Fredericton, NB -- The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) has announced the New Brunswick recipients of the 2004 IT Community Hero Award. Eight individuals and organizations from across the province have been honoured. The IT Community Hero Award recognizes individuals or organizations across Canada who have made a significant contribution in their communities through the use or application of innovative IT projects.

"One of the great parts about presenting the winners with the IT Community Hero Awards is that it gives all New Brunswickers a chance to see the true range of IT accomplishments in the province," said Linda Oliver, Executive Director of Government Relations, ITAC. "It's always so rewarding to highlight the expertise, enthusiasm and innovation that drive the knowledge-based economy in this region of the country."

ITAC is grateful to the National Research Council Institute for Information Technology - e-Business for its assistance this year in coordinating the IT Hero Awards Committee for New Brunswick.

The 2004 recipients are:

• Johanne Austin, teacher, Quispamsis Elementary School
• Collectivité ingénieuse de la Péninsule acadienne (CIPA) inc., Paquetville
• Peter Dielissen, Director of Academic Computing at St Thomas University and recently retired Chairman of Enterprise Fredericton's Knowledge Industry Task Force (KITF) Cybersocial Committee
• Robert Griffin and Andrew Jones, teachers at Grand Manan Community School
• Stéphane Leclair, former Executive Director of Connect NB Branché and currently Executive Director of the Centre Communautaire Sainte-Anne, Fredericton
• Remsoft Inc., Fredericton
• xwave, Saint John

xwave
xwave assisted Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation to construct an information-capturing strategy around women's breast health. During this philanthropic process the team educated the AHSC resources in the power of technology and how it could help improve the breast health program's quality of service and offer many other benefits to the diagnosed breast cancer patients. xwave donated the time and expertise of two staff members, Shawn Rouse and Dawn MacInnis.

ITAC is the voice of the Canadian information and communications technology industry. Together with its affiliated organizations across the country, the association represents 1300 companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in all sectors including telecommunications and Internet services, ICT consulting services, hardware, microelectronics, software and electronic content. ITAC's network of companies accounts for more than 70 per cent of the 550,000 jobs, $130 billion in revenue, $5.2 billion in R&D investment, $18.7 billion in exports and $10.8 billion in capital expenditure that the sector contributes annually to the Canadian economy.