Your Digest

Supporting patients together through Omicron  

This latest wave of the pandemic has hit us all hard, just when we thought the worst was behind us. As employees, donors and volunteers fall ill or need to isolate, it is more difficult than ever to keep meeting the needs of patients. At the same time, our operations have been affected by harsh winter weather in many regions.

Today, with a new video message from our CEO, Dr. Graham Sher, we’re encouraging people — especially new donors — to book appointments over the next several weeks to stabilize our inventory. You can help by encouraging friends and family to join Canada’s Lifeline and by sharing our posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Read more on Connect and thank you for all your incredible ongoing efforts to help patients in Canada.

Last week’s Bell Let’s Talk employee panel on mental health

In case you missed it, tune into the recording of the deeply personal, employee-led panel held on Bell Let’s Talk Day (Jan. 26, 2022). Dr. Yasmin Razack, chief diversity officer, facilitated this discussion featuring four incredible employees from across the organization. Charlene Ropp, Paul Copeland, Jayshri Lad and Jennifer Mathieu graciously shared their personal journeys with mental wellbeing and living with mental illness. Through important discussions like these, we hope to foster a more psychologically safe and inclusive workplace, where stigma is reduced, and vulnerability is encouraged. For more resources, supports and upcoming mental health and well-being webinars, visit Connect.

Be a Hero campaign launches tomorrow

More than 1,000 Canadians are currently waiting for stem cells from a matching donor. To encourage people to join our stem cell registry, we’re teaming up again with Hockey Gives Blood to spread the word and attract new, prospective donors. During our Be a Hero campaign, which runs throughout February, we will be sending a limited edition #BeAHero toque to every person who requests a buccal swabbing kit online. Read more about the campaign on Connect and find out if you may be an eligible donor.

Question of the day: According to reported performance metrics on Connect, Canadian Blood Services has exceeded an established savings target by almost $19 million this fiscal year. How does this impact our future budget(s)? Is it carried over, is it lost funding or will it be earmarked for other operational needs?

Our productivity and efficiency savings targets are taken into account when we develop our budget to present to provincial and territorial governments in our annual budget approvals process.

For the year ending March 2021, Canadian Blood Services has been able to generate $70 million in productivity and efficiency savings that have been used to re-invest in operational needs and critical projects.

Within a given fiscal year, if efficiencies generated exceed target, they are considered during the quarterly executive business review for allocation to operational needs and/or projects.

For 2021–2022 we are currently forecasted to exceed the annual target; however, as we move into 2022–2023 we expect that inflation pressures and other costs will put pressure on our savings.

About Your Digest

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.

Click here to read past editions of your digest. 

Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca.