HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS ISSUE:
• Message from CEO
• Human Resources Updates
• Holiday Closures 2024
Director's Corner
January 2024
“Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” – Roy T. Bennett
From the Desk of Rob Halfyard, CEO
Another year has come and gone. 2023, was a year of learning the significant impacts to societies, people, and the world around us. The COVID 19 pandemic has turned most of our world’s upside down. With the uncertainties we are facing each day, it is impacting our mental health, motivation, attempts to figure out our new “normal”, and to re-invent our sense of purpose. RFCSL will move into 2024 with a positive spirit, because we believe together, we can and will make a difference in our worlds and the world around us.
By the end of 2023, RFCSL completed our internal operational review that has resulted in restructuring. reviewed and modified our organizational strategic goals, reviewed, and modified key players’ roles and responsibilities, identified key policies and procedures to move us forward with enthusiasm, motivation, professionalism, creativity; free to express one’s true authentic self, fun and sound processes that will continue to move us toward creating a world class service delivery organization provided by world class leaders and frontline support workers.
We are in the final stages of connecting all the administration processes which will result in a completely revised Operational Policies and Procedurals manual, written in “plain language” that will be digitalized, and with a “CLICK” of a key will bring you to any specific policy with supporting documents that you wish to review.
We are very excited to get this initiative off the ground, all administrative practices will be efficient, responsible, accountable, fully transparent, freeing up administrative processes allowing us to focus more on direct service delivery. We are aiming for March 31, 2024, for the operational manuals to be sent out to all internal and external stakeholders. Once received we highly encourage you to provide feedback so we can continue to improve.
Wishing YOU a Happy New Year!!!!!
Human Resources
There were numerous changes to your pay deductions over the past few months which has prompted some to ask questions about their pay. So, let’s have a look at what is happening.
On Dec 1, we signed a new one-year contract with Manulife for benefits. Virtually every year, the cost of these benefits goes up. This year, our overall increase was about 10%, however that increase percentage varied depending on what benefit you are talking about. So different people would have been affected differently depending on many things such as single or family status, dependents, etc. However, in spite of the increase in premiums, most of which are paid by the company, we still managed to increase basic dental coverage from $1000 per year to $1500 per year.
On January 1, many changes occurred with Government of Canada source deductions. The basic personal exemption (TD1 form) increased by about 4% for everyone, both provincially and federally. This has the effect of reducing the total tax due for the year. However, at the same time, the Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan premiums went up for higher wage earners, and the government instituted a new “CPP2” premium which are additional deductions for higher wage earners. The purpose of this additional deduction amount is to gradually increase the CPP payments workers receive when they retire. The CPP2 deduction only happens with individuals whose overall income for 2024 exceeds $73,000. And the CPP2 deduction will not occur unless and until someone reaches that threshold on their pay with each employer they work for. For most working at the front-line level, the actual take home pay will be slightly higher than in 2023. But if you make more than $63,100 and especially if you make over $73,000, your pay will decrease slightly in 2024 due to these changes.
I have also been asked by a few individuals about an annual incremental increase. Resourceful Futures has a pay scale for different levels of experience, competence, and performance. Moving from one pay scale to another is dependent on these criteria. However, an overall increase in funding to all staff and to the agency is totally dependent on the Alberta government budget each year. The budget period for government runs from April 1 of each year to March 31 of the following year. Last year, front line workers received a 10% raise to their wage on April 1 and the company and all administrative staff received a 5% increase after many years of no increases. We do not know what will happen this year, although promises from the government have been made to keep wage increases in line with inflationary increases going forward. We hope that they keep this commitment for 2024 and beyond.
Thank you to Jordan and anyone else who is helping to spearhead the letter writing campaign to MLA’s and Ministers. As part of our contract with PDD, we as a company are not allowed to lobby for pay increases or other things, as it would be a conflict to do so.
If you have changes you would like to make to your TD1 basic tax deduction form for 2024, please see Eric or Kendra. Please check the address on your T4 when you receive it, and if it needs to be changed, please let Eric know.
HAVE A GREAT 2024!!!
Operations Manager
Coordinators Corner
Happy New Year to All.
The cold weather has come upon us. Encourage our folks to dress appropriately for the cold weather. Arrange transportation accordingly when the air temperature reaches -20 C or below with the wind chill. If you feel the winter elements are harsh and the individual will stay home, ensure you call the Team Leaders to let them know they will be absent. Guien 587-747-1188, Sharon 587-747-1189 and Sam 587-747-1184.
When completing your monthly summaries and activities on the calendar, please ensure the individual’s information is up to date.
Kendra will be sending out an email regarding your contract in March 2024. Please keep an eye out for that.
Congratulations to the Permitted Subcontractor of the Month: Carrie C. (November 2023), Hetal P. (December 2023).
We would like to take this time to send our Condolences to Mark B’s husband Orly, Mark’s family, and Richard P. We are heartbroken by his sudden passing.
“New Year- a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately, we write it. The choice is ours.”
-Alex Morritt
Thank You for everything you do.
-Shelly, Linda and Tracy
COMMUNITY ACCESS PROGRAM NEWS
The past 3 months have been very busy here with the Day Program. October kicked off with lots of Halloween spirit from our clients.
During this quarter we held multiple lunch fundraisers which were a major success. October ended with a big Halloween bash. The clients had a fantastic time playing games, eating lunch, and even trick-or-treating around the office.
December was busy in preparation for Christmas. The office was decorated beautifully for Christmas.
A special thank you to the Social and Client committees for organizing the Halloween and Christmas parties. It was a magical time during the Christmas Celebration. We even had a surprise visit from Santa who gave gifts to all our clients. The Grinch made a visit as well, causing trouble and trying to steal gifts. Naughty Grinch!
A huge thank you to all the management staff for all your hard work in preparing a glorious Christmas lunch!
As we reflect on the previous months, we are grateful to all our outstanding staff and amazing clients.
Cheers to the New Year of 2024!
Guien, Sharon & Sam
DONATION TO RESOURCEFUL FUTURES MUSIC PROGRAM
Expression of our gratitude to Mike Suchlandt, from Cochrane Alberta.
Mike, THANK YOU for your generous piano gift, arriving on January 22, 2024, to Resourceful Futures music program.
With your generosity of such an amazing gift, our music class participants and their support staff will enjoy piano music for years to come. This is such an amazing gift to their music class.
This morning (January 17, 2024) an announcement was made with a picture of this generous gift, we wish you had witnessed their excitement and immediately started looking for a space whereby everyone will have the opportunity to enjoy.
A thousand thank you, just doesn’t seem like enough to express our wholehearted appreciation and the joy this will bring to many lives.
Thank you, Mike!
From all of us at Resourceful Futures.
Congratulations to our:
EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH 2023
September – Josef
October – Amber
November – Brigida
CLIENTS OF THE MONTH 2023
September – Rowan
October – Andrew
November – Gina
December – Jerry
- It is impossible for most people to lick their own elbow. (try it!)
- A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
- A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
- It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
- The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is believed to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
- If you sneeze too hard, you could fracture a rib.
- Wearing headphones for just an hour could increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
- In the course of an average lifetime, while sleeping you might eat around 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders, or more.
- Some lipsticks contain fish scales.
- Cat urine glows under a black-light.
- Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.
- Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
- There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
- The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing (when using the proper position of the hands on the keyboard; Hunting and pecking doesn’t count!).
- A shark is the only known fish that can blink with both eyes.
- The longest one-syllable words in the English language are “scraunched” and “strengthed.” Some suggest that “squirreled” could be included, but squirrel is intended to be pronounced as two syllables (squir-rel) according to most dictionaries. “Screeched” and “strengths” are two other long one-syllable words, but they only have 9 letters.
- “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.
- Almonds are a member of the peach family.
- Maine is the only state that has a one-syllable name.
- There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
- Los Angeles’ full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula”
- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
- An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
- Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
- In many advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
- The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
- A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
- The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
- Most people fall asleep in seven minutes.
- “Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
Source: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
If you have any news, suggestions, kudos, Thank You’s or thoughts, please let Sharon C. know in person by phone at 587-747-1189 or by email at sharonc@resourcefulfutures.org. Thank you and hoping to hear from you very soon. Happy Reading!
