The 2018 IAP2 Canada Core Values Awards attracted nearly 30 entries from people and organizations across Canada, and the winners were announced at the 2018 IAP2 North American Conference in Victoria, BC. |
Congratulations to: IAP2 CANADA ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR The City of Edmonton, for "What to do When a City, its Staff and People Decide it's Time for a Change". With a population of just under a million, elected leaders and staff in the capital of Alberta determined it was important to engage the public in decision-making. This led to the Council Initiative on Public Engagement, which included “engaging on engagement”. This has produced, so far, a 27-item action plan, a new public engagement strategy and a Guiding Coalition to hold the city to account. Watch the videoHonourable Mention: the Rural Municipality of St Clements, Manitoba, for "Small Municipality - Big P2". The RM made a comprehensive public engagement strategy part of its 2015-2018 Strategic Plan and has managed to address public concerns and receive strong mandates regarding projects including curbside waste and recycling pickup, wastewater treatment and a levy for zebra mussel boat inspection. It's the second time St Clements has earned Honourable Mention for this award: it shared the prize with two other RMs -- East St Paul and West St Paul -- in 2016. Honourable Mention: Calgary Board of Education for "Dialogue Journey: a Path to More Collaborative Decision-Making". In less than three years, the CBE developed a community engagement framework and successfully implemented it to inform both school-based and system-wide decisions.The Board trained over 600 system leaders and created a centralized organizational unit of three employees and having a champion on the executive team. This has a positive impact on 14,000 staff, 122,000 students, plus their families and hundreds of thousands of Calgarians. IAP2 CANADA PROJECT OF THE YEAR
It has been identified that Canada’s criminal justice system is fundamentally unjust. The rate of incarceration of Indigenous people is nine times that of the general population; sixty percent of those in jails are still awaiting a decision in their case. The Canadian government engaged a broad range of Canadians to come up with answers to these and other problems. (Above: Janique Venne, Director of Operations, Criminal Justice Review Secretariat, receives the awards from IAP2 Canada president Bruce Gilbert.) The City of Edmonton and Justice Canada will compete against Organization and Project winners from other IAP2 Affiliates for the Federation (worldwide) awards. Those winners will be announced in October at the IAP2 Australasia Conference in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT Indigenous Engagement: the City of Vancouver for “Britannia Renewal Master Plan”. This project involved revitalizing a community services strategy for an area of the city that has a high proportion of Indigenous people living off-reserve. (At right, Spencer Lindsay and Amanda Gibbs from the City of Vancouver, with IAP2 President Bruce Gilbert.) EXTENDING THE PRACTICE THROUGH CREATIVITY, CONTRIBUTION AND INNOVATION IN THE FIELD
(IAP2 Great Lakes Board Member Michelle Dwyer (centre) presents award to Sonja Macdonald and Paul Shaker of Civicplan.)
MODUS Planning, Design & Engagement and The City of Surrey, BC, for “Parks, Recreation and Culture Strategic Plan Update”. The largest municipality in Metro Vancouver has a broad demographic range including first- and second-generation Canadians and the largest proportion of urban Indigenous residents. Creating the updated plan required recognizing the needs of all of these groups. (Pictured: Vince Verlaan of MODUS (left) and Dylan Jones of the City of Calgary flank Bruce.) Watch the videoHonourable Mention: The City of Calgary Transportation Dep't for "Green Line LRT: 78 Ave. Road-Widening and Underpass Construction Project"
in partnership with This year, IAP2 Canada is excited to launch a new Core Values Award Category, the Visual Engagement Awards. This is a partnership with the Dazzling Notice Awards, which recognize government and other public entities that manage to "grab" the public in the way they advertise their programs and projects. The creator of the awards, Dave Meslin, approached IAP2 Canada about the partnership and IAP2 Canada leapt at the opportunity. This year, there was a tie:
(left-to-right: Dave Meslin, Christina Moore, District of Squamish Communications, Vince Verlaan, MODUS, and Sarah McJannet, Squamish planner.)
(Morgan Boyco of Dillon Consulting and Waterloo's Kaoru Yajima accepting their award.) Honourable mention went to the City of Vancouver for "Arbutus Greenway: Engaging a Diverse and Citywide Audience."
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Department of Justice, Canada, for “Transforming Canada’s Criminal Justice System”. (Also winner of the award for.
Civicplan for “ForWard One”, a participatory budgeting project to advise on the spending of $1 million in infrastructure funds in Hamilton, Ontario’s Ward One. (Tied with Justice Canada.)
RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND CULTURE
District of Squamish, BC, for “Official Community Plan Update”. The District was determined to bring as many voices and perspectives as possible into the process on visioning the region just north of Vancouver over the next 20 years. To do that, they launched a visually compelling -- and intentionally less-than-slick -- campaign.
The Region of Waterloo, Ontario, and Dillon Consulting, for “Biosolids Strategy”. The region’s plans for dealing with biosolids (otherwise known as poop) ran into heavy opposition from the public at first, so the region stepped up its engagement efforts. Its work to grab people’s attention was slightly daring, maybe a little juvenile and definitely engaging.Our judges! |
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Susanna Haas Lyons is a civic engagement specialist. She designs participation strategies, facilitates complex meetings, and provides training for better conversations between decision-makers and those most impacted by an issue. susannahaaslyons.com Read more. |
Julia Balabanowicz is a trained mediator, facilitator and P2 professional, with six years of experience in Ontario’s electricity sector. Julia is also a mediator with Peacebuilders, an organization that uses restorative peace building dialogues to help youth resolve conflict in their lives. 
Check out the IAP2 Federation's latest Core Values Awards Showcase, which contains eligible submissions to the Core Values Awards from other IAP2 Affiliates in 2016. The Report is there to help share information and ideas and encourage more CVA submissions.