Community Giving

Improving the Quality of Life

Inco is committed to advancing the social, cultural and economic prosperity of the communities in which we operate and where the majority of our employees live and work. To help us achieve this goal, we have a long-standing community giving program to support the work of selected charitable, educational, health, social and cultural organizations. Through this program, and through the individual personal volunteer efforts of our employees, we are making a positive difference in our operating communities.

On a global basis, Inco subscribes to the IMAGINE campaign of the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy. As such, we are working toward an annual contributions budget of not less than one per cent of a 10-year rolling average of pre-tax earnings. This allows us to maintain a contributions program through both profitable and unprofitable years. From 1998 to 2002, our five-year Cdn. $15 million donation to help build the Labrador Health Centre in Happy-Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador brought our annual corporate donations budget to more than double this target. In each of these years, our worldwide contributions were more than two per cent of our 10-year rolling average of pre-tax earnings.

In 2003, Inco contributed $1.4 million to various non-profit organizations around the world who met our funding criteria. Over the past five years, Inco's contributions worldwide totalled $14.9 million. In other instances, our contributions are not financial in nature but may be gifts-in-kind or involve the loan of Inco people to worthy events or causes.

We allocate program funding in the areas of health and welfare, education, civic and community, arts and culture, and other endeavours such as environmental conservation. Through our educational matching gift program, we also match contributions made to eligible accredited higher educational institutions by our Canadian employees and pensioners.

For more detail on Inco's community giving in local communities, including Indonesia, the United Kingdom, New Caledonia, the United States and Canada, see the Community Development section of this report.

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Health and Welfare

Covering everything from hospitals and national health agencies to the United Way campaign and other social service activities, 41 per cent of Inco's contributions in 2003 were made in the area of health and welfare.

• Inco is a long-time supporter of the Salvation Army, and currently we are contributing funds for its new long-term care facility in northern Toronto, Ontario and for a youth-at-risk program in Toronto's downtown core.
• Inco has supported the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada's largest health sciences centre devoted to mental illness and addiction.
• Another recent contribution was our Cdn. $15 million – multi-year pledge to the Labrador Health Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador.
• At the world-famous Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) in Toronto, Inco has provided support to the Centre for Craniofacial Care and Research. This centre, which is incorporated within the Division of Plastic Surgery, has been caring for children with craniofacial differences from around the world since the early 1970s and has established an international reputation for excellence and education in this field.

  One example of the centre's work is known as Operation Smile, in which a team of specialists from HSC and from South Africa conducted surgery on a young South African girl to enable her to smile, something she has never been able to do. The operation on Thando Mlambo-Manyathi, who was born with facial paralysis, involved transplanting a muscle, nerves, arteries and veins from her legs to her face. With Inco's support of $70,000 (Cdn. $100,000) over five years, a lectureship has been established through the Craniofacial Disorders Fund, which enables the department to share this type of knowledge and expertise with others in the field. To learn more detail about the craniofacial program see www.sickkids.ca/plasticsurgery.

Education

Inco provides support to universities and community colleges in the form of capital grants, research grants, research chairs, open scholarships, bursaries and matching gifts. In 2003, 19 per cent of our contributions budget went toward educational activities.

• Inco is currently funding two scholarships at McMaster University’s Faculty of Engineering in Hamilton, Ontario: the Inco Scholarship in Materials Engineering and the Inco Scholarship in Environmental Science. At Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Inco funds six continuing scholarships which are awarded annually, as well as an Inco bursary. We support similar scholarships at Cambrian College and College Boreal in Sudbury and in Newfoundland, we are contributing to the John G. Paterson Chair in Earth Sciences at Memorial University in St. John’s.
• Closer to home, we are committed to supporting higher learning for the children of our Canadian employees and pensioners through our Inco Reserved Scholarship Program. Each year, Inco provides up to 20 four-year university scholarships for these children, each valued at Cdn. $3,000 annually, and up to five annual Finalist Awards valued at Cdn. $1,500. The scholarships are initially awarded for the first year and then are renewable for each of the following three years. There are generally 80 Canadian students holding scholarships at any given time. The annual cost of this program is in the range of Cdn. $250,000.
• Over the years, we have also provided support to such highly respected learning organizations as the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research – known as one of the most sophisticated and innovative research institutions in Canada. It is charged with making sure Canada stays abreast of the world’s top minds in the most far-reaching and important fields.

According to Catherine O’May, Inco’s Manager of Corporate Contributions, “There are so many worthy causes and so many competing demands, but our key funding priorities remain health and education. This is where we focus our efforts on helping our communities.”

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Civic and Community

Inco supports the development of local community centres and arenas, as well as ongoing recreation and youth programs. Generally, these commitments are made at the operations level. In 2003, our expenditures in this area totalled 15 per cent of our overall contributions budget.

• A major portion of this total is linked to our recent $850,000 (Cdn. $1.2 million) donation to the Innu Healing Foundation’s Building Hope Campaign. These funds are being directed to building two new recreation centres in the remote Labrador communities of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish and to creating an endowment to support the operating costs of these facilities.
• Our support for various community programs is centred on our desire to improve the levels of fitness and health for residents and for employees in the communities in which we operate. For example, we have developed a long-standing relationship with the YMCA in Sudbury, helping to build the very first YMCA in Sudbury in the late 1930s. In recent years, we contributed Cdn. $750,000 to the Sudbury YMCA’s Centre for Life which supports a fitness facility, day care, a pool, and various counseling, camp and other outreach programs.

Arts and Culture

Our support for arts and culture is closely linked to educational attractions: museums, art galleries, festivals and artistic endeavours such as music, ballet and theatre. Over the years, we have been leading supporters of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Dynamic Earth, Inco Limited Gallery of Earth Sciences in Science North, Sudbury Ontario and the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto. Currently, we are providing funding to the new Canadian War Museum, which is being built in Ottawa. In 2003, 13 per cent of our budget was invested in arts and cultural activities.

Other

Inco supports a variety of other important causes and activities, from athletic programs at the local community level to organizations that focus on heritage and safety issues. In 2001, on behalf of our employees and retirees, we contributed to the Canadian Red Cross Appeal as well as in-kind contributions of supplies such as respirators and gloves to the 9/11 disaster in the United States. While the bulk of environmental funding is coordinated by Inco’s Environmental Department, various conservation activities and organizations are supported through this funding category. We have established relationships with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) including Pollution Probe, the World Wildlife Fund and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

In 2003, 12 per cent of funds were earmarked for this category.

Supporting the Democratic Process

Inco Limited is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen in all countries in which it operates. We may support the democratic process in those countries or jurisdictions, where the law permits, by making contributions to political parties which solicit support from business and which support the free enterprise system. All of our political donations are within the limits, laws and regulations set by governing jurisdictions and our own policies and guidelines.

Wherever Inco operates, we are committed to making a contribution to the community. For the past 100 years, beginning in the Sudbury Basin and extending to our latest development in New Caledonia, we have continually invested in the communities where we work, live and play. The community giving program is a source of great pride to Inco and our employees.

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