Terasen Gas volunteers contribute to Aboriginal culture in Stanley Park

SURREY, BC, Sept. 11 /CNW/ - Approximately 100 Terasen Gas employees and their families gathered up their tools to participate once again in the company's annual Community Giving Day. The group spent the morning at the Klahowya Village in Stanley Park, building an elder's shelter and constructing landscape art. The shelter will be in Stanley Park year-round and will also be available for use by the broader community in the future for events.

"We are very proud to help build a shelter for elders and to create landscape art at the Klahowya Village in Stanley Park," said Amy Hennessy, Community Relations Manager, Terasen Gas. "This project helps to showcase our province's unique Aboriginal heritage and our employees were happy to contribute."

The Klahowya Village in Stanley Park is run by the Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia (AtBC) and is a showcase of Aboriginal arts and culture that has drawn visitors from around the world.

"Terasen Gas has been a long-time supporter of the AtBC especially during our showcase at the recent 2010 Winter Games and we are delighted that our partnership with Terasen Gas continues to grow," said Keith Henry, Chief Executive Officer, Aboriginal Tourism Association of British Columbia. "Their Community Giving Day will connect our team and tourism operators with a group of Terasen Gas volunteers. This aligns perfectly with our desire to find corporate partners such as Terasen Gas, who want get to know our industry and support Aboriginal business development."

The Klahowya Village in Stanley Park is one of three Terasen Gas Community Giving Day projects in B.C. This past spring in Courtenay, employee volunteers completed light renovations and maintenance work at a transition house for women and in Cranbrook, employees helped refurbish a local park. All three projects received a $30,000 corporate donation from Terasen Gas and reflect the company's role in delivering a sustainable future for British Columbians, both in developing and implementing integrated energy solutions and in giving back to the communities in which it operates.

This is the third year Terasen Gas has organized the Community Giving Days, which form part of Terasen Gas' Give Where You Live initiative. The initiative helps foster the health and well-being of the communities Terasen Gas serves by offering employees the opportunity to take an active role in making their communities better places to live and work.

Photos of the Community Giving Day events are available.

Terasen Gas is mainly composed of the operations of Terasen Gas Inc. and Terasen Gas (Vancouver Island) Inc., both indirect wholly owned subsidiaries of Fortis Inc. Fortis Inc., the largest investor-owned distribution utility in Canada, serves approximately 2,100,000 gas and electric customers and has total assets exceeding $12 billion. Its regulated holdings include Terasen Gas and electric utilities in five Canadian provinces and three Caribbean countries. Fortis Inc. owns non-regulated hydroelectric generation assets across Canada and in Belize and upper New York State. It also owns hotels and commercial real estate in Canada. Fortis Inc. shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and trade under the symbol FTS. Additional information can be accessed at www.fortisinc.com or www.sedar.com

MEDIA BACKGROUNDER

Give Where You Live

    
    Overview
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Terasen Gas employees have long been ambassadors in their communities, and examples of the corporate social responsibility we value as a company.

To support our employees and the communities in which we live and work, Terasen Gas established the Give Where You Live program. This initiative helps foster the health and well-being of the communities we serve, by offering employees the opportunity to take an active role in making their communities happier, healthier and better places to live.

Community giving reflects Terasen Gas' role in delivering a sustainable future for British Columbians, both by developing and implementing integrated energy solutions, and by giving back to the communities in which we operate.

Give Where You Live provides a variety of ways employees can help their community throughout the year, including a company-wide employee volunteer day in the spring, and a corporate giving campaign in the fall.

    
    Programs
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Specifically, employees can 'give where they live' through:

    
    -   The Community Program
    -   Community Projects
    -   Employee Giving Partnerships
    -   Warm Hearts

    The Community Program
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Employees can apply for corporate funding of $300 every year to any local, not-for-profit organization they are already involved with, such as a child's sporting team, or the local SPCA.

    
    Community Projects
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Each year the Terasen Gas Community Relations team organizes Community Giving Day - where employees volunteer their time to three not-for-profit community projects around the province. Each project receives a corporate contribution of $30,000 to the local not-for-profit organization, and hands-on participation from employee volunteers towards the project.

    
    Employee Giving Partnerships
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Terasen Gas offers financial support to charitable causes that are important to our employees. Terasen will top up employees' charitable donations ranging from $100 to $1,000 by 50 per cent once every year. Employees can also sign up for payroll deductions donated to their local United Way or Warm Hearts, the employee-run charitable foundation at Terasen Gas, and Terasen Gas will top up their donations by 50 per cent throughout the year.

    
    Warm Hearts
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Warm Hearts is the employee-run charitable foundation at Terasen Gas, established to support the health and well-being of the communities where our employees live and work. Every year employees are surveyed for the types of charities they believe Warm Hearts should support. Based on this feedback, the Warm Hearts committee reviews applications of the charities that employees have brought forward, or those which best reflect the types of causes employees want to help.

    
    Participation
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In the past three years, Terasen Gas employees have donated approximately $380,000 to more than 1,000 local organizations through our Employee Giving Partnerships. With the added corporate donations from Terasen Gas, these organizations have received more than $650,000.

This is in addition to the nearly 40 local organizations who have received financial support through the employee-run Warm Hearts charitable foundation, who have collectively received more than $100,000 since 2007. Since its beginning in 1994, Warm Hearts has donated more than $500,000 to the community.

By giving locally, and combining our efforts, we believe we can make lives better in the communities where we live and work. Terasen Gas is proud of its employees, who work every day to achieve this goal.

For further information: Media Contact: Amy Hennessy, Community Relations Manager, Terasen Gas, Phone: [phone], Email: [email protected], Follow us at: www.twitter.com/terasengas