Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

And EPCOR President and CEO Don Lowry happily gave credit to TELUS for providing the benchmark for EPCOR’s new community-giving initiative, its Community Essentials Council.

TELUS selected Edmonton for its very first TELUS community foundation, being the TELUS Edmonton Community Foundation, in which TELUS turned over several hundreds of thousands of dollars to a board made up of prominent Edmontonians and TELUS employees, telling them to invest those funds back into the community within TELUS’ giving policies.

That foundation board, for many years headed up by Dr. Bob Westbury and now by Doug Goss, did a terrific job of both distributing funds, and earning TELUS excellent brownie points for its added visible emphasis to TELUS “We give where we live” advertising profile. EPCOR’s Don Lowry was on that board and was very impressed.

EPCOR’s Community Essentials Council will be handing out grants to communities in which EPCOR operates of up to a total of $400,000 a year.

Not just willy-nilly grants, but on clearly defined subject matters relevant to EPCOR’s “life essentials” definition, being food + water, shelter (safety + energy) and education.

The Community Essentials Council has the same community leader profile as the TELUS Edmonton Community Foundation. It’s currently headed up by Venture Publications’ Ruth Kelly, and includes such local luminaries as Liz O’Neill of Big Brothers and Sisters; Bob Walker of Ledcor; Edmonton city manager Simon Farbrother, NorQuest College’s Patti Lefebrvre: Jeffrey Lloyd of Stantec Consulting; and a newcomer to high-level boards, the city’s unofficial dean of social media Mack Male.
And of course there are senior EPCOR folks on board, including Vice-Chair Leigh-Anne Palter who is EPCOR’s VP for Public & Government Affairs

At EPCOR’s AGM on Wednesday, May 11, 2011, the Community Essentials Council announced its first quarter’s flight of grants for 2011, to YOUCAN Edmonton, Edmonton Public Schools for the McDougall School kindergarten, the Boys and Girls Club, Salvation Army in Calgary, iHuman Youth Society, Friends of French Creek Conservation Society in B.C. and Calgary’s Children’s Cottage Crisis Nursery.

And that was out of an original 30 applications asking for $400,000!

Excellent way to give visibility to corporate community initiatives, plus take the onus off EPCOR brass to place the company’s community dollars, plus focus those dollars on groups whose interests align with EPCOR’s food, water, shelter, safety, energy and education interests.

Only one thing worries me. I don’t see any reference in the EPCOR Community Essentials Council mandate to the arts or sports. Up to now, EPCOR has been an active contributer to the city’s major arts organizations, and was the lead sponsor of the Olympic Gold Plate fund-raiser. I do hope EPCOR isn’t withdrawing from those non-profit sectors entirely.