Telus 2010 Annual Report Download - page 35

fraud by team members with a significant role in internal controls
over financial reporting. Of all complaints made to our Ethics
Office since it began in 2003, no breaches of the ethics policy
have involved fraudulent financial reporting.
For the first time, in 2010, we conducted an ethical climate
survey among team members. Results were positive, indicating
our program is effective in fostering an ethical and respectful
workplace for all team members.
Communicating with investors
As part of our commitment to transparency, we actively
com municate with investors, providing them with timely and
relevant information to help them make informed decisions.
In 2010, TELUS participated in many investor activities, including
five webcast conference calls and three industry conference
presentations, two of which were publicly webcast. To view
these and upcoming events, visit telus.com/investors. TELUS
executives also conducted many meetings with more than
200 investors in major cities in Canada and the United States.
We took an innovative approach to some of these meetings
by using Cisco Telepresence, a high-definition video-conferencing
service, between certain TELUS locations across Canada. This
approach enables meetings to happen more quickly and reduces
travel expenses and time. We also con ducted 14 Optik TV
service demonstrations in the Vancouver and Toronto TELUS
Innovation Centres to give a hands-on experience with the
superior entertainment features we are offering clients.
Innovation is paying off
Throughout the year, we continued to gain recognition for our
good governance practices. TELUS was recognized for having
the sixth best annual report in the world by the Annual Report
on Annual Reports in an international review. Our shareholder
information package was ranked as the best in Canada by
the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in its annual
corporate reporting awards.
.Receiving the highest rating in an external quality assurance
review of TELUS’ Internal Audit function
.Securing independent third-party verification of select
infor mation in the TELUS corporate social responsibility report
.Complying with the independence definition provisions of
the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) governance standards
.Sharing publicly our policies on corporate disclosure and
insider trading at telus.com/governance, as well as the
entire Board policy manual including all Board committees’
terms of reference.
Ensuring integrity in the workplace
At TELUS, we take a holistic and proactive approach to promoting
integrity and striving to ensure team members adhere to the
highest level of ethical behaviour.
In 2010, we updated our ethics policy to ensure it remained
relevant for team members. We also updated our mandatory
online course by adding new content, streamlining the information
and enhancing interactivity. The TELUS Integrity 2010 course
incorporated the key points of TELUS’ ethics, respectful work-
place, corporate security and privacy policies. The course was
extended to include TELUS contractors and, by early 2011,
had been successfully completed by all team members. In 2011,
we plan to introduce a supplier code of conduct that will outline
certain key expectations.
We continued to provide the Ethics Line for anonymous
and confidential questions or complaints on accounting, internal
controls or ethical issues, and enhanced the interactive tools
available for users. Calls are handled by an independent agency
24 hours a day, offering multi-language services to internal
and external callers.
In 2010, 388 calls were received by the Ethics Line, 304
of which involved advice on ethical situations or complaints.
Each complaint was investigated, resolved appropriately and
reported to the Audit Committee. The Ethics Office determined
that 96 breaches of the policy occurred, but none involved
Scan this mobile barcode or visit telus.com/governance for a full statement
of TELUS’ corporate governance practices, including disclosure regarding our
governance practices compared to those required by the NYSE, or refer to the
2011 TELUS information circular.
New to mobile barcodes? See the inside back cover for information.