230 years of excellence

Transcription

1 Government Services celebrates the past as the Government of New Brunswick looks to the future 230 years of excellence The latest chapter in the story of Government Services begins on Oct. 1, 2015, with the creation of the new Service New Brunswick (SNB). The story began when New Brunswick was established as a British colony in 1784 and continued when it became one of the four original provinces at Confederation in It is a good-news story that goes well beyond SNB. It also includes the Department of Government Services (DGS), the New Brunswick Internal Services Agency (NBISA) and FacilicorpNB. What is taking place is drawn from a century-old system in British Columbia known as the Crown Agent. It provided one-stop shopping for government services in rural areas of that province. It was back in a different era with radically different technology, of course, but the central principle is the same: Service is first, technology is second, says Robert (Bob) W. Gamble, the first president of SNB as a Crown corporation under this name and its predecessor, the New Brunswick Geographic Information Corporation (NBGIC). SNB can also be traced to the Department of the Provincial Secretary, The Provincial Secretary was responsible for the administration of major revenue acts; a seretarial function; and Tax Administration, Tax Audit, General Administration, Motor Vehicle Branch, the New Brunswick Travel Bureau and yes the Censor Board. In , Finance had begun to test and implement the Human Resource Information system (HRIS) in concert with the Office of the Comptroller and what was then Supply and Services. HRIS, considered state of the art at the time, delivered Personnnel and Payroll Services for Part 1 departments and agencies. SNB s namesake was established as a pilot project under the Provincial Tax Commission at Finance in the 1990s. It was an experiment to find ways to ease long lineups for licences as well as a tendancy within the bureaucracy 1

2 In 1975, Highways was renamed Transportation, which, in 2012, became Transportation and Infrastructure as it took over the Buildings Division from Supply and Services. At the same time, Supply and Services became DGS and took on responsibility for Corporate Marketing Services from Communications New Brunswick (CNB). This brick building used to be located on St. John Street in Fredericton, between King and Queen streets. The New Brunswick Travel Bureau was first housed there, It was later occupied by the Highway Engineers Branch, Department of Public Works. The structure was torn down to make way for the Playhouse (PANB P4-2-52). The mapping function of SNB dates to the creation in 1973 of the Land Registration Information Service (LRIS), an agency of the Council of Maritime Premiers. LRIS developed mapping and assembled land information considered advanced for the time. New Brunswick had already started repatriating its portion of LRIS when it created NBGIC in 1990, assuming responsibility for LRIS, Land Registry Offices and the Assessment Branch. NBGIC absorbed SNB in 2006; two years later, the agency assumed the name SNB when it was expanded and became the first public sector multi-service agency in Canada. In February 1988, Supply and Services transferred most of its head office consisting of the minister s and deputy minister s staff, Finance and Administration as well as the Buildings Division from the Centennial Building to the newly renovated Marysville Place, named a National Historic Site in This photo was taken in 1945 (PANB P194-55). to pass along calls from the public in what Mr. Gamble describes as telephone ping-pong. We called it lost-wallet scenario, he says. If you lost your wallet, what would you have to do to get a new driver s licence, medicare card, birth certificate.at that time, if you did not apply for the cards in the right order, you had to start again, going around the loop. The central agency functions of Procurement and Building Maintenance date to the Board of Public Works, It was known as the Department of Public Works, In 1968, the department was split in two: Highways; and Public Works, the latter becoming Supply and Services in Twelve men with survey equipment attend a University of New Brunswick engineering camp in Taymouth, 1903 (PANB P30-4). The implementation of a provincial Land Titles system in 2001 was the most important change to land management since the original Registry of Deeds system was adopted in Land Titles is a parcel-based land registration system that records interests in real property. GNB guarantees title when a parcel is converted to Land Titles. TeleServices can be traced to New Brunswick Inquiries, a toll-free information service for the public dating to at least During its first 10 years, N.B. Inquiries answered nearly 500,000 calls. It became part of the New Brunswick Information Service (NBIS) and later with the communications division of Supply and Services. In 1994, the teleservice function became part of the Customer Services Branch at Finance. Two years later, it later became part of NBGIC, then SNB. 2

3 NBISA originated with the Internal Services Alignment (ISA) introduced in 2008 through Supply and Services. ISA s mandate was to develop a shared services delivery model that would realign common services information management and technology, human resources and financial and administrative services within GNB. As a result of ISA s work, NBISA was established in 2010, taking over the mandate of ISA. It was aligned with SNB and DGS in FacilicorpNB dates to March 2008 with the establishment of the Non-Clinical Health Shared Services Agency (NCHSSA). This move coincided with the consolidation of health authorities into what are today known as the Horizon and Vitalité health networks. FacilicorpNB assumed its present name in September of that year. Gordon Gilman was the first president and chief executive officer. In 2013, FacilicorpNB launched Supply Chain Renewal, a process that is at the heart of the new SNB. A land petition from William Fisher, 1785 (PANB RS-108). Above: Three unidentified workers sort through documents that had been transferred to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) for safekeeping during the record-setting flood on the St. John River in 1973 (PANB P241). Below: Edith Reed restores an artifact, circa 1970 (PANB P231). NBISA held a management retreat in Fredericton, From left: Ray Butler, HR director (foreground); Larry Schriver, Project Management Organization (PMO); Trevor Flynn, IT; Monica Ward, director, Hire to Retire; and an unidentified colleague. The first annual report of SNB as a Crown corporation states: A telephone service providing information on government programs, services, and personnel and a vehicle registration renewal service is available toll-free from our Call Centre. The archival and records management functions of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) date to Over the decades, New Brunswick s historical 3

4 documents, records and artifacts became seriously disorganized and under looming threat of loss or irreversible damage. No one agency was responsible the Legislative Library, individual departments, the New Brunswick Museum and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) each held collections. The overall situation had become so dire that, acting on a recommendation from an archivist from the Public Archives of Canada in 1966, Public Works provided emergency storage space for the collections. PANB was established in 1967, taking over the Bonar Law-Bennett Library at UNB the following year. When the Canadian maple leaf flag was first raised in New Brunswick in 1965, then-premier Louis Robichaud delivered a commemoration speech distributed by the Central News Bureau. Government communications later became the responsibility of the communications division at Supply and Services as well as NBIS, which came under the Executive Council Office. In 1990, NBIS was re-organized as CNB, which was responsible for marketing-communications functions such as the GNB newswire, advertising, graphic design, audio-visual and web services. CNB was dissolved as part of government restructuring in March 2012, leading, in part, to the creation of Corporate Marketing Services at DGS. Official translation services date to 1967 when the Translation Bureau was established under Public Works. Simultaneous translation at the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick began around the same time. Legislative translation dates to the Revised Statutes of New Brunswick, released in 1973 in both official languages. Parliamentary translation began in 1977 when a Debates Section was created at the Translation Bureau. The Debates Section was transferred to the legislative assembly in 1982 and renamed Debates Translation in The work performed by the bureau helps departments and agencies meet GNB s obligations under the Official Languages Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Susan McCloskey, standing, works with Verna Arseneault, at a teletype machine at NBIS, The Corporate Marketing Services Branch traces its origins to 1927 with the Bureau of Information and Tourist Travel. This agency operated until 1951, when it became the New Brunswick Travel Bureau, which operated under the Provincial Secretary until Vital Statistics and Corporate Registry services were transferred from Health and Justice, respectively, to SNB. The Office of the Rentalsman was also transferred from Justice. Bringing these vital, common services under one roof helped to make SNB the one-stop source for public services it is today. 4

5 The evolving story about Government Services at GNB is about employees such as Ed Werthmann, Joanne Lynch, Monica Ward, April Brewer and Janice Cook in Fredericton. It is about Caroline Landry and Roger Allain in Bathurst; Diane Cyr in Campbellton; Pauline Girard in Dalhousie; Geneviève Lacroix in Shediac; and Larry Brien in Saint John. Following are their individual stories, intended to be representative of all of us in Government Services. Two generations at GNB Ed Werthmann, Fredericton Ed is the longest-serving employee in the branch, having joined GNB in He was hired as a commercial artist, assigned to NBIS, where his father, Bill, was a graphic artist. Ed Werthmann stands next to a water colour painting he completed to support the Summer Reading Program run by the New Brunswick Public Library Service. Enter Room 204, Marysville Place. Look to the right. You will see a splash of green and yellow mounted on the wall. It is a fanciful water colour painting of a mop-topped boy, maybe around 12 years old, reading aloud from a book while sitting on the lap of a bemused dinosaur. Other Jurassic creatures gather around to listen. The backdrop is none other than the Hopewell Rocks. Ed s career has followed sweeping changes in graphic arts technology. When he started out, graphic art was the domain of cut-and-paste, wax, Exacto knives and drafting tables. Today, he uses a MacIntosh platform, designing a variety of products brochures, desktop reports, posters, publications and the occasional illustration, for print, the web or both. He designed and contributed to a static display requested by PANB touching on Irish immigration to the province. This went on tour around the province, nationally and internationally, including Ireland. He did a similar display for PANB about the Maritime fishing industry and has completed displays for departments for use at trade shows. Ed is particularly proud of any project that gives him a chance to use his artistic skills. A recent example: he designed, provided illustrations and contributed text to this year s Fire Safety Gazette, a publication intended for children from kindergarten to Grade 5. Ed was born in Chamberlains, Newfoundland and Labrador. He and his wife, Wendy, live in Durham Bridge. This is the artistic creation of Ed Werthmann, senior designer with Corporate Marketing Services. He drew the scene in 2005 to support the Summer Reading Program run by the New Brunswick Public Library Service. 5

6 A leader in procurement and negotiation Joanne Lynch, Fredericton In , 75 per cent of all tendered purchase orders were awarded to New Brunswick suppliers. Joanne carries a copy of the act dog-eared and bearing many tabs for quick reference just about everywhere, even home, so she can answer frequent s about tendering. Joanne was also the lead New Brunswick negotiator in the procurement chapter of the Canada-European Union: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). In addition, Joanne developed the first New Brunswick Opportunities Network (NBON), an electronic bulletin board enabling vendors to access tender calls. When it went live in 1992, it used a remote dial-in system. Today, NBON is entirely online. In , about 20 per cent of bids were received electronically by NBON, up from 18 per cent the year before. Joanne Lynch holds her often-used copy of the Procurement Act, which came into effect last year. Joanne Lynch, director, Procurement Operations, Strategic Procurement, works across the hall from Ed Werthmann at Marysville Place. They have known each other since the NBIS days, when she did administrative work and typesetting. Since then, Joanne has been at the centre of three key developments in procurement. She drafted the Procurement Act and its regulations, which came into effect in October The act replaced the Public Purchasing Act, which had been in place for 40 years. The Procurement Act streamlines and modernizes how GNB buys goods and services while providing more opportunity for businesses in the province and respecting New Brunswick s obligations under different trade agreements. These are impressive achievements for an employee who joined GNB 32 years ago as a dispatcher with the old New Brunswick Highway Patrol. Joanne first came to Procurement in 1991 as vendor registrar and assumed various roles until she became the director in In 2009, she accepted a secondment to ISA, followed by a two-year secondment Intergovernmental Affairs, Trade Policy, and a one-year assignment at SNB. In 2013, she returned to Strategic Procurement as a director, where she remains to this day. In , Strategic Procurement procured more than $481 million in goods and services and achieved savings to GNB of more than $32 million. Central Tendering processed more than 1,800 requisitions. Central Stores handled more than 8,800 requisitions, generating sales of about $3.1 million. Joanne was born in Minto, grew up in Grand Falls and today lives in Fredericton with her husband Gary. 6

7 From Land Registration to Land Titles (Part I) Caroline Landry, Bathurst This remained a county-based system until the adoption in 2001 of the Land Titles system considered the most important reform in land management since the founding of New Brunswick. That was a real turning point in history, she says. Caroline Landry shows a PLANET property map with an orthophoto background of the Tracadie River area. Caroline Landry has been lead co-ordinator, Land Registry Operations Registries Branch, Operations, since She and her colleagues oversee the Land Registry system, which identifies and records interests in real property. Land Registry was established on a county-by-county basis in 1785, the year after New Brunswick become a British colony separate from Nova Scotia. Land Registry (deeds) was cumbersome and time consuming. When a property changed hands or was mortgaged, a lawyer or title searcher had to search books of historical documents to determine the owner, where the land was located and whether any liens were charged against it. Under Land Titles, GNB guarantees title. Historical title searchers are not needed once a parcel is converted to Land Titles, which uses an advanced computer system called PLANET. Regular clients can now access property information from their home or office. In 1982, Caroline was hired as a casual with LRIS and later secured a full-time property mapper position there. When GNB abandoned LRIS in 1989, Caroline joined NBGIC. Caroline is originally from Inkerman and today lives in Bathurst. From Land Registration to Land Titles (Part II) Larry Brien, Saint John It was the biggest structure in which Larry Brien had ever been inside. That was in He was the first property assessor to inspect three behemoth natural gas container tanks at Canaport LNG, the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Canada, located just east of Saint John. Each concrete container is large enough to hold 2 ½ of the Irving Oil tanks visible at the company s nearby oil refinery. Larry Brien still cannot believe the size of the natural gas container tanks at Canaport LNG. He was the first property assessor to examine the structures. He was named Assessor of the Year in

8 My jaw just dropped to the ground when I stood inside and saw the size of the things, Larry recalls. You simply cannot imagine how large they are. Not that long ago, Larry was part of the heavy industrial team that examined what was then known as the St. Anne Nackawic Pulp Company Ltd. mill. It was a huge setting but no one was there, and not a machine was running. It was eerie in a way, he remembers. Larry s career has been similar to that of Caroline Landry s in Bathurst. He, too, started with LRIS and then moved to NBGIC. In 1996, he moved to residential assessments, and two years after that, he assumed his current job: senior valuation specialist, Property Assessment, responsible for St. John, Kings and Charlotte counties. Larry has developed an in-house refresher course for commercial and industrial assessors. It reinforces their knowledge and ability in field work and analytical work; how best to examine a sale; even, how to assess vacant properties. Two years ago, Larry was named Assessor of the Year for New Brunswick. Larry s team and its counterparts across the province assess property at their real and true market value. They use mass appraisal techniques that achieve objective assessments as well as uniformity of assessments. They conduct annual field inspections; gather information from sale of properties; conduct sale interviews with owners and/or former owners; investigate building permits, damage to properties from fires or natural disasters; and discuss with clients the various aids available to help relieve some of the tax burden. They also prepare required information when an appeal is filed. Larry was born in Moncton but grew up in Saint John. Today, he and his wife, Debbie, live in Saint John. You re a life saver Diane Cyr, Campbellton had the cheque rerouted to the client s new address within a couple of days. She also confirmed the address to ensure future cheques would be sent there. He called me later, and he called me a life saver and a doll, she recalls. Diane carries out a back-office function, helping income assistance recipients and intervening, when needed, in third-party billing matters. About a year after graduating from Sugarloaf Senior High School, she landed a three-week placement with what was then New Brunswick Housing. That was 30 years ago last month. Diane Cyr is shown with her pet dog, Tank, which she affectionately nicknames her 110-pound cat. About a year ago, a young man in the Campbellton on long-term care was worried that his next cheque would arrive at his old address. Enter Diane Cyr, a client and case officer with NBISA in Campbellton. She contacted NBISA in Fredericton and She earned positions of increasing responsibility, moving from N.B. Housing to Social Development, then to NBISA. She was brought on-board to work in Accounts Payable as well as in three program areas: N.B. Families, N.B. Case (income assistance) and N.B. Housing. She became a permanent employee in To say Diane is busy outside of work is an understatement. She is a member of Campbellton city council. 8

9 She is on the board of directors of the Restigouche County Volunteer Association, which operates a local soup kitchen. She has been president of the annual Salmon Festival. She also established the Diamond Dinner Club, which has raised $150,000 for worthy causes during the last 10 years. Diane is originally from Verdun, Que., and has lived in Campbellton since she was a young child. Pride in her team s accomplishments Monica Ward, NBISA Monica Ward has been director of Hire to Retire at NBISA for the past five years or so. Hire to Retire will be renamed Payroll and Benefits Services on Oct. 1. While NBISA formally came into effect on April 1, 2010, the office did not open until June 18 a day Monica remembers with pride. I found it really exciting to be a part of that, she recalls. It was a feeling of accomplishment. When you look back on my career that was a good day. In the early days of NBISA, Monica oversaw the integration of 50 of her staff who had been embedded in other departments. They arrived at the agency, department by department, on a rolling basis. NBISA s first five-year plan set a target for Payroll and Benefits to achieve savings of $2.988 million. Midway through that plan, NBISA has already surpassed this target, achieving savings slightly exceeding $3 million. Since 2012, NBISA has processed more than 381,000 leave requests, 150,000 in alone. Through Employee Self-Service, NBISA has handled these requests efficiently and quickly. Monica Ward holds a picture made on a computer by her daughter, Erica, when she was eight years old. The picture includes an inscription from Erica: I love you Mom. Monica framed the image and some artwork below, also done by Erica, now 24. Monica proudly displays the keepsake at her office. previous provincial government to the current one. NBISA collaborated with DHR and client departments in this effort. NBISA was responsible for making payroll and benefits payments to about 8,400 civil servants as well as 1,100 casual employees. In , NBISA expanded the new Public Service Shared Risk Plan to include 1,100 casual employees. That was a significant challenge: her shop was using the Human Resource Information System (HRIS). In use since 1993, HRIS was not designed to capture this information for casual employees. Monica and her staff identified these individuals and programmed, tested, implemented and monitored HRIS to ensure it included them in the shared risk plan. The agency had already been delivering pension benefits to 31,000 retirees on behalf of the Department of Human Resources (DHR). Last October, for the first time, NBISA served as the sole co-ordinating agency managing the transition from the 9 NBISA processed more than 32,500 service requests, or more than 132,000 transactions covering appointments, salary, pension and insured benefits as well as other regulatory payments. Monica joined GNB 19 years ago when SNB was part of Finance. Monica later moved to the Department of Post- Secondary Education, Training and Labour, where she worked in Human Resources and Change Management. Monica was born in Gibraltar and moved with her family to Fredericton, where she continues to live with her husband, Mike.

10 An award-winning driver examiner Roger Allain, Bathurst Question: when four cars arrive at a four-way stop, which one gets the right-of-way? a. The one that arrives first. b. The one on your right if it arrives as the same time as you. Roger Allain knows the answer (so should we, too!). He has been a driver examiner with SNB in Bathurst since In 2008, he was recognized as Driver Examiner of the Year in New Brunswick. Five years later, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) named him Outstanding Examiner of the Year for all of North America. Roger is a Level 3 driver examiner, meaning he is qualified to carry out examinations for drivers of commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, motorcycles and trikes. He also carries out the duties of Level 1 examiners (written and vision tests) and Level 2 examiners (road tests for passenger vehicles). Roger is the only full-time driver examiner in Bathurst, so he has been providing cross-training to two Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to carry out Level 1 testing. Last year, his office conducted nearly 1,700 written tests, 742 road tests and 96 motorcycle tests in addition to five other kinds of examinations. Roger has been part of a foreign licence exchange review and the migration of the Driver Examiner manuals to Roger Allain shows perfect technique for steering a car both hands on the wheel, at 10 and 2. He was named best driver examiner in New Brunswick in 2008 and best driver examiner in North America in SNB s Sharepoint site. He has represented his fellow driver examiners in a Lean Six Sigma review on writtentest processing. Roger is a union activist and is a member of the Clerical and Regulatory Group of the New Brunswick Union. The bargaining group signed a new collective agreement with GNB earlier this month. Roger is originally from Petit-Rocher and today lives in Beresford....Returning to that multiple choice question: When four cars arrive at a four-way stop, which one gets the rightof-way: Both answers are correct. 10

11 One of the original employees at TeleServices Pauline Girard, Dalhousie her colleagues had received extensive training but there was a significant difference between that and responding to an actual call. Then it happened that first call. Pauline remembers it was from an elderly gentleman making a general inquiry of some kind. When he hung up, I thought, that wasn t so bad, she says. Pauline Girard is passionate about helping clients contacting the SNB TeleServices Centre. She is also passionate about gardening check out the fresh carrots from her garden. Pauline Girard, a teleservice agent, is among four employees who have worked at the SNB TeleServices Centre since it opened in The centre handles calls six days a week: from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Pauline remembers the challenges at hand during the early days of the centre. Wiring was still being installed, and the computers were not yet running. She and Pauline showed her professionalism and her compassion when a woman called from Fredericton, trying to renew her vehicle registration. The caller was eating a sandwich, probably containing peanuts, when she started to have an allergic reaction. Pauline offered to contact 911 on her behalf. They finished the renewal, and by the end of the call, the woman said she was feeling better and felt a call to 911 was not necessary. She added that she felt better knowing Pauline was keeping an eye on her it case her situation worsened. Sometime afterward, the caller was in Dalhousie and took time out to thank Pauline in person. Pauline and her colleagues receive inquiries of all kinds from all places. They often get callers thinking they have reached Tele-Care 811. Others call about student loans, Medicare renewals, vehicle registration and even passports from around the province, across Canada, even as far away at China and Switzerland. The operating hours require shiftwork, which Pauline and her co-workers share on a rotating basis. While the hours make it a little difficult to make appointments from time to time, there is a side benefit. The office is tranquil at night, staffed by a team of three. Pauline is originally from Campbellton. She her husband, Gilles, live in Dalhousie. 11

12 A person of many duties, interests, talents April Brewer, Burtts Corner April Brewer is the provincial administrator, corporate credit cards, and administrator, HST file, at NBISA. She and her husband, Bruce, operate a farm that has been in the family for 100 years. They have been married for 39 years and have been farming for 35 years. She has attended six Canada Games over 24 years. She was an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for more than 12 years. April started her career at GNB 29 years ago at what is today the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, working at Accounts Payable and as a backup at Payroll. In 2010, April joined NBISA to establish a centralized, standardized credit card system within GNB. Until then, each department had its own purchase card protocol. As provincial administrator, corporate credit cards (P-cards), April monitors about 3,500 active credit cards used in Parts 1 and 2. GNB employees charge, on average, several millions of dollars each year (school districts account for about half of that). The average expenditure is $100 do the math, and the average number of expenditures is jaw-dropping. It s a big chunk of change, she says. You have to pay attention to detail. April trains and works with administrators/coordinators in each department to ensure employees use their P-card in accordance with GNB policies. She trains staff at NBISA on how to carry out pre-audits. April is also the provincial administrator for the HST file. She reviews accounts that GNB remits to Ottawa once a month as well as point-of-sale HST accounts rebated to GNB twice a month. April Brewer stands next to four things that summarize her professional career and life outside of work: a lamb, reminding her of the farm she and husband Bruce run near Burtts Corner; her eldest grandson, Ben; her future dream bike, which she hopes to buy within a year; and a GNB calendar showing her HST deadlines. I have the best job here, April says of her two roles. I am the highest point of reference in my areas. I find solutions, not just to resolve immediate problems. I have to be sure to comply with provincial acts and regulations. I also have to be consistent across government, mindful of setting precedents. April developed her abilities in business while working on the family s farm. It is the only one still operating on Route 617 north of Burtts Corner. April and Bruce own about 95 per cent of the original farm, or roughly 120 hectares. Their oldest grandson, Ben, 12, lives with them. April has been active with Team New Brunswick at the Canada Winter Games since At the Games held in Prince George, B.C., this year, she coached the province s target shooting team, which brought back three medals in two categories. Three athletes returned home to New Brunswick wearing medals (gold and silver). 12

13 Dedication personified Geneviève Lacroix, Shediac Geneviève is balancing these duties with her responsibilities as a mother of two boys. Even when she is away from home, Geneviève continues to homeschool her 14-year-old, Cédric. Each evening for about an hour, she uses Skype to review his homework with him. It is just as impressive to hear how she tended to her six-year-old, Anthony. She hired a nanny to accompany them during her travels. That person was Evelyn Sawyer, a former CSR at SNB in Bouctouche. Geneviève took over Evelyn s full-time CSR job when she, Evelyn, retired in I was certainly blessed, says Geneviève, who had been working as a part-time CSR for three years prior. Geneviève Lacroix, standing, shows Carole Cormier how to enter information in the L-Plate tool. Geneviève Lacroix can be on the road for several days at a time two weeks or longer, sometimes and often leaves the house by 6:30 a.m. and only returns by suppertime. This is because of her duties as a trainer with Service Delivery Support, SNB. One of only two people in this position, Geneviève carries out training to employees from Edmundston to Moncton. She provides training to new hires as well as specialized professional development sessions for existing employees. In addition, she has been delivering training to the SNB TeleServices Centre and the CSR Help Desk. Geneviève was transferred to SNB in Richibucto, where she worked for a year before going on maternity leave. Upon her return, she worked at the service counter in Bouctouche and then was offered her current position. Geneviève remembers a day when she was the only CSR over lunch in the office. It became very busy, very quickly. One client, the owner of a car dealership, had waited for 90 minutes by the time he reached Geneviève. She spent 45 minutes to complete his transaction. By that time about 2 p.m. she had missed her lunch a fact not lost on the client. I promised him that I would take at least 10 minutes for lunch, she recalls. And, so, he brought in a sandwich for me from Subway. Geneviève is originally from Limoges, Ont. She and her husband, Gradon, live in Shediac. 13

14 Preserving the past for our future Janice Cook, Fredericton It was not much of a holiday feast: cold Maconochie (canned stew rations, made of sliced turnip, carrots and potatoes, in a thin soup) and tea. But that is all that James Walter McIntyre, a lance corporal in the Canadian Infantry (New Brunswick Regiment), had before him in the trenches on Christmas Day, As he wrote in his diary about his service during the First World War: In the afternoon, we practically stopped shelling, and both sides rose above the parapets and called over greetings to each other. We waved everything at hand at them, and no doubt we would have soon had had them over in No-Man s land to see and meet us if the artillery had not opened up with some shrapnel. James, a preacher from Saint John, was killed in action the following year in Belgium. He was 22 years old. Today, his diary, its black leather cover weathered and wrinkled by time, its pages dog-eared and yellowed with age, is part of 3,900 collections under the care of Janice Cook, an archivist in the private-sector records division at PANB. Janice is part of a team of dedicated professionals collecting and preserving the documents of the people, institutions and government of New Brunswick. PANB also maintains government records, maps and plans; photographs; sounds and moving images; and architectural drawings. The Archives carries out conservation and provides corporation information management (maintaining government-wide records management under the Archives Act). As part of her duties, Janice carries out painstaking Janice Cook reads a passage from a diary written by Lance Corporal James Walter McIntyre, originally from Saint John, while serving in the Allied trenches during the First World War. research to complete documents known as Finding Aids. She completed one on what she considers a spectacular find : seven diaries by suffragist and social reformer Jessie Sutton Flewelling, spanning from 1908 to To Janice s knowledge, these are the only diaries about the suffragette movement at PANB. That was a bit of a thrill to find that one, she says. It is not common, that is for sure. Janice is originally from McAdam and today lives in Fredericton. Credits Stories by David Meagher, senior content editor, Corporate Marketing Services Branch. Robin Corey, change management lead, and Meghan MacAfee, human resources adviser, provided invaluable assistance. PANB kindly provided archival photographs. The Legislative Library kindly helped with research. 14