Your digest

Dr. Isra Levy appointed to Order of Ottawa

Last night, Dr. Isra Levy, our vice-president of medical affairs and innovation, was among 15 people inducted into the Order of Ottawa for 2021 by the city’s mayor Jim Watson. The award, now in its 10th year, recognizes Ottawa residents for outstanding professional achievements and service in a number of spheres.

Before joining Canadian Blood Services in 2018, Isra was Ottawa’s chief medical officer of health for nearly a decade. As such, in 2009, he played a key part in rolling out the mass-vaccination campaign for H1N1 influenza; at the time, it was the largest such campaign in the city’s history. Now Isra is helping to lead our own response to COVID-19, while continuing to help drive innovation in other important areas. Congratulations Isra! Read more at blood.ca/stories.

CFO Pauline Port reflects on her 20-year career at CBS

Earlier today, our CEO, Dr. Graham Sher announced the upcoming retirement of Pauline Port, our chief financial officer and vice-president of corporate services.

In a special Q&A on Connect, Pauline speaks with Graham about her 20-year career with Canadian Blood Services and the various roles she has played within the organization. Read more about Pauline’s many accomplishments over the years, including securing funding from provinces and territories for, and overseeing the construction of, our state-of-the-art facilities in Brampton, Ottawa, Dartmouth and Calgary.

Question of the day: With inflation rates being very high, will Canadian Blood Services be looking into a cost-of-living adjustment to salaries and/or consider higher performance awards at the end of the fiscal year?

We know that the past 20 months have been tough for employees in many ways. Inflation and an increased cost of living are among the challenges many individuals and families have faced. For that reason, some employees have been wondering whether Canadian Blood Services will be making any cost-of-living adjustments to benefits or salaries.

Our organization has two industry-competitive compensation systems. For unionized employees, rates of pay and general wage increases are negotiated to align with comparable acute care positions. For non-union employees, salary ranges and increases are aligned to and competitive with similar positions across Canadian organizations spanning all industries.

With these systems already in place, there are no new plans to explore changes to our existing compensation structure because of inflation or increases in the cost of living.

Correction: In Tuesday’s issue of Your Digest, the response to our Question of the Day incorrectly noted Jan. 5, 2021, as the date by which employees would be asked to remove festive décor in shared workspaces. The guideline should have read: Please ensure all festive décor is removed by Jan. 10, 2022. Read the full set of guidelines here.

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This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content to remind us that what we do matters. This information can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.

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