The competition had 15 finalists, five from three regions in Canada, Eastern Canada (Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador), Central Canada (Ontario), Western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut).
Three regional juries convened to determine one national winner and two honourable mentions from the 15 finalists.
The winning work and the honourable mentions became part of the RBC Corporate Art Collection which holds more than 4,500 works.
[4] In 2008 an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal provided an overview of the first ten years of the competition.
[8] Canadian Emerging Artist Prize Canadian Emerging Artist Prize In 2001 the prize was renamed to RBC Canadian Painting Competition, and three regional winners were selected.