| Company | Location | Industry Full-time employees in Canada | Reasons for inclusion | |
| Agriculture Financial Services Corp. | Lacombe, Alta. | Credit intermediation | 501 | Supports flexible work arrangements, such as shortened work weeks, reduced summer hours and telecommuting. |
| Agrium Inc. | Calgary | Fertilizer manufacturing | 1,898 | Manages an engineer-in-training program designed to expose young employees to a variety of engineering disciplines. |
| ATB Financial | Edmonton | Credit unions | 4,044 | Subsidizes the full cost of tuition for employees completing courses at outside institutions (with no annual maximum). |
| Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. | Boyle, Alta. | Pulp mills | 439 | Provides up to four weeks paid vacation with the fourth week flexible - employees can take it as time off or as extra income. |
| AMEC Americas Ltd. | Oakville, Ont. | Engineering services | 4,801 | Recently implemented a two-year engineer-in-training program, in which engineering graduates receive mentoring assistance and on-the-job guidance while preparing to write the PEng Ontario licensing exam. |
| Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario | Toronto | Labour unions | 22 | Provides parental leave top-up payments to new fathers and adoptive parents (up to 93 per cent for 37 weeks). |
| Assumption Mutual Life Insurance | Moncton | Insurance agencies and brokerages | 223 | Supports ongoing employee skills development with financial bonuses, a mentoring program and career planning services. |
| Bank of Montreal | Toronto | Commercial banking | 25,541 | Delivers more than 350 courses and training programs at Toronto-based Institute for Learning, a state-of-the-art training facility. |
| Bayer Inc. | Toronto | Pharmaceutical manufacturing | 963 | Has a marché-style cafeteria with healthy menu items, take-home meals, Starbucks coffee and fruit smoothies. |
| BC Hydro | Vancouver | Hydroelectric power generation | 5,437 | Helps employees prepare for retirement with generous contributions to a defined benefit pension plan, and a phased-in retirement work option. |
| BC Public Service | Victoria | Government support | 26,526 | Encourages recent graduates to work at the organization by forgiving up to one-third of their total B.C. student loan amount after each year of employment. |
| BD Canada Inc. | Mississauga, Ont. | Medical, dental and hospital equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers | 481 | Provides subsidized memberships at the fully equipped fitness facility, with available karate and body sculpting classes. |
| BioWare | Edmonton | Custom computer programming services | 402 | Helps employees stay healthy by providing free nutritious breakfasts every day, in addition to free memberships to an onsite gym. |
| British Columbia Lottery Corp. (BCLC) | Kamloops | Gambling industries | 730 | Has a flexible health-benefits plan that includes fully paid health coverage for retired employees (with no age limit). |
| British Columbia Safety Authority | New Westminster, B.C. | Regulation, licensing and inspection of miscellaneous commercial sectors | 241 | Covers child-care costs for employees required to attend company events or business trips. |
| Business Devel. Bank of Canada (BDC) | Montreal | Credit intermediation and financing | 1,685 | Pays referral bonuses (up to $2,000) when employees successfully refer a friend for an available position. |
| Cameco Corp. | Saskatoon | Uranium mining and processing | 2,761 | Helps employees prepare for retirement with matching RRSP contributions, phased-in retirement work options, and fully paid retiree health coverage (with no age limit). |
| Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) | Ottawa | Government support | 2,024 | Runs a program for experienced or retired employees that lets them share their expertise by working on housing projects overseas. |
| Canada Post Corp. | Ottawa | Postal service | 61,856 | Plays host to long-standing hockey and curling tournaments that bring together employees from across Canada for weekends of fun and fundraising for charity. |
| Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) | Ottawa | Grant-making foundations | 442 | Offers a leadership development program for managers and non-managerial employees. |
| Canadian Security Intelligence Service | Ottawa | National security | 2,449 | Initiated a recruiting campaign to hire more new employees from various ethnic communities with success: more than 50 per cent of new intelligence officer hires in 2007 were multilingual. |
| Capital District Health Authority | Halifax | Hospitals | 6,264 | Committed to employee wellness, providing healthy cafeteria options, a religious observance room and a nap room for employees who need a break during the day. |
| Capital One Services Inc. | Toronto | Credit card issuing | 176 | Subsidizes the cost of a transit pass for employees who take public transit to work. |
| Carswell, a division of Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. | Toronto | Book publishers | 645 | Manages a two-year leadership program for employees with more than 80 per cent of participants promoted upon program completion. |
| Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto | Toronto | Children and youth services | 607 | Provides new mothers with the option of extending their maternity leave for up to three years. |
| Ceridian Canada Ltd. | Winnipeg | Payroll services | 1,262 | Ensures employees' pets are covered through an innovative pet plan insurance subsidy. |
| CH2M HILL Canada Ltd. | Toronto | Environmental consulting services | 1,079 | Provides employees with a full-time teleworking option, so they can spend more time with their families and reduce commuting time. |
| Chatham-Kent Health Alliance | Chatham-Kent, Ont. | Hospitals | 706 | Operates a "Green Team" environmental committee, whose activities include a monthly newsletter, an employee awareness program, and an annual environmental expo for patients, employees and their families. |
| The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario | Toronto | Professional organization | 249 | An enlightened employer where more than 65 per cent of management employees are women. |
| Compass Group Canada | Mississauga, Ont. | Food service contractors | 11,775 | Offers generous cash bonuses for achieving certain professional designations (up to $5,000) and operates a focused training program to help women employees advance to management-level positions. |
| Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada | Richmond, B.C. | Automobile and other vehicle merchant wholesalers | 171 | Encourages employees to volunteer in the community by providing paid time off for volunteer activities. |
| DeltaWare Systems Inc. | Charlottetown | Custom computer programming services | 91 | Encourages ongoing employee education through tuition subsidies for in-house and external courses. |
| Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. (DDMI) | Yellowknife | Diamond mining | 863 | Offers one of the most unique work environments in Canada with never-ending summer days and spectacular displays of aurora borealis in the autumn through spring. |
| Digital Extremes | London, Ont. | Custom computer programming services | 96 | An expanding independent Canadian game developer, which added more than 30 new positions last year and employs nearly 100 people. |
| EllisDon Corporation | Mississauga, Ont. | Commercial and institutional building construction | 884 | Considers a new employees' previous years of experience when determining their starting vacation entitlement. |
| Enbridge Inc. | Calgary | Natural gas distribution | 3,981 | Offers new employees three weeks of vacation to start, plus a dozen paid personal days off (depending on location). |
| Ericsson Canada Inc. | Montreal | Wireless communications | 1,734 | Has an onsite daycare centre (with 54 spaces) for new parents when returning to work. |
| Ernst & Young LLP | Toronto | Certified public accountants | 4,111 | Gives employees the opportunity to work for up to 18 months abroad through a number of international work programs. |
| Export Development Canada | Ottawa | International trade financing | 1,075 | Offers employees language instruction in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. |
| Fairmont Hotels & Resorts | Toronto | Hotels and motels | 8,643 | A creative corporate citizen, from donating unused furniture to local women's shelters to providing luxury hotel accommodations to children and their families through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. |
| Gamma-Dynacare Medical Laboratories Inc. | Brampton, Ont. | Medical laboratories | 1,422 | Helps employees prepare for retirement through phased-in retirement options, retirement planning counselling and matching RRSP contributions (to 4 per cent of salary). |
| Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited | Mississauga, Ont. | Creamery/butter manufacturing | 468 | Helps employees balance their working and personal lives through a variety of alternative work options, including flexible scheduling, reduced summer hours, telecommuting and a 35-hour work week with full pay. |
| George Brown College | Toronto | Colleges, universities and professional schools | 1,300 | Gives employees free memberships to their onsite fitness facility, in addition to subsidized fitness programs. |
| Goldcorp Inc. | Vancouver | Gold ore mining | 2,350 | Lets employees share in the fruits of their labours through a share-purchase plan and year-end bonuses for all employees. |
| Golder Associates Ltd. | Burnaby, B.C. | Engineering services | 2,541 | Supports numerous charities at home and maintains a charitable trust fund to help orphans living through the AIDS crisis in Africa. |
| Great Little Box Company Ltd. | Vancouver | Corrugated and solid fibre box manufacturing | 172 | An enlightened privately held employer that opens its books each month to employees. |
| The Halifax Herald Ltd. | Halifax | Newspaper publishers | 325 | Gives employees a paid day off on their birthday. |
| Hamilton Health Sciences Corp. | Hamilton | Hospitals | 5,682 | Helps internationally trained physicians find health-care placements in Canada. |
| Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co. | Mississauga, Ont. | Electronic computer manufacturing | 3,871 | Offers a generous, flexible health benefits plan with no waiting period for new employees. |
| Hill and Knowlton Canada | Toronto | Public relations agencies | 226 | Celebrates the end of each week with a travelling beer cart that winds through the office. |
| Honeywell Ltd. | Mississauga, Ont. | Heating/ventilation/air-conditioning control systems for residential and commercial use | 4,590 | Helps employees save for retirement with a defined contribution pension plan, matching RRSP contributions and organized social events for retirees. |
| Information Services Corporation of Saskatchewan (ISC) | Regina | Title, abstract and settlement offices | 274 | Encourages employees to develop their skills by providing full tuition subsidies for courses at outside institutions. |
| Johnson Incorporated | St. John's | Insurance agencies and brokerages | 1,066 | Encourages employees to pursue professional designations by offering financial bonuses (up to $2,000) upon successful completion. |
| KPMG LLP | Toronto | Certified public accountants | 5,245 | Offers parental leave top-up for adoptive parents and financial support (to $20,000) to help cover adoption-related expenses. |
| L'Oréal Canada Inc. | Montreal | Toiletry product manufacturing | 1,200 | Offers early Friday closings in the winter and summer, letting employees start their weekends early all year round. |
| Loblaw Companies Limited | Brampton, Ont. | Supermarkets and other grocery (except convenience) stores | 31,670 | Manages an 18-month internship program for recent graduates, in fields such as marketing, merchandising, IT, human resources and finance. |
| Mars Canada Inc. | Bolton, Ont. | Confectionery manufacturing | 472 | Hosts weekly visits from a wellness co-ordinator who provides one-on-one fitness training. |
| McGill University | Montreal | Colleges, universities and professional schools | 5,604 | Participates in a inter-university leadership development program, where senior staff work on joint projects at other institutions. |
| MDS Nordion Inc. | Ottawa | Electromedical and electrotherapeutic apparatus manufacturing | 616 | Located on a 60-acre campus in the heart of the city's technology community, yet is also close to residential communities. |
| Meridian Credit Union | St. Catharines, Ont. | Credit unions | 745 | An industry leader that provides compassionate leave top-up benefits (to 75 per cent of salary for four weeks). |
| Monsanto Canada Inc. | Winnipeg | Pesticide and agricultural chemical manufacturing | 272 | Encourages ongoing employee development with generous tuition subsidies (up to $10,000) for courses at outside institutions. |
| Mountain Equipment Co-op | Vancouver | Sporting goods store | 582 | Head office employees can stay healthy with on-site yoga classes, shower facilities for bicycle commuters, and a private nap room for breaks during the day. |
| MTS Allstream Inc. | Winnipeg | Telecommunications | 6,424 | Pays generous referral bonuses (up to $3,000) when employees refer someone successfully hired by the company. |
| NB Power | Fredericton | Hydroelectric power generation | 2,465 | Operates a unique earned time-off program that lets employees take leaves of absence (up to two months) while receiving their deferred pay. |
| New Flyer Industries Canada ULC | Winnipeg | Transit bus manufacturing | 1,288 | Provides full salaries to millwright, tool-and-die and machinist apprentices during their training, as well as tuition subsidies for courses taken at outside institutions. |
| Next Level Games Inc. | Vancouver | Custom computer programming services | 95 | Offers flexible work hours, telecommuting and lets employees bring their pets to work when needed. |
| Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. | Dorval, Que. | Pharmaceutical preparation manufacturing | 792 | Committed to employee wellness, providing employees with free memberships to an on-site fitness facility, healthy menu cafeteria options, and a nap room for breaks during the day. |
| Office of the Auditor General of Canada | Ottawa | Government support | 705 | Offers an unpaid leave of absence program - one employee recently spent one year of travelling and living aboard a sailboat. |
| OMNI Health Care Limited Partnership | Peterborough, Ont. | Nursing care facilities | 1,137 | Starts employees at three weeks paid vacation, in addition to seven days off during the Christmas holiday and personal paid days off. |
| Ontario Power Generation Inc. | Toronto | Hydroelectric power generation | 11,915 | Has an employee-led committee to review funding requests from charitable and non-profit organizations. |
| Ontario Public Service | Toronto | Government support | 67,339 | Recently introduced internship and training programs to recruit new graduates and young professionals into the civil service. |
| PCL Constructors Inc. | Edmonton | Commercial and institutional building construction | 2,066 | Lets all employees share in the company's success through a share-purchase plan - the firm is 100-per-cent employee owned. |
| PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP | Toronto | Certified public accountants | 6,048 | Donates $300 to an employee's favourite charity when they volunteer more than 50 hours a year and donates $10,000 on behalf of its employee volunteer of the year. |
| Procter & Gamble Inc. | Toronto | Toiletry product manufacturing | 1,912 | Lets employees increase their vacation days by transferring unused credits from their health benefits plan and offers three-month paid leaves of absence every seven years. |
| Queen's University | Kingston | Colleges, universities and professional schools | 3,669 | Helps employees with young children with an offsite daycare subsidy (up to $2,000 per child, per year). |
| Research In Motion Limited | Waterloo | Wireless communications | 8,576 | Lets all employees share in the company's success through a profit-sharing plan and year-end bonuses. |
| Royal Bank of Canada | Toronto | Commercial banking | 52,500 | Helps employees save for a secure retirement through a defined-benefit pension plan, a money-purchase pension plan as well as a share-purchase plan. |
| Royal British Columbia Museum Corp. | Victoria | Museums | 115 | Manages a transitional retirement work program that helps older employees gradually leave the work force. |
| Royal Canadian Mint | Ottawa | Government support | 796 | Offers employees exceptional parental leave top-up payments (up to 93 per cent of salary for 52 weeks) for new mothers. |
| SAS Institute Canada, Inc. | Toronto | Custom computer services | 226 | Employees have their own band, called the "SASations," which performs at company events. |
| Saskatchewan Gov't Insurance (SGI) | Regina | Direct property and casualty insurance carriers | 1,699 | Provides employees with an interest-free loan (up to $3,000) toward the purchase of a new home computer. |
| SaskEnergy Incorporated | Regina | Natural gas distribution | 1,031 | Encourages employees to put their skills to use by performing simple home energy upgrades for low-income families. |
| SaskTel | Regina | Telecommunications | 3,260 | Offers employees free memberships to their onsite fitness facility and is located close to running trails along Wascana Lake. |
| Shell Canada Limited | Calgary | Crude petroleum and natural gas extraction | 5,514 | Offers a number of work-life balance initiatives, from helping employees find child care and schools for their children to senior-care facilities across Canada for aging parents. |
| Siemens Canada Limited | Mississauga, Ont. | Engineering services | 4,218 | Supports ongoing employee development, paying one month's salary as a financial bonus to employees who complete their professional project management designation. |
| Simon Fraser University | Burnaby, B.C. | Colleges, universities and professional schools | 4,381 | Employees can take advantage of an onsite daycare facility as well as a summer day-camp program for school-age children of employees. |
| Sophos Inc. | Vancouver | Custom computer services | 189 | Helps employees save for retirement with a matching RRSP plan. |
| Statistics Canada | Ottawa | Government support | 5,844 | Has an onsite daycare (with more than 40 spaces) that also offers emergency short-term daycare service. |
| Stikeman Elliott LLP | Toronto/Montreal | Law firms | 1,286 | Provides internship and mentorship opportunities to at-risk youth as part of a Toronto-area program designed to help disadvantaged children stay in school. |
| Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre | Toronto | Hospitals | 5,049 | Recently implemented unique inter-professional education sessions, in which employees from different areas of expertise meet to discuss how they can work together more effectively and improve patient care. |
| TD Bank Financial Group | Toronto | Commercial banking | 37,088 | Recently developed a training curriculum, in partnership with Ryerson University, to provide cultural training to internationally educated professionals. |
| Telus Corporation | Vancouver | Telecommunications | 25,961 | Supports a variety of alternative work options, including flexible hours, reduced summer hours and a 35-hour work week, with full pay. |
| Toronto Community Housing Corp. | Toronto | Residential property managers | 1,403 | Introduced a new healthy workplace plan, whose initiatives include an employee walking club, free health clinics, and lunch and learn sessions on a variety of wellness topics. |
| Toronto Hydro Corporation | Toronto | Electric power distribution | 1,450 | Employees have the chance to win a week of paid vacation as part of the company's fundraising efforts for the United Way. |
| Toyota Motor Manu. Canada Inc. | Cambridge, Ont. | Automobile manufacturing | 5,954 | Provides parental leave top-up payments for new mothers (up to 65 per cent for 52 weeks) and new fathers (up to 65 per cent for 37 weeks) |
| Trican Well Service Ltd. | Calgary | Support activities for oil and gas operations | 1,486 | Provides a number of financial benefits, including preferred rates on mortgages and personal loans, profit sharing and matching RRSP contributions (up to 5 per cent of salary). |
| Upside Software Inc. | Edmonton | Custom computer programming services | 149 | Rewards exceptional employee performance with cash bonuses and other awards, including a one-week trip for two to Baja, Calif. |
| Vancouver Island Health Authority | Victoria | Hospitals | 17,397 | Supports ongoing employee skills development by sponsoring nursing employees who wish to pursue post-graduate training. |
| City of Vancouver | Vancouver | Government | 6,644 | A community leader that provides six-month work experience terms to individuals recovering from drug addiction in partnership with local community organizations. |
| Yellow Pages Group Co. | Verdun, Que. | Directory and mailing list publishers | 2,402 | Extends fully paid health benefit coverage to retired employees, with no age limit. |
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