Ottawa, Ontario -- Tuesday, October 6, 2009 -- GTEC 2009, last night acknowledged 36 Honourees for outstanding public sector leadership in innovation during the sixteenth annual Distinction Awards at the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa. From 78 nominations in 2009, top public sector IT leaders were recognized for exceptional performance in the following groups: Federal, Provincial, Municipal, National and Leadership.

With the introduction of a new event format as well as a new location, The National Gallery of Canada, for the first time since the event was established over 16 years ago, the 2009 Distinction Awards formally recognized public IT leadership in two principle ways: first, by presenting all nominated projects that clear the first round of judging with a "Service Delivery Award"; and secondly, creating a new "Gala Celebration" that project teams, leaders, deputies and executives all could participate in. Just over 550 attended the event including government CIOs, invited Deputy Ministers, leaders in industry and Canada