2010 Canadian Payroll Association Award Winners

TORONTO, Aug. 11 /CNW/ - The Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2010 Payroll Profession Awards. The Awards Banquet held on July 8 honoured the achievements of CPA members, subject matter experts, staff and special partners.

    
    -  Alan Sinclair, Team/Project Leader, Pay Services for the Ontario Power
       Generation, was the recipient of the 2010 Diana Ferguson Award in
       recognition of his contributions to the advancement of the CPA's
       mission, objectives and values of "Community, Professionalism and
       Authoritative Knowledge."
    

Alan Sinclair received the award for his significant contributions to the CPA over 17 years. He has performed many roles, including Chair of the Board of Directors (2005-2006), co-chair of the Federal Government Relations Advisory Council (FGRAC), Chair of the Payroll Continuity Guidelines Task Force, member of the 2010 By-laws Review Task Force, Board Director, and Executive Committee for four years. He provided his expertise during that time to CPA's major projects: Graduated Penalties on Payroll remittances, Best 14 Week's administration of the ROE, and the Tax on Net Income (TONI). His insights were instrumental in having the Board of Directors identify that based on market research, the CPA needed to develop two certifications: one for the practitioner market and one for the manager segment. Alan was also the initiator of enhancing member's communications skills by using National Payroll Week (NPW) to deliver professional education sessions in a reasonably priced, broadly available forum. Over the last four years, this has become one of the CPA's most successful activities and one of his legacies.

    
    -  Service Canada was the recipient of the CPA's 2010 Partner Award,
       which recognizes a private or public sector organization's outstanding
       work in assisting the CPA to achieve its ongoing objectives.
    

The CPA has had mutually beneficial relationship Service Canada because of its active participation in the Federal Government Relations Advisory Council (FGRAC). Service Canada contributed to two very significant achievements that reduced administrative burden for employers and the department: the administration of the Best 14 Weeks ROE project, based on seasonal workers in the specific industries affected; and the change to EI regulation 19(3), recognizing employer pay periods in the timing of submission of electronic ROEs and eliminating the need for a paper ROE. Excellent progress has been made in establishing two-way communication for the advancement of the ROE Web, including the establishment of the ROE Usability Subcommittee and the ROE Guide Task Force. Service Canada continues to focus on improving the registration processes for the ROE Web and ROE SAT applications for the benefit of employers. It also works with the CPA to provide regular webinars and interactive sessions at the CPA's Annual Conference and Trade Show.

    
    -  André Potvin, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), received the CPA's 2010
       Special Contributor Award, which recognizes an individual who has made
       a significant contribution to the payroll profession.
    

André Potvin has portrayed the relationship between the CRA and the CPA in government circles as the model of effective government and employer consultation. He was involved with FGRAC for over ten years and made it very clear that the CPA is one of his most valued relationships. He was a key supporter of graduated penalties, which took over five years to have finalized. It would not have been legislated without his support with three different CRA Commissioners over that time. He often comments about the magnitude of payroll remittances as 65% of all government revenues. He made this point and other supportive statements on CPA's professionalism on our 25th Anniversary video. His view of the CPA and the CRA relationship - "that if we sometimes disagree, we do so professionally" - exemplifies André as a partner of the payroll profession.

    
    -  Richard Rousseau received a Honourary Member Award for his outstanding
       service to the Association as a member of the Executive Committee of
       the CPA.
    

With over 20 years of experience in payroll, human resources and information technology, Richard Rousseau, Vice-President of Sales and Industry Relations, D.L.G.L. Limited, joined the Board of Directors in 2003 and became Chairman in 2008. He also serves as Team Lead for the Provincial Government Relations Committee (PGRAC) in Quebec and has been a key contributor to CPA's growth in Quebec. He has been instrumental in the expansion of CPA's profile with Quebec government officials, meeting with MRQ, CSST, CNT and Conseil d'exécutif officials. He also assisted the CPA's certification department to expand the offering of the program at CEGEPs in Quebec. One of his biggest contributions was as a CPA media representative in Quebec during NPW, when he was on Radio Canada and did many radio and print media interviews. He is also the President and co-founder of the HRMS Professionals Association.

    
    -  The Certification Awards recognize the students who have attained the
       highest overall marks nationwide in the compulsory payroll courses of
       CPA's Certification Programs for 2009. The 2010 winners are:

    Gold: Jing Liang, PCP
    Silver: Monica Bridge, PCP
    Bronze: Subashini Thirumeni Govindarajan, PCP

    -  CPA President Patrick Culhane received his 10-Year Service Award.
    

Under Patrick's leadership in the last ten years, the CPA has:

    
    -  Increased membership by 160% to 15,800 organizations and professionals
    -  Developed a strategic plan that continuously improves the Association
    -  Enhanced its federal and provincial government relations profile and
       results
    -  Redeveloped its Certification programs which has dramatically
       increased professional members
    -  Expanded its products and services such as web seminars and
       JobConnect, and
    -  Increased annual revenues by 140% from 5 million dollars to 12 million
       dollars.
    

Patrick also represents employers' views on several government committees (Canada Revenue Agency, Industry Canada, Service Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada). He contributes to other associations as a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) where he chairs their Government Relations Committee and is a member of the CSAE Knowledge Management Task Force. His expertise has been recognized internationally, with awards from the United Kingdom's Institute of Payroll Professionals for assisting their strategic development and the American Payroll Association, which stated, "Culhane has overseen his association's growth into a world-class professional organization."

    
    -  All of the active Subject Matter Experts and the Regional Coordinators
       for the Atlantic, Ontario, Pacific, Prairie and Quebec Regions were
       also recognized for their contributions to the CPA.
    

Congratulations to all of the award winners! You truly deserve the recognition for your accomplishments and contributions to the success of the CPA.

The Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) has influenced the payroll compliance practices and processes of hundreds of thousands of employers since 1978. Its mission is Payroll Leadership through Advocacy and Education. Effective and efficient payroll administration is mission-critical given the magnitude of the payments made by employers and the breadth of the legislative compliance requirements. Payroll professionals, on behalf of Canada's 1.5 million employers, annually pay $730 billion in wages and benefits, $200 billion in remittances to the Canada Revenue Agency, $30 billion in remittances to the Ministère du Revenu du Quebec, and $80 billion in health and retirement benefits. In addition, payroll administers 25 million T4s, 8 million T4As, and 6 million RL-1s - all while complying with over 185 pieces of federal/provincial legislation and regulatory requirements. www.payroll.ca

For further information: Wendy McLean-Cobban, CMP, ABC, Manager, Communications & Regional Programs, The Canadian Payroll Association, Tel: [phone] ext. 111, Toll Free: 1-800-387-4693, Fax: [phone], Email: [email protected]