Speaking Notes for [Company President]
2011 Award of Excellence Presentation§ Good evening. It is my honour to present the 2011 Award of Excellence.
§ 2011 was a remarkable year for [Company Name]. We embarked on thelargest capital program in our company’s history.
§ In August, we marked an unprecedented one full year without a lost timeinjury.
§ And we took on preparations for our centennial year, which is nowunderway. One full century of providing safe, reliable natural gas service toAlbertans is really something to celebrate.
§ These achievements could only be attained with the hard work and devotionof our employees.
§ But 2011 brought an unexpected challenge as well.
§ In May, wildfire ravaged northern Alberta, and the town of Slave Lakewas right in its path.
§ The fire resulted in the evacuation of Slave Lake’s 7,000 residents. Almost400 of the town’s homes, apartment complexes and businesses were completelydestroyed.
§ The fire was the largest natural disaster in the history of ourprovince, and the second largest in Canada. And it was the most significant emergencyresponse project [Company Name] has ever undertaken.
§ All eyes were on us as the events in Slave Lake unfolded. The crisis receivednational and international media attention. The premier, the prime minister andeven members of the British royal family visited Slave Lake. We held thespotlight.
§ But we didn’t sweat. We handled ourselves admirably. We had a job to do,and we were going to do it.
§ Slave Lake was the ultimate test of our response capacity. It provedthat practicing for an emergency is nothing like facing a real one.
§ Nonetheless, we showed ourselves, the community, and the country, thatwe could handle it. And going forward, we’re better equipped because of it.
§ If our response time had been slower; if we hadn’t been prepared; or ifwe weren’t as committed to the well-being of Slave Lake, the outcome could havebeen very different. [PAUSE]
§ Our Chairman, ____, defines excellence as
o Going far beyond the call of duty
o Doing more than others expect
o Striving for the highest standards
o Looking after the smallest detail
o Going the extra mile
o Caring
o And making the special effort to do more.
§ [Company Name] demands excellence not as an exception, but as a rule.And in Slave Lake, our employees rose to the challenge.
§ Not a single employee serving there fell short of this standard. Forthis reason, choosing a single recipient for the 2011 Award of Excellence wasimpossible.
§ Over 200 remarkable [Company Name] employees from all corners of Albertadropped everything at the time of the crisis to help a community brought to itsknees.
§ I’d like to take a moment to recognize a few employees who served astrue leaders and true pillars of excellence during the Slave Lake emergency.
§ ____, Vice President, Edmonton Region Operations and former VicePresident, Parkland. ____ coordinated activities from the command centre inSherwood Park and communicated actions to the executive. ____ practically livedat the command centre for the first two weeks. He supported every need of theteam on the ground.
§ ____, Director, Northeast Calgary and former Manager, Grande Prairie. ____coordinated field activities through our Emergency Operations Centre in SlaveLake.
§ ____, Manager, Customer Service, Edmonton Region Operations, and formerGeneral Supervisor – Service, Capital Region. ____ developed a relight plan,and worked out of Sherwood Park to help dispatch customer service and relightcalls. He also coordinated the influx of [Company Name] staff from across theprovince into the camp at Slave Lake.
§ ____, Manager, Pipelines, Edmonton Region Operations, who supervised there-pressurization plan, and oversaw required field work beforere-pressurization.
§ ____, Manager, North, Integrity and District Engineering, who developedthe re-pressurization plan, and ensured the plan stayed on track.
§ ____, Engineer, Edmonton who provided support to ___, and communicatedthe engineering plan to field personnel.
§ ____, Distribution Foreman – Field, Capital Region, who served as theonsite Field Foreman. ____ supervised several work crews during the first twoweeks of the crisis.
§ ____, Distribution Foreman – Service, Yellowhead, who helped organize arelight plan during the initial emergency stage of the crisis. ____ returnedfor multiple one-week tours to help set meters and return the town to normaloperations during the later recovery stage.
§ ____, Distribution Foreman – Service, Viking, who provided histremendous skill in service, line location and communications. ____ returnedfor several one-week tours to complete meter setup and line locates.
§ ____, Distribution Operator – Field, Grande Prairie, who inspected thework of contractors from June to October with few days off.
§ And ____ and ____, both Distribution Operators – Service, GrandePrairie. ____ and ____ both volunteered for multiple one-week tours to completeday-to-day service work.
[PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE]
§ [Company Name] is a community company. One of our core values is ourcommitment to the communities we serve, and we take that commitment seriously.
§ And I believe this commitment is what helped our folks in Slave Lakerespond so efficiently, and so compassionately.
§ [Company Name] employees live, work and volunteer in the communitiesthey serve. They coach soccer. They help out at soup kitchens. They serve asvolunteer firefighters.
§ Our commitment to our communities makes us more than just a serviceprovider. [Company Name] is a corporate citizen with a vested interest in thecommunities we serve.
§ This year, the Award of Excellence is presented to four people. Thesefour employees embody our company’s commitment to community. In Slave Lake,they took this commitment to remarkable lengths.
§ They dropped everything to help the town. What these recipients did,demands more than a commitment. It demands passion. It demands sacrifice. Itdemands excellence.
§ I’d like to call to the stage this year’s Award of Excellence winners,the Slave Lake Wildfires Community Leadership Team: Mitch ___, Paul ___, Lance ___and Dan ___. [PAUSE – APPLAUSE, WINNERS COME TO STAGE]
§ Each of these four workers has close ties to the town of Slave Lake.Mitch, Paul and Lance have all worked and lived in Slave. Dan, as Supervisor,Distribution Operations in Peace River, is responsible for the district inwhich Slave Lake is located.
§ At the time of the fire, Mitch and Paul were the only [Company Name]employees working and living in Slave Lake. Both also served as volunteerfirefighters and were instrumental in fighting the blaze before it even reachedthe town.
§ But as the flames licked at Slave Lake’s outskirts, Mitch quickly prioritizedhis [Company Name] duties. He promptly shut off natural gas service to theentire town. This simple action prevented the fire from worsening.
§ For nearly two weeks, Paul worked 12-hour days fighting the fires in andaround Slave Lake. When he was finally able to return to his [Company Name]post, he continued to work long days helping the town to recover.
§ As former Distribution Foreman, Slave Lake, Lance’s knowledge of thetown’s natural gas system was crucial to recovery efforts. He travelled fromhis current home in Ponoka, arriving the day after the fire entered the town.He stayed for 12 days without a break at the height of the crisis—longer thanany other employee.
§ And when crisis called, Dan made the snap decision to respond, puttinghis personal obligations aside. He received a call informing him of the situationwhile on the highway, heading to Grande Prairie to pick up his wife from theairport. He immediately changed directions and headed east to Slave. He didn’tsee his wife for over a week afterward.
§ It is the same core value – commitment to the community – that allowedthese four to mobilize as quickly as they did. It is this deep commitment thathelped them immerse themselves in their work, and to speed Slave Lake on theroad to recovery.
§ For truly putting the [Company Name] commitment to community intopractice, for immediately coming to the aid of a town in distress and withoutthought for themselves, and for devoting everything to Slave Lake’s recovery, Ipresent the Slave Lake Wildfires Community Leadership Team with the 2011 [CompanyName] Award of Excellence.
§ Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in congratulating Mitch, Paul, Danand Lance! [APPLAUSE]
