Message from our CEO

TELUS views our commitment to corporate social responsibility as an important priority. It is also a fundamental part of our culture, which strives to make our brand live up to the promise - the future is friendly - in the hearts and minds of our customers, team members, community partners and shareholders. We believe that to prosper as a company, we must deliver superior returns to our shareholders, provide exceptional value to our customers and balance our responsibility as a corporate citizen.

We also believe that maintaining our strong focus on sustainability despite the challenging economic and capital market environment will differentiate us amongst our peers, present compelling business opportunities and contribute to our long-term success. Indeed, our ongoing efforts to conduct business with a triple bottom line approach, balancing economic, environmental and social sustainability practices, will help position us to advance our national growth strategy in a responsible and future friendly manner.

Inspired by the TELUS values

The TELUS team is passionate about the culture they have helped shape and the shared set of values that guide our daily interactions with clients, community and business partners, and one another. Without a doubt, TELUS has a rich legacy of business success. Our achievements are attributable to the incredible collective effort of our team over so many decades, which helped form the foundation of our company and our community giving efforts today. Through our brand promise and our commitment to the TELUS values, we are dedicated to enhancing consumers' lifestyles, improving the competitiveness of business and demonstrating innovation in corporate social responsibility.

We embrace change and initiate opportunity

Our company has a long history of embracing change in order to navigate through industry, economic and regulatory changes. Importantly, our team recognizes that we have a shared responsibility to adapt effectively in order to address the current economic challenges and optimize our performance. In the second half of 2008 we focused on proactively reducing costs by streamlining and integrating select business units; centralizing our purchasing and vendor management activities; containing compensation and benefits-based costs; and reducing travel, contractor and consulting costs. This focus will continue throughout 2009.

Our efforts in this regard are required to support our investment in building and deploying a high-speed packet access (HSPA) network, which is to be launched in early 2010 as well as our purchase of additional spectrum licenses across Canada in the advanced wireless spectrum auction. These initiatives will significantly strengthen our competitive position by giving our clients more choice with the broadest selection of wireless solutions and applications.

We are also investing significantly to enhance our broadband infrastructure in British Columbia, Alberta and Eastern Quebec. This investment will fuel our growth and improve our competitiveness, better position us against cable TV companies for high-speed Internet service and support the launch of exciting new services for customers, such as all digital TELUS TV.

Our efforts to optimize our performance are also required to support strategic investments and long-term prosperity in our industry verticals, for example healthcare. Despite massive investment, our national healthcare system is in the midst of a challenge of historical proportions that is impacting the life of every single Canadian. TELUS is answering this challenge with a clear transformation agenda, which includes delivering critical health information to the point of patient care; bringing clinical expertise to rural communities; and shifting the focus by using technology, from the remediation of disease to the prevention of disease.

The TELUS team is resolute in our commitment. Over three years, TELUS is investing $100 million dollars in healthcare technology. This includes:

• Bringing ground-breaking applications for remote patient monitoring to market;
• Driving the ubiquitous adoption of electronic health records and prescriptions;
• Providing the secure storage of patient information; and
• Automating the healthcare system with patient-centered, technology solutions that will engage patients as an equal partner in the management of their health.

Through these investments, we will foster healthcare collaboration, drive disease prevention, reduce costs, empower patients, and ultimately, transform the way critical health information is delivered across the continuum of care.

Supported by the effort and thought leadership of our team members, TELUS recently earned recognition as the 2008 Health Company of the Year by the Information Technology Association of Canada. Moreover, for the second year in a row, TELUS was named the number one Canadian Healthcare Solution Company by Branham300, a premier ranking of information technology companies. We are looking forward to building upon this success.

TELUS recognizes the opportunity to prudently invest in these areas of prime strategic importance to advance our growth strategy. While these investments have negative cash flow implications in the short term, they are designed to create long-term value for our shareholders and customers.

We have a passion for growth

We are passionate about positioning our company at the forefront of our global peers and investing to develop the best talent in the communications industry worldwide. TELUS continues to provide training and development opportunities to enhance personal leadership competencies, motivate our team to think and perform at a world-leading level, and further enhance our overall effectiveness. In 2009, we plan to invest approximately $30 million in team member learning consistent with our $29 million investment in 2008 in this regard.

Our dedication to career development and growth has earned international recognition. Notably in 2008, TELUS was cited as one of Canada's most admired companies for effective internal people programs by The Beacon Group for our excellence in the overall management of our people and human capital. TELUS was also one of five companies to be awarded a prestigious Industry Achievement Award from SkillSoft, the international leader in e.learning, for our global leadership in supporting team member growth and professional development.

Notably, our accomplishments in training and development in 2008 build upon our legacy of success in this regard. In 2007, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) honoured TELUS with an ASTD Best Award, recognizing organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success as a result of employee learning and development. TELUS placed third worldwide after a comprehensive evaluation of more than 100 organizations from across eight countries. Moreover, in 2005, Josh Blair earned Learning Leader of the Year, an international recognition by Thomson NETg Illuminati, for his innovative approach to results-based career development programs.

We believe in spirited teamwork

Despite difficult economic times, we have continued to invest in our innovative community board strategy, fully realizing a national scope with the launch of our ninth TELUS Community Board in Atlantic Canada. Since their inception, TELUS Community Boards have allocated $16.9 million to local charities and non-profit organizations, and supported 1,200 community projects. In 2009, we are planning to donate a further $4.1 million to support local, grassroots charitable organizations across Canada as compared to $5.4 million in 2008.

Through Team TELUS Cares, our giving and volunteer program, team members and retirees continue to engage in spirited teamwork to improve our communities. Collectively, the TELUS team is making a significant impact across the country demonstrating our philosophy to 'give, where we live' by contributing more than $137 million to charitable organizations across Canada and volunteering over 2.6 million hours during the last eight years. Additionally, our third annual TELUS Day of Service set a participation record in 2008 with more than 8,600 team members, retirees, family members and friends volunteering to make a positive difference in their communities and the environment.

In 2008, we also joined the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in the first annual TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes as part of our three-year, $1.2 million partnership, which also provides funding for Canadian-based diabetes research initiatives. Team members, retirees, friends and family members raised $525,000, which TELUS matched dollar for dollar, bringing the total to more than $1 million. In total, 45,000 Canadians participated in the walks, raising more than $8 million to fund diabetes research efforts.

We have the courage to innovate

Our 2008 corporate social responsibility report demonstrates our commitment to provide insight into our programs, measurement tools and accountabilities, and highlights our efforts to continuously innovate our practices in this regard. I encourage you to review our results against our stated priorities for 2008 as well as our plans for 2009 across the economic, social and environmental aspects of our business.

The dedication of the TELUS team to maintaining robust and transparent disclosure on corporate social responsibility is earning our company global recognition. I am pleased that for the eighth consecutive year TELUS was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and for the first time we were named to the Corporate Knights/Innovest Strategic Value Advisors 2009 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations List. Notably, we were one of only five Canadian companies that qualified. TELUS also earned honours for the second straight year at the Corporate Reporting Awards presented by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. Additional details of our achievements can be found in the awards section of our report.

Inspired by our shared values and the strength of our proven strategy, TELUS aims to remain at the forefront of our global peers to create long-term value for our investors, team members, customers and the communities we serve. We look forward to building on our strength in 2009 and beyond.

 

Sincerely,

Darren Entwistle
President and Chief Executive Officer
A Member of the TELUS Team
April 27th, 2009