Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Monday, July 9, 2007

BEHCHOKO - The Tlicho Community Services Agency, a regional health authority for Tlicho communities, has been given an award by the United Nations, which recognizes public service organizations doing excellent work in nations all around the world.

Minister of Education Culture and Employment Charles Dent and TCSA board members Alphonz Nitsiza and Joe Mackenzie accept a UN Public Service Award in Vienna, Austria. - photo courtesy of the Tlicho Community Services Agency

The United Nations Public Service Awards are given out to recognize innovations and progressive thinking in public service sectors such as health and social assistance and the delivery of basic utilities.

The Tlicho Community Services Agency's unique model combines health services and education services onto a board that is an agency of both the GNWT and the Tlicho Government. TSCA'a CEO, Jim L. Martin, said there's no other organization in the North like it.

Martin said that the TSCA's administration found out about the award a month ago, and they sent members to the ceremony which was being held in Vienna, Austria. Martin was happy about the award, and said the board is excited, but also admitted there is still a lot of work to be done.

"It's great, but it's also a distraction," he said of the award, noting that the TCSA is definitely a work in progress. Martin said that the UN Public Service Award was to honour the model that they use to deliver their programs, and he said it would help his staff to be proud of the work that they do, but he will be much more excited when the program reaches a level where they can be honoured for the work they are doing.

The agency was formed in the late 90s, after chiefs in the region asked the GNWT for a joint agency. That makes the TCSA nearly a decade old, however, in terms of governments, it's definitely still young enough for growing pains.

"We are not trying to hold ourselves up as a paragon of virtue," Martin said of the program, but was also quick to point out that the things the TCSA do well, they do very well.

Martin compared his agency to a bridge that joins public government and tribal government.

They deliver the education and the healthcare services for all the communities in the Tlicho region, much like the normal government would, but also maintains a strong relationship with the Tlicho Government. According to Martin, in the past, Treaty 11 Council members have even sat on his board.

Their first outside recognition came in 2006, when the Department of Education Culture and Employment nominated them for an award for innovative management from the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. Martin said the IPAC were the ones who in turn nominated them for the UNPSA.