(The Canadian Pacific Railway issued the following news release on April 11.)
CALGARY — Twenty-four Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) employees will receive the first-ever President’s Ingenuity Awards today to recognize their outstanding contributions to the company and their communities.
The five teams and five individuals from across North America will be recognized at a gala dinner tonight for everything from streamlining cross-border train services to saving a colleague’s life.
Rob Ritchie, CPR’s President and Chief Executive Officer said: “The President’s Ingenuity Awards recognize the exceptional efforts of CPR employees who bring resourcefulness, drive and commitment to their jobs every day. The ingenuity of our people is what sets CPR apart and helps us to continue to find new and better ways of doing business.”
CPR’s Executive Committee will select President’s Ingenuity Award winners each year to recognize outstanding employee efforts in a wide range of initiatives.
Some examples of this year’s award winners are:
— Six Coquitlam, B.C. car department employees who raced to the aid of a colleague who had suffered a heart attack on the job. Their quick action and first aid skill not only saved the man’s life, but led to the roll-out of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at facilities across the CPR network
— The Winnipeg-based Border Services team, which transformed CPR’s cross-border operations. Not only did team members reduce costs, but they simplified the complex process of moving more than 16,000 trains a year across the Canada-U.S. border
— Schreiber, Ont-based Kathyrn Hirt, who led a small United Way fundraising team to raise an astonishing $61,000 for the local hospital
— Two employees who implemented real-time tracking systems for automobile shipments that help car manufacturers meet rigorous just-in-time delivery requirements.
Canadian Pacific Railway is Canada’s first transcontinental railway and is the only transcontinental carrier with direct service to the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. CPR’s 14,000-mile network serves the principal centres of Canada, from Montreal to Vancouver, and the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. Its track feeds directly into the Chicago hub from the East and West coasts. Alliances with other carriers extend CPR’s market reach beyond its own network and into the major business centres of Mexico.