrai crée de meilleurs "posts"