I would almost put money (well, may be a few cream crackers) on the fact that we've reported on this before, but the CMU Daily archive search engine is playing up a bit and I can't find anything about it in there - and given that the Canadian press are reporting on it this morning I suppose we should too (and there's no Wikipedia listing for it either, suggesting this is, in fact, a new thing).
Anyway, Canada is the latest country to get a Mercury Music Prize type prize - in the form of the Polaris Music Prize. Set up by Toronto based music industry guy Steve Jordan, like with the Mercury and all the other copy cats, this will present a cash prize to the 'Best Album Of The Year' (the best Canadian album in this case, obviously).
Jordan told reporters: "I watched [Canadian literary award] The Giller Prize turn great books into bestsellers, and The Mercury Prize turn unknown artists into stars. With Polaris, we will harness that energy and turn it into something that Canadian music fans will get excited about".
Needless to say, a panel of pundits will select a shortlist of albums worthy of acclaim from which an overall winner will be picked. Expect the shortlist next month, and the winner announcement in September.