For the second year of the Joint Career Development Program (JCDP) with the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG), more than 1,900 or 2 in 5 ACFO members received professional development training thanks to the $1M investment from Treasury Board as part of ACFO’s last collective agreement signed in April 2017. We are pleased to announce that all recipients of this year’s JCDP training were selected by random draw.

More information about all the JCDP offerings can be found below. We thank the 1,100 FIs who applied for this year’s JCDP and we encourage all members of the FI Community who did not receive or apply for training this year to apply for next year’s program opening in Spring 2019. For more information about the Joint Career Development Program and the types of training listed below, visit the JCDP section of our website.

Spring Tune Up

ACFO’s annual flagship professional development day, the Spring Tune Up, was held in Ottawa at the Shaw Centre on May 15, 2018. With more than 1,100 attendees, Spring Tune Up 2018 was the largest ever, where high profile speakers, including former host of The National Peter Mansbridge, offered inspiring and educational presentations that were useful to the career and personal development of FIs.

A full recap is available here. 2019’s Spring Tune Up will take place on June 4, 2019 at the Shaw Centre and feature Dragon’s Den’s Manjit Minhas. Registration will open in early 2019.

Regional Tune Ups

Nearly 400 FIs from across the country took part in the ACFO Regional Tune Up event series from August to November. These professional development events brought a regional flare to the inspiring and informative talks of the Spring Tune Up, with stops in Winnipeg, Halifax, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Speakers included:

  • Joe Boughner – The Art of the Email
  • Baltej Singh Dhillon – The Sikh Mountie
  • ESDC Senior Management Panel
  • Pierre Lainey – Power and Influence
  • Office of the Comptroller General – Community Development and FI Competency Renewal
  • Dany Richard – Why Office Politics Matter
  • Joti Samra – How to Remain Resilient in Stressful Times
  • Tova Sherman – Win, Win, Win: Achieving the Ultimate in Workplace Satisfaction
  • Carolyn Stern – Leading with Emotional Intelligence

The events also featured a town-hall-style lunch with ACFO President Dany Richard and several networking breaks, giving participants the opportunity to meet other FIs from their region.

IFSD 360 Course

Led by Kevin Page, 30-year veteran of the federal financial community and Canada’s first Parliamentary Budget Officer, the five-day FI-exclusive IFSD 360 course is a full circle insider’s guide to the key facets of the financial cycle. Taught by The Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy (IFSD), this hands-on, interactive course took place in two 20-student cohorts in September and October with FIs from across the country participating. The course was broken down into five modules, including due-diligence and costing, estimates, forecasting, the financial cycle and effective communications.

Recipients

Wendy Boisvert David Charlebois Sereen Choueiri Marie-Ève Côté
Tina Courchesne Savard Ioana Damian Mike Davis Isabelle Desnoyers
Kathleen Dmytryshyn Chantal Laberge Yang Liu Tonya MacNeill desOrmeaux
Kathryn McCarthy Victoria McDougall Joseph Morasse Thomas Nakamaru
Line Leduc Junko Prefontaine Jesleen Rai Xin Ning Wang
Susan Benjamin Michel Benoit Viviana Chan Nathalie Chane-Kive
Emmanuelle Fortier David Griffin Soneviseth Bounsong Monique Krempig
Lily Li Chris MacDonald Omar Nait ouagous Shantanu Rao
Joan Man Mustafa Saleh Yumna Siddiqui-Khan Anna Skoczylas
Lisa Smith Erinn Sunderland Hue Tang Xing Wang

FI Interchange Program

The Interchange program gave 50 FIs the unique opportunity to travel across Canada for one week and enhance their understanding of the duties, challenges and departmental culture that their fellow FIs experience in another region. 25 FIs from the NCR visited FIs in both Toronto and Montreal, while 25 FIs from the regions came to Ottawa.

In addition to job shadowing rotations, participants heard from senior managers and leaders about their vision for the FI Community and networked with FIs from different regions and departments. Regional participants met with the OCG to learn more about TBS and financial management community development, while NCR participants got to take part in the Regional Tune Up.

“I enjoyed being able to meet with colleagues in the FI community from different departments and levels. This allowed me to share best practices and learn from them as well,” one participant from the program said.

FI Interchange Week 1 (Ottawa, September 24-28) Participants

CSC, TBS and GAC

Emma Alday Saghi Bitaraf Marc Cormier Robbie Densmore
Darlene Edouard Ashraf Ghali Muhammad Khan Natacha Breau
Alex Robichaud Sara Saddiki Diane Wood Trevor Vigfusson

FI Interchange Week 2 (Toronto, October 15-19) Participants

ESDC and PSPC

Daniel Da Silva Rene Haddad Jing Ke (Jenny) Han Magdalen Kayanja
Micheline Khouri David (Chun Yu) Lao David Maclean Nicholas Mahon
David Medhin Patricia Murat Yan Wu Jia Qi (Jackie) Yang

FI Interchange Week 3 (Montreal, November 5-9) Participants

ESDC, DEC and CSC

Francine Beauchamp Abdeljabbar Chokki Martin Dorner Melanie Germain
Denise Guenette Audrey Guilbert Hristo Kumchev Sophie Lépine
Duc-Tri Nguyen James Rimmer Karine Surprenant Vivien Zhao
Xinning Zheng

FI Interchange Week 4 (Ottawa, December 3-7) Participants

TBS, ESDC and PSPC

Matthew Buchanan Robert Cerone Christian Dupuis Anna Essex
Zhi Yi Fang Darlene MacKenzie Diane Nguyen Jane Palmer
Ghislain Pigeon Jillian Wabugwe Rakelle Woldeyes Wai Mun (Vivian) Wong
Kathy Yan

Authentic Leadership Course

The two-day Authentic Leadership Course was held in Ottawa by Trillium Teams, who helped 75 FIs from across the country over three cohorts discover their authentic leadership style to be a more effective communicator and engaging leader.

The course combined lecture-style learning, personal reflection time, one-on-one partnerships and group work with the other participants, and topics covered included:

  • Emotional intelligence and how it applies to leadership;
  • The DISC behavioural model to gain insight into more effective communication;
  • Difficult conversations, an ongoing leadership challenge; and
  • Narrative leadership at the heart of clear and memorable communication.

Recipients

Yasir Ahmed Leena Anand Heather Barrett Mélanie Bolduc
Lorenzo Bracci Mariana Calles Susan Cordeiro Yuyi Deng
Minjue Deng Angela Doiron Remi Donelle Sophie Drapeau
Manon Durand Jason Gallie Tania Gardner Julie Houle
Yi Qing Huang Amal Khatib Frederic Lareau Wei-Chun Ling
Imelda Lloren Kyle McLean Gloriose Mutamuliza Sylvie Nadeau-Janelle
Rafik Orfali Chantal Renaud Topo Fu Stephanie St-Jean
Shirley Zeng Nadim Assouad Roberto Dal Grande Christopher Deal
Franziska Dubach Karla Gascon Melissa Gurova Ying Huggins
Shivani Jain Peter Korosi Mike Lightstone Melanie Michaud
Prashanthi Nadarajah Mathilde Ngo Mbom Danielle Pierce Abderrahim Boussani
Sean Russell Maureen Salem James Sapp Hassan Souleiman
Dwayne Talsma Ben Watson Shelian Williams Sissy Wong
Wen Zhang Jeffrey Allo Lise Arsenault Chantal Aubin
Patrizia Diodati Caroline Dulude Najat Fouadi Marie-Claude Gagnon
Marc Guerrier Christine Habimana Mukandilima Karen Hall Danielle Harris
Jean-Francois Jolette Tanos Kairouz Sylvie Labelle Nabila Lagmiri
David Latreille Denise Levecque Stéphanie Maltais Benoit Massé
Hélène Meloche Eileen Lem Ryan Poon Daniela Popescu
Fatima Rahhali Karim Sabtaoui Susan Spohr Rosalinda Lattanzio

CFE Prep Course

Offered by Densmore, the CFE Prep course was offered to 34 FIs writing the Common Final Examination in September 2018. This course provided approach strategies and skills development in preparation to write the three-day CFE. French learners participated in an online version of the prep course provided by LCG Coaching, CPA Inc.

Recipients

Carolyn Allen Lhoussaine Aitzaid Marie Anoman Abdul Ashrad
Joshua Brown Thomas Budnick Suru (Elisee) Cakpo Brodie Carter
Brandon DeRose Ousmane Diallo Olga Dolghi Elysia Drost
Jonathan Eliuk Themiya Ellepola Anitha Ganesan Drew Goyens
Tommy Lee Guerette Russ Hicks Sorina Ioan Kelvin Lee
Di Liu Christina Ly Kevin McIlvenna Melissa Ricco
Christopher Ritchie Hussein Sabbah Amadou Salifou Jia Yun Song
Laila Taga Thuy Tran Sabrina Trieu Boramy Ty
Nicholas Young Vincent Yu

Language Training

100 FIs from across Canada were selected for 25 hours of in-person, one-on-one language training with a language tutor. Scheduling of each recipient’s training was flexible with full-time and part-time training available. FIs in the NCR received training from Ecole de langues La Cité, but FIs in the regions had the option to either arrange their own government-approved vendor or arrange distance training with Ecole de langues La Cité.

“I am glad that I was selected for language training funded by ACFO-OCG. It is a precious opportunity for learning and development,” said one FI.

Language training is ongoing until March 31, 2019, and the list of recipients below is subject to change. Should any spots become available, we will be in touch directly with the applicants next on the list with further instructions.

Recipients

Adebayo Aina Shahzada Akhtar Kanchan Alamelu Nada Almaghrawi
Tricia Anderson Angelo Asimakopoulos Marie-Claude Aubin Mariana Teodora Barbunca
Fouad Ben-Ohoud Luigi Bonacci Sophie Bonneau Nabil Bounagua
Josee Carriere Réginald Châtelain Chloe Cheng Danielle Chénier
Tamara Chiu Jennifer Clavel Jacinthe Côté Sylvie Couillard
Peter Crowley Anh Day Chief Gayathri De Silva Mame Fatou Diop
Samia Ferchichi Stephanie Fullerton Donna Fung Nara Gasparyan
Arsen Gasparyan Li Gerolami Ion Ginga Barry Gleich
Yu ting Gong Borys Goscicki Nicole Gowan Dan Greene
Lessia Harvey Susan Hillier Amy Ho Evan Ho
Ozair Husain Melissa Ismail Amelia King Maxime Labrecque
Éric Lachaine Emily Larocque Tanya Leger Lisa Liang
Stella Liu Sonthonax Lombard Mylene Lu Marilyn Luong
Sondos Mabrouk Anny Maillé Faisal Mamun Lisa Margeson
Helen Mitchell Michael Morris Kaniki Mutonkole Rani Naoufal
Muhammad Ali Nasir Annie Ntumba-Kanyinda Katie Oatway Dominique Pagé
Di Pang Ludovic Pepin Debra Peters Micheline Provick
Yuan Qin Gracy Ragheb Vennila Ramachandran Tammy Robertson
Christine Robinson Mark Ross Annick Routhier Christian Roy
Shane Sabga Derek Sequeira Samantha Shaw Bernadette Sia
Harvinder Sian Jacinthe Simoneau Alazhar Sisay Nick Spanos
Karine St-Louis Ghazala Syed Lily Tang Tameka Thomas
Vanessa Tran Annie Trepanier Clara Tsim Lily Wang
Yun Xu Tom Yang Gang Yin Rana Yorke
Nancy Zhang Xinguo (Tracy) Zhao Si Chen Zhou Yuan Zhu