I am pleased to announce that Patricia Bishop will join IPAC on April 1, 2022, as the new Director of Communications and Learning.
Patricia joins IPAC from the Ontario Public Service, where she has worked for nearly 32 years in increasingly responsible positions in eight ministries, including Cabinet Office. Patricia has built stakeholder relationships of trust with internal and external partners, including policy and operational leaders across ministries. Patricia excels at horizontal collaboration to bring stakeholders together under a shared vision.
She led the Aboriginal Child and Youth Strategy, a transformative government commitment cited as a model for collaborative policy. She worked closely with senior government officials and Indigenous leaders, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit partners.
At the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Patricia managed relationships with 17 ministries related to regulatory burden reduction and Compliance Modernization efforts. Patricia led the inter-ministerial initiative Smart Regulation to promote cutting-edge tools and technology of behalf of regulatory ministries, securing up to $90M for regulatory change investments.
Within the Ontario government, Patricia established notable firsts: the first digital, facilitated Indigenous Cultural Competency curriculum in the OPS, now adopted as the standard and mandatory for all Ontario public servants; first legislation in Canada for internationally trained workers; first government-led services for male survivors of sexual abuse; first statutory regime to define and penalize sexual abuse by health professionals.
She also led the expansion of Unified Family Courts. This initiative was implemented in 2019 and has improved access to justice across Ontario for vulnerable litigants. Patricia has actively participated in Federal/Provincial/Territorial discussions related to immigration and the justice sector.
Patricia holds a Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and she is the recipient of four Amethyst Awards, the highest award for a public servant in Ontario.
Please join me in welcoming Patricia to our IPAC team.