2014 Annual Report Meridian’s Commitment

to Communities

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22014 Annual Report | Meridian’s Commitment to Communities

Meridian’s Commitment to CommunitiesMeridian exists to help lives grow. One of the ways we help lives grow is through Meridian’s Commitment to Communities.We uphold this commitment to help build our local communities across Ontario, where we can all grow and have better, more prosperous lives.As part of our commitment, we will invest at least 4% of our pre-tax earnings in money and in-kind resources in Meridian communities, following the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) Canada guidelines. Under our Commitment to Communities, we are continuously working toward five key goals:

1. IMPROVING FINANCIAL LITERACYOne of the many ways we honour our commitment to helping lives grow is by sharing our knowledge as financial experts to improve financial literacy across the province. Unfortunately, many Ontarians are not where they need to be when it comes to financial literacy – for personal and new business planning. To address this systemic issue, we first gained a clear understanding of the financial planning knowledge of Ontario’s families and new business owners, and the financial issues they face. We conducted studies with Prosper Canada and the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs to identify priority needs in our local communities. These include:

• Access to trusted tools and resources to improve understanding.

• Access to trusted advisors and community networks to strengthen our support systems.

• Access to financial products in one’s best interest.

To combat these needs and help Ontarians and business owners to better understand and improve their finances, Meridian is working with a variety of

provincial and local not-for-profit organizations to develop new financial literacy-related tools, resources and community-based initiatives.In celebration of Canada’s first Education Savings Week in 2014, we announced a new community partnership with Omega Foundation to create SmartSAVER.org. This is an online tool to help families eligible for the Canada Learning Bond to learn about and open Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP’s) in order to access free government money for their child’s post-secondary education.In 2015 and beyond, we will continue to develop, launch and share new tools, resources and programs with community partners to increase financial literacy for families and new business owners across Ontario.

SmartSAVER and Canada’s Education Savings Week launch event in Ottawa, November, 2014

32014 Annual Report | Meridian’s Commitment to Communities

In Ontario, over 520,000 children from families with house-hold incomes up to $43,953 are eligible for government contributions of up to $2,000 to be contributed to their education savings through the Canada Learning Bond., Fewer than 30% of eligible youth are taking advantage of this free money. This is an issue that Meridian is working to address with Omega Foundation and local organizations by promoting SmartSAVER.org.During Canada’s first ever Education Savings Week in November 2014, Meridian announced a community partner-ship with Omega Foundation to support a new online tool to make it easier than ever for families to apply to receive the Canada Learning Bond and open an RESP account: SmartSAVER.org. SmartSAVER.org will have a

big impact on children by helping their families save for their education. Children with some savings are more likely to graduate from high school and 50% more likely to pursue a post-secondary education.Every child deserves an education to help them live up to their full potential. We hope to help children get that education through helping their families save.(Source: Statistics Canada and Human Resources Develop-ment Canada.)

SmartSAVER.org

2. INVESTING IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Meridian’s United Way CampaignEvery October, Meridian holds our annual United Way campaign throughout all of our branches, commercial business centres and offices. During the month, employees donate their money and time by hosting fundraising events with all proceeds going to local United Way chapters. This year, Meridian matched personal employee donations and together we ultimately managed to raise a total of $266,000 for the United Way – our highest total yet.

Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB)Over the holiday season, we invited our employees, Members and our other social media followers to be involved in our giving. For every like, comment or share of our holiday e-card we committed to donating $2 to the OAFB – an organization that supports a network of over 125 food banks across the province serving 375,000 people each month.Because of the overwhelming support we received, Meridian doubled its’ donation, giving $20,000 to the OAFB. This donation could result in the equivalent of 60,000 meals for families in need.

We are committed to building prosperous and resilient communities and have a strong legacy of investing in local organizations, businesses and activities that make our communities strong. Through our Local Community Sponsorship Program, our 67 branches have supported hundreds of organizations financially and with our employees’ time and energy.

42014 Annual Report | Meridian’s Commitment to Communities

4. CONTRIBUTING TO A HEALTHIER ENVIRONMENTIn 2014, our Facilities team began a benchmarking project to identify Meridian’s direct environmental impacts and develop measurable initiatives to reduce them in 2014 – 2015 and beyond. The areas that have been investigated to-date have included: electricity and natural gas consumption, waste management and cleaning practices.For 2015, we have already begun charting action plans to support improved energy efficiency, waste management, procurement, and employee transportation.

PaperLESS ChallengeIn August, we issued a challenge to all of our corporate office employees to reduce their print usage and paper waste over the next six months. Begin-ning August 1, we began tracking the amount of paper printed by each floor in our two corporate offices and compar-ing it to the monthly average from the first half of 2014.In the first two months alone, this friendly competition resulted in a 4% decrease in printing throughout our corporate offices! We plan to build on this progress in the months and years to come.

3. ENGAGING OUR EMPLOYEESAt Meridian, our employees are the ones who make good on our Commitment to Communities and so we, in turn, believe that we have a commitment to them. In April 2014, we launched My Commitment to Communities – a pilot program designed to support each employee’s personal donations, fundraising and volunteerism to their own favourite charities and not-for-profit organizations. My Commitment to Communities offered Donation Matches, through which Meridian matched the charitable donations of each employee up to $500, and Volunteer Grants, where employees who donated 20 or 40 hours to an organization were eligible for a $250 or $500 grant. Response to My Commitment to Communities has been overwhelmingly positive. Over 18% of our employees participated – supporting over 110 charities. Meridian was able to provide over $80,000 to support these causes that were important to our employees.

The Heart & Stroke Big Bike

Team Event

My Commitment to Communities: Michael LangMichael, like nearly 250 other Meridian employees, applied to the My Commitment to Commu-nities program and received a matching donation for his cause of choice – the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation.When a friend was diagnosed with the disease Michael took it upon himself to help by joining the “Friends for Life” bike rally fundraiser – a six day journey from Toronto to Montreal. In total, Michael raised over $2,500 to support AIDS care and research.

52014 Annual Report | Meridian’s Commitment to Communities

5. SUPPORTING A STRONG CO-OPERATIVE SECTOR2014 has been a big year for awareness in the Ontario co-operative sector and as Ontario’s largest credit union, Meridian has been at the forefront of many of these initiatives. Meridian was the largest sponsor of the Credit Unions of Ontario’s CooperativeBanking.ca campaign – a province-wide media campaign aimed at raising awareness of cooperative banking and educating viewers about the differences between credit unions and banks.

We have also been involved in several government advocacy initiatives on behalf of credit unions throughout Ontario such as the “My Credit Union Matters” campaign and took an active role in the government-led public consultations about the review of the Credit Union and Caisses Populaires Act. In doing so, Meridian is taking a proactive approach to help create a stronger co-operative sector throughout Ontario. In addition to our awareness and advocacy work, Meridian continues to foster the next generation of cooperative leaders by sponsoring the Co-operative Young Leaders (CYL) summer camp and All 4 Each programs operated by the Ontario Co-operative Association. Through these two programs, high-school students from across the province have the opportunity to learn about cooperatives and credit unions. At the CYL summer camp, they learn the leadership and communication skills needed to start their own co-op.

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