Savings Program a Canadian First

March 10,2005

Inner City Renovation is setting a precedent in Canada with a unique employee savings program for its employees. Two of ICR’s partners, Social Capital Partners in Toronto, and Community Ownership Solutions in Winnipeg are supporting a company-sponsored savings program by matching employee savings dollar-for-dollar.

ICR is a social enterprise providing renovation/construction services in the inner city. It was created by COS as part of its mandate to create quality jobs to lower income inner-city residents. In its first three years, ICR paid out more than .4 million in direct payroll to its employees. Now the ICR Savings Program is further helping employees save for future housing or education. Most of the 24 employees have opened accounts at ACU and the company is in the process of setting up an automatic payroll deposit program to help staff avoid the high cost of fringe banking institutions. Employees are also benefiting from personal financial management training from SEED Winnipeg.