SARC Annual Report 2022 - 2023

A Message from SARC’s Board President and Executive Director

Jim Morrison and Amy McNeil SARC Board President and Executive Director

With the disruption of the pandemic behind us, SARC and SARCAN Recycling welcomed 2022-23 with a renewed level of energy and optimism. While endurance and adaptiveness were required throughout the pandemic to ensure recycling services and Member supports remained in place, they moved beyond provisional measures and into more permanent fixtures of how we approach our business. Although the way we work and deliver services may have shifted in some ways, our commitment to providing exceptional service to our customers and Members has not.

The Disability Service Sector

The Disability Service sector was exceptionally hard-hit by the pandemic. The workforce found itself facing significantly higher than normal employee turnover and position vacancy rates. SARC Members reported alarming employment trends and statistics that have resulted in increased labour costs, leaves, and grievances. Rapidly rising benefit and other employment related costs have created even greater pressure on an already fragile workforce. While we continue to collectively work towards the establishment of a sustainable strategy with the Provincial Government, we want to thank the individuals and their home organizations for their participation, guidance, and leadership on SARC’s Advocacy Committee. SARC also wants to thank Members for their dedication and commitment to the belief that people experiencing disability deserve and have the right to be supported by a high quality, well-trained, and stable workforce and that organizations need to have the financial capacity to operate effectively. We continue to be inspired by the weight and influence of its Members’ collective voice.

SARC’s Member Services Division and all of its associate services and supports remained strong, and participation increased in almost all areas. They also hosted the first in-person Fall Conference since the beginning of the pandemic. While the learning and professional development opportunities were top quality and well attended, the highlight of the conference was re-connecting with peers and friends.

Recycling

In 2022-23, the people of Saskatchewan recycled over 493 million beverage containers. Although this number was slightly shy of setting a new record, Saskatchewan experienced an overall return rate of 84%. SARCAN also achieved the milestone of 10 billion beverage containers returned since the establishment of the system in 1988.

Increasing the return rate of all materials collected by SARCAN remains a top priority for us. SARCAN thanks all its customers for their dedication to recycling and Saskatchewan’s environment. We look forward to furthering our efforts to increase all return rates, including initiatives to promote and increase the recycling of plastic beverage containers. To align with the Government of Canada’s recycling target of a 90% recovery rate of plastic beverage containers by 2030, SARCAN will continue its efforts to increase consumer awareness and recycling in our province.

Although the future is bright and we remain optimistic, we must also remain cognizant of the global economy, social, and politic landscape we operate within. Cautious management of our finances, processes, people, and systems will lead to reliable outcomes and support us through global instability while allowing us to continue to enhance services, drive value, and improve all areas of our business.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Senior Leadership Team at SARC/SARCAN Recycling, we thank SARC Members, our

stakeholders and government partners, our customers, and our employees for their contributions to over five decades of success. 2023 marks 55 years in operation for SARC and 35 years for SARCAN Recycling; none of which would be possible without all of you.

“SARC also wants to thank Members for their dedication and commitment to the belief that people experiencing disability deserve and have the right to be supported by a high quality, well-trained, and stable workforce and that organizations need to have the financial capacity to operate effectively. ”

The SARC Board of Directors

Dawn Desautels Past President

Cypress Hills Ability Centres

Jim Morrison President

North East Region Regular Board Representative Plus Industries Inc.

Stefan Thomas Secretary

North Region Associate Manager Representative

Christian Horizons

Donald Salie

North West Region Regular Board Representative

Battlefords Trade & Education Centre Inc.

Elaine Carter

North Region Associate Board Representative

Onion Lake Health Board

Marnie WatkinPawelko

South Region Associate Board Representative

Regina Residential Resource Centre

Board Committees

Executive Committee

Jim Morrison, Committee Chair

Dawn Desautels

Valerie Budd-Pritchard

Stefan Thomas

Lionel Prefontaine

SARCAN Committee

Valerie BuddPritchard, Committee Chair

Cameron Nicolle

Donald Salie

Dawn Desautels

Valerie Budd-Pritchard Vice President

South Region Regular Manager Representative

Moose Jaw Diversified Services

Cameron Nicolle

North Region Regular Manager Representative

Valley Action Abilities

Rosa Smith

South Region Associate Manager Representative

Clare Parker Homes

Lionel Prefontaine Treasurer

External Appointment

Unita Esau

North Region Regular Board Representative Multiworks Corporation

Jenna Moore

South West Region Regular Board Representative

Wheatland Regional Centre

Member Services Committee

Marnie WatkinPawelko, Committee Chair

Rosa Smith

Unita Esau

Stefan Thomas

Lloyd Montgomery

South East Region Regular Board Representative

Weyburn Wor-Kin Shop Corp.

Finance/Pension & Benefits Committee

Lionel Prefontaine, Committee Chair

Jenna Moore

Elaine Carter

Lloyd Montgomery

Advocacy in the Disability Service Sector

2022-2023 was a busy year for SARC’s Advocacy Committee as it continues to work on initiatives aimed at raising the profile of the Disability Service sector and identify strategies to address sector challenges.

This committee, which is comprised of 20 Member representatives (board directors and senior leaders), focused its efforts according to SARC’s Advocacy and Lobbying Framework that was established from Member survey feedback in 2021.

This framework outlines four pillars of identified priority areas and goals that ultimately contribute to a thriving sector that is equipped to support people experiencing intellectual disabilities to live healthy, safe, and meaningful lives in their communities.

Compensation Funding Non-Salary Funding

(ex. Transportation, IT, Audit, Food, etc.)

Goal:

Funding levels that enable communitybased organizations in the Disability Service sector to offer competitive wages and benefits to employees in order to attract and keep talent in the sector.

Goal: Funding levels that recognize actual operating costs in support of personcentred, communitybased services for people experiencing disability.

Sector Promotion Educational Standards

Goal: Increased public awareness as to the role of the Disability Service sector in Saskatchewan.

Goal: Standardized educational requirements established and implemented for the Disability Service sector.

SARC would like to express its sincere appreciation to those serving on the Advocacy Committee for contributing many hours over this past year to planning meetings, discussions with their MLAs, and engaging other SARC Members to build our collective voice.

Sector Promotion – Start With Hello

Throughout this past year, SARC and the Advocacy Committee worked to develop a public relations campaign to raise awareness about the Disability Service sector and promote careers within the sector. Supported by a $400,000 investment of the SARC Board of Directors, SARC contracted a communications firm to guide this development with the committee, including brand identification, key messaging, creative materials, media strategy, and market testing.

The campaign, called “Start With Hello”, launched in May 2023 and aims to raise awareness about the sector and its workforce of approximately 4,000 employees supporting 6,000 people experiencing intellectual disabilities across Saskatchewan. It’s about getting to know the sector and being part of ensuring inclusive communities for people experiencing disabilities, and it all starts with saying hello.

Our committed budget has advertising running on a variety of platforms through to August 2024, and we hope to draw people in to www.startwithhello.ca to learn more about the sector, get engaged with SARC Member organizations, and see themselves as part of true community inclusion.

The more public presence our messaging has the stronger the impact will be in terms of raising awareness about the Disability Service sector.

How SARC Members Can Support the Campaign:

• Like and share SARC’s social media posts

• Issue social media posts – tagging SARC and using the hashtag #startwithhello

• Use campaign creative material in newsletters, on corporate website, and other promotional materials

Access campaign creative materials at www.startwithhello.ca

We are quite excited to launch this campaign and spread the word about all of the wonderful work done in the Disability Service sector.

Follow us on Facebook for news and promotions related to this campaign!

Human Resources/Labour Relations Consultation

Sector Staffing Trends

SARC has two consultants on staff to support our Regular and Associate Members with a variety of human resources and labour relations issues and initiatives. Some trends from consultations to the approximately 60 unionized and non-unionized organizations supported this past year were:

Staffing and Capacity

What comes as something that may not be a surprise to many in the Disability Service sector, staffing and capacity limits continue to hinder organizations in their ability to achieve their objectives. Organizations are struggling to recruit and fill vacancies. Relief pools of employees are reducing to levels not seen before. Demands on permanent hourly staff are driving up organizations’ labour costs as a result of overtime, and salaried management staff are also working a lot of extra hours. These are areas in which organizations will have to continuously monitor going forward as they attempt to minimize service disruption and safety risks for employees and people experiencing disability relying on these services.

Leaves and Mental Health

Leaves of absences occur for a variety of reasons, but more and more employees are requesting to access sick leave for mental health purposes. We anticipate this to continue in the coming years as societal and social norms are shifting to being more aware of mental health struggles and challenges.

Did you know?

Looking for HR/ LR resources, policy samples, templates, and other tools?

SARC Members can access these in our online Manager Resource Area.

Collective bargaining

Negotiations are in full swing, with more returning to an “in-person” format as opposed to strictly virtual, as was the case throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the current state of the economy and seemingly runaway inflation, negotiations are proving to be challenging. In addition to the expected demands for better wages, unions are also turning their heads to operational limitations as well as other benefits not specifically related to monetary compensation. Employers will have to be cognizant of protecting their interests in maintaining a flexible and efficient workplace.

Grievances and Disputes

Disagreements and opposing positions can be part of a unionized workplace environment. Most ongoing disagreements that get raised are the result of some sort of disciplinary/corrective action with employees and would mean the union is taking exception to the employer’s decisions to either impose discipline in the first place or that the disciplinary response was too severe. This trend seems to have shifted in the last year. We are now seeing many more disagreements in regard to the interpretation of the collective agreement. These types of grievances can result in further complications for employers going forward as not only are these grievances costly and time consuming, but interpretative matters can also lead to potential operational restrictions and inflexibilities.

With funding support from the Ministry of Social Services, 26 Members were able to access SARC’s Legal Support Service.

Facility Planning

Building Condition Assessment Inspections on the Rise

In the past year, more and more SARC Members have requested support in the capital planning process. While SARC Members are committed to keeping their homes and buildings in good condition, they want to increase their effectiveness and efficiency in how this is done. Having all the capital planning information in one place makes it easier to make informed decisions about building improvements. On-site visits by SARC’s Facility Planner have shifted to meet these needs and goals of operating longlasting well-maintained homes and day program buildings. A Building Condition Assessment (BCA) is a critical part of the capital planning process, and SARC’s Facility Planner completed assessment inspections for many of our Members in 20222023.

Inspections, for the purpose of creating a BCA, provides data for the capital plan. In this past year, 34 buildings, representing 26% of the 50 Member organizations supported this year through SARC’s facility planning services, were inspected for this purpose. More inspections are planned for the next fiscal year as well.

A BCA is beneficial to SARC Members for many reasons. The BCA identifies all the capital items in a building, suggests a date for replacement, and provides a budget cost for each item. A SARC BCA goes beyond the traditional scope of a building assessment and includes information vital to group homes and day program buildings. This can include suggestions for accessibility enhancements, identifying building and fire code deficiencies, as well as observing licensing requirements. Maintenance suggestions add valuable details on a BCA, especially for Members without a dedicated maintenance employee/ department. It is important that the BCA reflects the condition of the building and provides some

suggestions on where improvements can be made.

SARC Members can also make better informed decisions when using the BCA to update their capital plan. Budgeting for replacements prevents surprise emergencies and allows funds to be available. An updated capital plan also helps to access funding, especially for short window funding opportunities. When a replacement need is identified in a BCA, SARC Members have more time to select the most appropriate product. A BCA can also help with future planning enhancements.

SARC Members have also used BCAs to plan for major renovations of day program buildings. Aging building components as well as a shift in how people supported will use the building has been the basis for many day program improvements over the years. There are many opportunities when taking on large capital projects, including fundraising initiatives advertising improvements being made by the Member, and promoting and increasing interest in the Member’s mission and vision within the community.

SARC contributes the necessary tools, information, and support for Members to take the next step to budgeting for success. The BCA provides the groundwork for planning to improve and maintain existing buildings in light of rising new construction costs. Members have an increased knowledge of the economic benefit of maintaining their existing properties and capital assets. A capital plan brings together the elements for this success. Together, we are creating increased sustainability for the homes and gathering places that people experiencing disability rely on.

SARC Members Continue to Be Invested in Professional Development

Thanks to our SARC Members, it was another busy education and training year!

Did you know that most of SARC’s training programs can be delivered to a group of employees at your organization in-person or virtually?

Check out sarclearningcentral.ca to see which training we can bring to your employees.

Program Registration

+18%

Increase in registrations from last fiscal year

In 2021-2022: There was a total of 1,943 unique registrations for SARC’s training programs.

In 2022-2023: There was a total of 2,292 unique registrations for SARC’s training programs.

SARC’s HR/LR Training Expands to Include Duty to Accommodate

SARC has added another Labour Relations training session to its program lineup. The Duty to Accommodate is a three-hour in-person training that was added to our calendar. In this session, managers and senior leaders explore how to apply legislation, review responsibilities, discuss how to conduct an investigation, learn how to recognize the common signs of mental health problems, and so much more. 25 people attended the two sessions that were coordinated in Saskatoon and Regina.

Mental Health First Aid Registrations on the Rise

In any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental illness (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). Mental Health First Aid is the support provided to any person who may be experiencing a decline in their mental well-being or a mental health crisis. SARC’s MHFA Trainer facilitated a number of sessions resulting in 57 people completing the program either in person, or virtually, to be certified as a Mental Health First Aider. This is an increase of 46% in MHFA certifications from last year.

SARC Hosts First In-Person Fall Conference Since 2019

The SARC Fall Conference saw close to 100 nonprofit leaders gather together in Regina to network, learn, and celebrate the accomplishments in the sector. Geared towards Executive Directors, senior management, and Boards of Directors, this conference had something for everyone who attended, covering topics such as nonprofit governance; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and change management. It was wonderful to be back in-person with so many of our Members following the hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

66 organizations from outside Saskatchewan accessed one or more of SARC’s Training Programs – an increase of 53% from last year.

SARC Re-launches ELEVATE – an online program for Boards of Directors

In 2022, we completed a comprehensive update and re-launched the ELEVATE program. As governance best practices and trends continue to evolve, so too does the ELEVATE program! Take any module you want, when you want with your annual subscription! Now with more modules (14), increased flexibility, interactive content, and additional templates and resources, ELEVATE will help support board directors in their role of leading and governing a nonprofit organization.

New ELEVATE modules include, but are not limited to:

• Taking Your Board to the Next Level

• Recruitment and Succession Planning of Board Directors

• Hosting the Annual General Meeting

• Performance Management of the Executive Director

• Strategic Planning and Leading

NTG Dementia Training Going Strong

A total of 67 people completed NTG Dementia Training, an increase of 86% from last year. This training is for employees who support people aging with an intellectual disability and will help learners better understand age-related changes, know how to promote healthy aging, and be able to recognize and address symptoms of dementia.

Venture Continues to Gain Momentum

A total of 52 supervisors completed Venture. This online program is for new supervisors and those looking to build their skill set. Venture will help learners build the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed for a successful career in the nonprofit sector.

Modules include:

• What is a Supervisor?

• Building your Toolbox of Resources

• Document, Document, Document

• Finding Great Employees and Supporting Success

• Managing People and Performance

• Leadership

COMPASS Training Package Participation Grows

With 1,314 unique registrations and 93% of eligible organizations enrolling in one or more programs (our highest participation rate on record), the COMPASS Training Package had a very successful year. COMPASS includes the following 11 programs, which are available to Regular and Associate Members as well as Affiliate Members that receive funding from CLSD:

1. Leap

2. Transferring, Lifting, Repositioning (TLR)

3. Professional Assault Response Training (PART)

4. ELEVATE

5. Med Assist

6. Stride

7. Person-centred Essentials

8. Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)

9. Canadian Red Cross Standard First Aid/AED/Level C

10. Food Handler Certification

11. Workplace Hazardous Information System (WHMIS) 2015

1,314 unique registrations eligible organizations participating

Please visit https://www.sarclearningcentral.ca/compass for more information. Please note that most of SARC’s training programs are also available for purchase if an organization is not eligible to access them at no cost through COMPASS.

Thanks to COMPASS funding:

COMPASS Feature - Person-Centredness

Person-centred Essentials – Training Delivered Province-Wide

Person-centred Essentials is a training program for employees who support people experiencing disability and focuses on the essentials of having a culture of person-centred practice. It provides tools to assist with the implementation or maintenance of delivering personalized support at an organization.

Our facilitator travelled across the province and provided nine Person-centred Essentials sessions!

Coming Soon! Inspired: Leading Person-Centred Support

An Online Program for Board Directors, Executive Directors, and Senior Leaders

The Inspired program is intended to provide learners with the knowledge and tools to strengthen their understanding of person-centred practice, excel as a leader in supporting people to live the lives of their choosing, and work with other organizational leaders to embed person-centred practice throughout the organization. Launching in Fall of 2023, this online program will allow Board Directors, Executive Directors, and Senior Leaders to take the modules that directly apply to their roles (or take all modules - it is your choice!).

Inspired will be added to the COMPASS Training Package for a total of 12 programs that are available to SARC Regular and Associate Members as well as Affiliate Members with CLSD funding at no cost!

SETI Rocks Second Year

The 2022-2023 fiscal year provided the second year of multi-year funding for the Supported Employment Transition Initiative (SETI). The call for proposals conducted for the two-year period saw six projects approved for funding. SETI funding is provided to community-based organizations to help them assist people to prepare for, obtain, or maintain employment while also engaging employers to hire people experiencing disability to increase diversity and build inclusive cultures within their workplaces. As the effects of the pandemic subsided, the SETI projects were able to better support job seekers in their employment journey. As the economy and labour market continued to open up, the focus also included a return to engaging employers to get them thinking about hiring inclusively.

October 2022 saw Disability Employment Awareness Month (DEAM) once again proclaimed by the Province of Saskatchewan. Multiple events occurred throughout the province to help celebrate inclusive employers who already experience the benefits of hiring inclusively. SARC hosted an employer engagement luncheon that featured Holly Singer from Milk Jar Candle Company and Sharon Davis from SaskTel who shared their stories and successes about their businesses’ journeys with supported employment. SARC also joined the second national Light It Up! For NDEAM (National Disability Employment Awareness Month) campaign. Across Canada, this national inclusive employment awareness campaign saw 118 communities with 439 locations light up in purple and blue lighting on the evening of October 19th. SARC was proud to once again take on the coordination and promotion of Saskatchewan’s involvement in this national event, and 2022 saw 16 Saskatchewan communities participating with 70 locations. We are already planning for the October 2023 event and can’t wait to see the land of the living skies once again lit up in hues of purple and blue.

SARC’s EmployLink website has resources for job seekers and employers and can link both of them to service providers with employment professionals throughout the province. A couple of media campaigns took place this year that were aimed at driving people to the EmployLink website, using our tag line of “It pays to be inclusive.” This campaign included a variety of ads (static, digital, and mobile) and the airing of existing and updated commercials with some of

our employer champions, including Farm Credit Canada, SaskTel, Juliana Pizza, and Humboldt Sobeys.

The 2022-2023 fiscal year saw many of the funded projects making great strides as they proceeded through their second year of funding. Although a couple of the projects struggled with staff turnover, the six SETI funded projects supported 145 people to prepare for, obtain, or maintain employment. The SETI projects cumulatively met, and, in most cases, exceeded the outcomes they had set. SARC remains thankful to the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training for the funding for the SETI program and looks forward to another multi-year funding arrangement for projects that will assist people experiencing disability to start or build their careers.

SETI Stats

145 people supported

158 success stories

109 achieved employment

49 maintained employment from previous year

SARC’s Group Program Highlights

SARC sponsors various group programs to provide a ‘bulk customer’ advantage for SARC, SARCAN Recycling, and SARC Members related to coverages, terms, and pricing.

Benefits (Sun Life)

• All plans saw an overall decrease in rates negotiated going into the 20232024 year

• Introduced SHOWPAD, a new microsite for plan administrators to be able to access plan information and documents more easily

• Transitioned to Express Scripts as new Pharmacy Benefits Manager

• Members are making use of the Lumino Services online health portal

72 organizations

98 divisions

1,900+ employees

Pension (Co-operators)

• Plan members now have access to the Co-operators In-House Retirement Team and online videos to assist them with investment advice and retirement income planning

• The Administrator site underwent a variety of updates, including updated forms and the ability for plan sponsors to update statuses online

• Fund performance for year ending March 31, 2023:

• Balanced Fund (majority of participant funds) had a one-year return of -1.7% with a 6.0% return over four years

• Target Date Funds (second largest) had a one-year return of 1.1% and a 7.1% return over four years

• The Co-operators BlackRock U.S. Equity Index Fund and the Co-operators Fidelity Global Fund were added to provide more investment options (four-year return of 11.6% and 9.3% respectively)

75 organizations

102 divisions

4,800+ individual plan members

$119 million in assets

Employee Assistance Program (LifeWorks)

40 organizations

2,200+ employees

• Counseling was top service used by participating organizations

• Most common issues were related to mental health and communication/conflict resolution

• Tele-counseling was the most popular way of accessing support

• Presented Wellbeing Calendar to support organizational planning by offering a look ahead to a full year of themed content with events to observe and ideas to strengthen employees’ total wellbeing

SARC Insurance Program

The SARC Insurance Program is designed and developed specific to the Disability Service sector to protect organizations against unforeseen events that could result in financial loss, reputational damage, or legal liabilities. In today’s uncertain insurance market, SARC’s program partners at Butler Byers Insurance have been proactive in identifying potential risks and developing tailored solutions to meet the unique needs of SARC Members.

Current State of the Insurance Market:

In the past few years, the insurance market has been subject to unprecedented challenges due to a combination of factors such as the pandemic, natural disasters, cyber attacks, and increased litigation. New and emerging challenges have also presented themselves, including rising interest rates, climate change, supply chain issues, looming recession, and inflation. Insurance companies are not immune to these challenges and as such the conditions have inhibited growth and profitability. Like other sectors, insurers have had to pivot and determine a sustainable path forward.

Despite the challenging environment, negotiations have been successful in achieving competitive rates and terms for SARC Members, thanks to strong insurer relationships, longevity of the insurance programs, and proactive risk management.

Individual Coverage Programs:

The SARC Insurance Program currently comprises of three individual coverage programs that address specific risks faced by Members:

Property and Liability Insurance – 45 participating organizations: This program provides coverage for property damage and bodily injury resulting from accidents or negligence. It includes coverage for buildings, contents, equipment, and liability exposures such as slip and falls, abuse, or property damage caused by employees.

In 2022, the program with Northbridge Insurance continued to perform well within the acceptable loss ratio parameters. A marketing analysis was conducted for the 2023 SARC Insurance Program renewal for due diligence purposes. It has proven to be a difficult task given the market condition for this sector. However, efforts have continued into 2023.

Directors and Officers Liability Insurance – 81 participating organizations: This program provides coverage for legal claims arising from alleged wrongful acts by board members or officers, including breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, mismanagement, and employment practice related liabilities. It includes coverage for defense costs, settlements, and judgments.

Through 2022, the financial sustainability of the program was threatened due to the continued trend relating to the loss frequency and severity of unionrelated grievance claims. As a result, a difficult decision had to be made to no longer include grievance coverage in the program.

Grievance coverage was developed and designed many years ago for unionized members of the program and is not coverage that is readily offered in the insurance market. This was evident when the marketing analysis was conducted for 2023 (as none of the 21 markets approached were able to accommodate offering it). Having to discontinue this coverage was an unfortunate situation for the program and for the 26 out of the 81 participating organizations that are unionized. In making this decision for the financial sustainability of the program as whole, we recognize the financial impact this could have on these unionized organizations as grievances continue to increase in prevalence across all sectors.

The program remains with the incumbent insurer (Northbridge Insurance) due to the favourable terms negotiated following the removal of grievance coverage.

Cyber Insurance – 23 participating organizations: This program provides coverage for losses resulting from cyber attacks, such as data breaches, network failures, and cyber extortion. It includes coverage for data restoration, business interruption, liability, and crisis management expenses.

Although the program performed well in 2022, its success is not reflected in the cyber insurance industry more broadly, which continues to experience volatility due to increased frequency and severity of losses. As a result, we have seen numerous changes in the market, such as insurers withdrawing from the space, reductions in capacity and coverage, and increased rates.

Due to risk management initiatives and surface monitoring provided by the incumbent insurer (Coalition), increased rates have been kept to a minimum and coverage has remained the same in comparison to other markets.

Overall, we are confident that the SARC Insurance Program continues to provide the SARC Membership with the most comprehensive and competitive insurance package. Looking ahead, Butler Byers will continue to monitor the insurance market and work with SARC to adapt program coverages to meet the changing needs of organizations. The program will also focus on enhancing its risk management capabilities and providing value-added services to help SARC Members improve their overall risk profile.

The SARC Insurance Program remains committed to providing high-quality coverage and risk management solutions to participating organizations.

SARCAN Year at a Glance

Recycled over 493 million beverage containers from April 1st, 2022 to March 31st, 2023 – Just 1.1% shy of last year’s massive record setting returns.

84% of all beverage containers sold in Saskatchewan last year were returned to SARCAN.

Over the course of the year, the total containers recycled at SARCAN over our history rose to over 10 billion containers!

Over 1.5 million customers visited SARCAN through the 2022-23 year!

Completed construction of SARCAN’s biggest and most advanced depot – Saskatoon Kochar, which the Faithfull depot relocated to.

Renovated our Turtleford and Regina Rochdale depots.

SARCAN employees completed over 7,700 training courses last year!

Launched a new educational series of videos – SARCAN Pro Tips – that featured our own employees giving out the best recycling tips so our customers can make the best recycling trips.

Kamsack moved into a brand new depot in December.

Drop & Go continues to reach new heights with over 20% of all transactions processed through Drop & Go.

Our in-depot Video Display Network that showcases helpful information for our customers waiting in line is now in over half of our depots.

OVERVIEW

Returns held strong through SARCAN’s 2022-2023 year with an 84% return rate. This is one of Canada’s highest return rates and helped bring SARCAN’s historical total of returned containers to over 10 billion!

493,641,796

Beverage Containers Recycled

84% Overall Return Rate Container Return Rates

92% Glass

90% Aluminum

80% Plastic

59% Carton

In addition to deposit beverage containers, SARCAN also accepts end-of-useful-life electronics, used household paint, dead batteries, and non-deposit household glass containers for responsible

The environmental impact of these returns is massive. The materials recovered keep valuable resources out of our landfills. The energy saved and emissions avoided by recycling are equivalent to thousand’s of homes powered or cars removed.

This year marks SARCAN’s 35th year in operation and is now in 65 communities with 73 depots and 2 processing plants throughout the province. With over 900 employees, SARCAN is one of Canada’s largest inclusive employers.

Collection and Processing Review

Typically, it is quite hard to rebound after a record setting year. After almost hitting half a billion containers recycled in our 2021-22 year, SARCAN wasn’t sure what to expect with 2022-23. We for sure didn’t expect to nearly match that record (which blew our previous record away by about 40 million containers)! However, that is exactly what happened. Over the course of our last fiscal year, the rockstar recyclers of Saskatchewan came out to SARCAN and recycled 493,641,796 beverage containers! This works out to a mere drop of 1.1% over our record year, making it the second highest year of returns in our history! Once again, we must take our caps off (pun intended!) to thank and recognize our wonderful employees across the province. Without the hard work and dedication of the recycling teams in our depots counting and sorting the containers and the diligent attention to detail by our employees in our processing plants consolidating and shipping them, SARCAN would not be the force in the recycling industry that we are today. Day in, day out, the SARCAN team works incredibly hard recovering those resources and providing valuable feedstock to the manufacturing industry here in North America. We cannot say it enough: Thank you to all SARCAN employees!

Not only do we love our employees, so do Saskatchewan recyclers! Recycler visits increased by 6% from last year as over 1.5 million people came out and made a recycling trip to a SARCAN depot. During those visits, our recyclers brought us 84% of all the beverage containers that were purchased in the province. This recovery rate is

one of the highest in Canada proving once again that Saskers are some of the most passionate and loyal recyclers, helping us along on the path to a rich, vibrant, sustainable future for Saskatchewan.

After they brought those containers to SARCAN to be counted and sorted by our skilled recycling technicians at the depot, all of the material that SARCAN collects is shipped to one of our two processing plants in Saskatoon and Regina. If you thought the total number of containers was high, you’ll love this: On average, over 800,000 pounds of materials are processed by the plant employees and sent downstream to be made into new products. Oh, forgot to mention…that happens every week! In total, over 43 million pounds passed through the hands of our employees over the 2022-23 year. That is quite wonderful, we agree, but it’s hard to fathom a number that big! In other words, SARCAN counted, sorted, and processed over 70,000 garbage trucks full of material that otherwise would have ended up in our landfills.

Okay, that wasn’t really that much easier to imagine. Just suffice it to say: SARCAN sends an incredible amount of material to downstream markets! Breaking it down by material type, in 2022-23 we shipped out 8.9 million pounds of aluminum, 10.3 million pounds of plastic, 17.7 million pounds of glass, 2.3 million pounds of drink boxes and cartons, and 120 thousand pounds of tin. All of these numbers are very impressive, but seeing such high amounts for aluminum and plastic is the highlight. Both of these types of materials are able to be recycled over and over again without degrading, meaning aluminum cans get turned back into aluminum cans and pop bottles can be recycled back into pop bottles, creating a circular economy.

So far, we have only touched on the beverage container side of SARCAN, but we take much more than just drink containers. SARCAN is a collection site for household paint on behalf of ProductCare, endof-useful-life electronics on behalf of the Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA), dead household batteries on behalf of Call2Recycle, and household glass in select municipalities. These non-deposit items combined for an additional 5.11 million pounds of material resources recovered.

These numbers are really fun to talk about (if you are as nerdy as we are, that is!) but the really impressive aspect of all of this is in the impact of those numbers. SARCAN’s operations in 2022-23 resulted in over 50 thousand metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions avoided and over 800 thousand BTUs worth of energy savings. Again with these big numbers, hey? How about this: The impact of recycling at SARCAN over the past year is equivalent to pulling over 10,000 cars off the road and saved enough energy to power nearly 10,000 homes for an entire year! That’s a city bigger than Swift Current!

Drop & Go

Here at SARCAN, our customer comments continue to show us that convenience is a big factor when it comes to making a recycling system that is easy and accessible for all. So, it comes as no surprise that the popularity of Drop & Go –SARCAN’s skip-the-line service – shows no signs of dropping off! Instead, it seems to be picking up steadily year after year.

Through 2022-23, there was increase in usage across the board as we saw a stunning 20% of all transactions go through Drop & Go. The system also grew in terms of users with a user base of over 130,000 active accounts, including over 3,500 Drop & Go Group Accounts used by a wide variety of groups and organizations as the system proves to be a fantastic fundraising option.

The best example of an organization adding this avenue to their arsenal of fundraising tactics is TeleMiracle. Each year, the TeleMiracle Telethon, put on by the Kinsmen Foundation, takes over the airwaves to raise money allowing them to provide funding to the people of Saskatchewan requiring specialized mobility and medical equipment to maintain or improve their quality of life, access to life-saving medical treatment, as well as providing funds to institutions and health foundations to purchase specialized, new, or innovating equipment to improve health care. TeleMiracle has now been able to expand their fundraising efforts thanks to their Drop & Go Group Account. Now, people of Saskatchewan can donate to TeleMiracle year-round simply by entering the phrase ‘TeleMiracle’ into any Drop & Go kiosk in the province and dropping off some containers. 100% of the proceeds go directly to TeleMiracle. As a result of this, in March of 2023 SARCAN was able to deliver the biggest donation we have given in the past 20 years of our partnership. Combining Drop & Go donations, TeleMiracle Helping Hand sales, and general donations from our customers, we raised just a few hundred dollars short of $80,000.00. This

massive donation helped SARCAN reach a total of $1,000,000.00 over the course of our partnership! The convenience of Drop & Go isn’t only realized in time customers can save, or the funds they can easily raise, but also in the simplicity of receiving their deposit refund. After dropping their containers off with us, as soon as we finish processing their order, their money can be deposited directly into their account with the option of e-Transfer payments. The popularity of this method of payment rose once again throughout the year with 56% of all account holders choosing to be paid this way. 12% of customers have opted to have their deposit refund delivered through PayPal, and 32% decided to ditch the digital money options and came back to the depot to pick up a cheque. When Drop & Go was first being conceptualized nearly 8 years ago, SARCAN had a goal in mind to create a system that would make recycling easier, and, in turn, attract more people to recycle their containers that normally wouldn’t. Well, with our 2022 Drop & Go user survey, we were given proof that we hit our target! 27% of users told us that they now recycle more often than they did before Drop & Go was available. Although, this isn’t overly surprising since customer satisfaction came in at a whopping 97% with a Net Promoter Score™ of 79!

Even with this overwhelming level of satisfaction, we are continually reviewing and working on the Drop & Go system to make it more accessible and improve the ease of use. To this end, in 2022 we launched My Drop & Go – an online portal for Drop & Go users to access their account. Customers can access this portal on any device that is connected to the internet. In the My Drop & Go portal, users are able to check the status of any recent drops they’ve made as well as easily and securely change, update, and modify their account information. All of the customer’s transaction history is also available through this portal, allowing them to look back through their history of recycling efforts before hopping over to the Earth Saver Stats section of the portal where they can see the real time impact of every container they recycle with us through Drop & Go. From the amount of space they’ve saved in our landfills to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they have mitigated by returning their empties, Drop & Go users have never been more connected to their containers and the impact of recycling them.

Celebrating Our Employees

We say this many, many times – because we really believe it – SARCAN employees are the best! Not only are they some of the most dedicated, hard working people out there, they are very loyal. Our team members stick with us for many years, and we feel it is important to celebrate that loyalty and hard work and shine a light on the wonderful people in our organization who have stood the test of time.

SARCAN puts on an annual Employee Recognition Day, where we invite employees who have reached a milestone in their years of service to a full day of fun, ending in a formal banquet and awards ceremony. In October 2022, SARCAN returned to an in-person event and it was spectacular! It was a packed house as 125 individuals were recognized and their guests attended the celebrations.

5

15

5-year recipients received an aluminum loon on a lake of marble

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15-year recipients received a framed print of a painting by Jenny Buyaki (long-term Assiniboia SARCAN depot employee)

20

10-year recipients received a watch with the SARCAN logo

20-year recipients received a gift of their choice (either a SARCAN ring or a crystal sculpture)

25-year and 30-year recipients received a cheque in recognition of their years of service

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2022 recipients – 1,588 years of service!! years = 18 recipients (180 years of service)

20 years = 46 recipients (230 years of service)

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15years = 25 recipients (375 years of service)

25 30 R

25 30 & years = 16 recipients (320 years of service) years = 3 recipients (75 years of service)

etirees = 9 (168 years of service) years = 8 recipients (240 years of service)

Employee Investment

SARC and SARCAN Recycling recognize that the strength of the SARCAN system is our team of dedicated employees. To this end, all SARCAN Recycling employees have access to a comprehensive, accessible, and responsive training system to guide them through their careers at SARCAN. Our training platform trains new team members on how to safely and effectively do their jobs and makes sure that existing employees stay up-to-date on leading practices in our industry.

Aspire

Aspire is SARCAN’s online learning management system where our employees complete a wide variety of training experiences. Our platform is available to all SARCAN recyclers 24/7 and features 67 training courses. On Aspire, learners complete training on customer service, SARCAN’s safety program, equipment operation, and more. This past year we added four new courses to the Aspire course catalog.

Aspire learners completed 7,734 training courses last year, which is equal to 18,636 hours dedicated to Aspire training and employee development.

Mental Health & Wellness

With most people in Canada spending more hours at work than any other place, we recognize the importance that a positive, inclusive, and mentally healthy workplace can have on someone’s overall health and wellbeing. We aim to demonstrate leadership in workplace mental health, and ensure that all SARCAN employees have access to training, resources, and supports to help them maintain positive mental health. This past year, SARCAN launched foundational

training experiences on Psychological Health and Safety and Respect in the Workplace to make sure that everyone on our team understands the importance of workplace mental health. Paired with our popular training course on managing stress in the workplace, our mental health and wellness initiatives aim to equip our team with the tools and resources they need to maintain positive mental health.

SARCAN also offers The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training to our employees. Since we began offering MHFA training in 2018, 154 SARCAN employees have successfully completed the course.

SARCAN Supervisor Training

A core facet of our employee development effort is making sure we have a confident, strong supervisory team throughout the system.

We look to our Supervisors across the SARCAN system to foster a culture of teamwork, communication, and collaboration.

Our Inspire platform is our online learning management system designed specifically for SARCAN Supervisors. New Supervisors complete Venture training on Inspire to build their supervisory skills during the onboarding process. Supervisors also use Inspire for other Supervisor training courses and participating in Supervisor Updates.

CAN’ned Wisdom

This year we wrapped the 7th season of our popular CAN’ned Wisdom series, which are virtual information sessions we host for SARCAN employees on a variety of topics. The 55 CAN’ned Wisdom sessions are designed to expand our employees’ knowledge beyond our core job duties and responsibilities. Our 7th CAN’ned Wisdom series included sessions on:

• Recruitment

• Our market research efforts

• Living a low-waste lifestyle

• Composting

• Supported employment

Financial Literacy

The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with inflation and rising lending rates, has caused more workers across Canada to consider their financial position. In an effort to help employees better understand their financial position, this past winter we partnered with Affinity Credit Union to host 17 financial literacy training sessions on a variety of topics, including:

• Budgeting

• Borrowing

• Housing decisions

• Investing

The goals for our financial literacy sessions were to help employees make sound financial decisions, better prepare themselves for predictable and unpredictable life events, and build their confidence in spending, saving, and borrowing decisions.

ICT Training

In 2022, we partnered with the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training to develop fundamental digital literacy skills in SARCAN employees as part of our efforts to provide them with adequate training as their workplace becomes increasingly digitized. The project had four initiatives and targeted outcomes were realized in each one. Our final report, delivered to the Ministry in December, detailed our achievements and outcomes. We were also able to identify the barriers that SARCAN employees experience in accessing information and communications technology.

The first initiative was to leverage training resources from a well-established 3rd party service provider, Brainstorm. By curating skill development pathways, we are able to provide consistent, up-to-date, readily available, and customizable training to SARCAN employees. In December 2022, we reported that 105 SARCAN employees were using the platform. 15,190 courses were assigned, and 10,360 were completed.

The second initiative was to develop a ‘digital tally sheet’, changing the paper process of tallying customer orders to a digital process, whereby the employee would tally orders on a touchscreen and a QR code would be generated that the customer would take to the till for payment. At the time of the report, the hardware was chosen and the software was under development.

The third initiative was to outfit depots with mobile training stations (tablets). 71 units were deployed to 66 depots and at the time of our final report 70% of those depots were using the units for various purposes. The training stations are multi-purpose. They can be used to access the SARCAN training and intranet platforms, Brainstorm, the internet, and/or Microsoft products like Outlook and Word. However, because they also run the software for processing Drop & Go orders (with a training mode built-in), employees can be trained in using technology to complete their job tasks.

The fourth initiative was our Direct Access Research Project (DARP). For this project, we engaged a focus group of SARCAN employees who self-identified as experiencing barriers to accessing technology. They were divided into two groups, Beginners and Moderates. The Beginners were given tablets and basic training in digital literacy. The moderates followed a Brainstorm skill path to increase their knowledge. 59% of the Beginners and 47% of the Moderates reported that they were able to overcome their barriers to technology either ‘somewhat’ or ‘extremely’ well.

We intend to continue working on all four initiatives into 2023 and beyond. Use of computers and technology continue to advance at SARCAN depots and processing plants. As such, SARCAN has made a commitment to ensure all employees have the technical skills required to do their job.

Our digital literacy goal is to develop fundamental digital skills in employees so that they can make use of the technology that already exists in their workplace and to prepare them for the eventual addition of hardware.

Improving the SARCAN Experience

Relocations & Upgrades

As you can imagine, with SARCAN being around for the past 35 years and our operations continually growing, collecting more and more each year, we have a tendency to outgrow many of our facilities. Our Capital Development Team flagged four depots for upgrades this past year.

The depot in Turtleford was completely renovated and expanded, offering 960 additional square feet of space, an additional loading dock, and some rearranging of equipment allowing more room for our Turtleford team to count, sort, and package those containers before shipping them off to our processing plant.

Our Kamsack depot was relocated on December 7th, 2022 to a 4,860 sq. ft. building to allow our staff more room to process that location’s growing return volume. Other additional features to enhance their facility included a new counter, with water access directly to the chutes, and a larger Drop & Go room.

The Saskatoon North depot is one of our busiest depots in the province and was in dire need of an upgrade. We relocated their building on April 3rd, 2023 to a newly built facility on Kochar Ave. The new depot is one of SARCAN’s biggest, coming in at 13,500 sq ft, and has some of our most efficient and advanced equipment. The front counter in the massive customer area is equipped with water access to each chute as well as a robust conveyor system designed to move the containers from the front to the back without putting the physical stress of carrying on our employees. They also have an expanded Drop & Go area and much more parking than the old location.

Speaking of top returns in the system, Regina Rochdale’s Drop & Go is one of the most popular throughout our network with some days reaching up to 50% of returns going through the service. In the later part of the year, we expanded their Drop & Go space with more sign-in kiosks allowing more customers to drop off at one time, as well as added extra counting chutes for our employees working through these orders and a conveyor system to help lighten their load.

Equipment Upgrades

Conveyor Systems

Just as we are continually striving to capture more containers, we are continually working on ways to accomplish that with more efficiency every year. To that end, SARCAN has successfully piloted Tomra conveyor systems at four of our depots throughout the province – Warman, Saskatoon Jasper, Regina Parliament, and our new Saskatoon Kochar location.

These systems have truly changed the game in those depots. Tomra conveyors are built directly into our counting chutes and take SARCAN’s two most frequently returned materials – aluminum and clear PET – and carries them directly into high efficiency flatteners in the back of the depot. This takes some of the heavy lifting off of our employees and allows them to focus fully on counting and processing customer orders, decreasing the amount of time it takes to serve our customers and increasing the number of orders we can do in a day.

Aluminum and PET aren’t the only containers getting a smooth ride to the back on these conveyors. All

other containers are conveyed to a circulating sort table and hand sorted into tote bags, once again, streamlining the flow of containers through our buildings.

Flatteners

Of course, this all sounds great for getting cans and bottles from the front to the back, but what then? Well, the search for efficiency doesn’t end in the front of the depots. One of the best ways that we can shrink our footprint is by decreasing the amount of transportation we use to move customer returns from our depots to our plants. To accomplish this, SARCAN uses high-efficiency flatteners to compact the material as much as possible.

24 of our depots are equipped with a NexGen flattener that does compaction incredibly well. These top-of-the-line machines allow us to fit up to four times as much material in each tote (totes are the reusable containers that we use to ship material - we guess you could call them our container containers!). These space savings are huge in terms of our overall emissions as we are able to ship more containers in fewer trips.

In addition to those NexGens, the SARCAN fleet of flatteners includes 35 Multi-Material flatteners, 25 Prodeva flatteners, and 34 Orwak flatteners.

Forklifts

Naturally, the more containers you can fit in a tote with flattening equipment, the heavier they will be. In order to get this massive amount of material onto our trailers, we need to use lifting equipment. And not just any old lifting equipment. Yes, we have to get those containers onto a trailer, but in true SARCAN fashion, we want to do that in the most efficient, eco-friendly way.

SARCAN now has a fleet of 27 electric forklifts that are high in power but low in impact. We’ve brought these in as a part of our goal of replacing all propane-powered forklifts with electric models. By switching to electric forklifts, SARCAN is seeing many benefits such as improved air quality, lower GHG emissions, reduced noise levels, less repairs and maintenance costs, and fewer safety hazards (from handling propane fuel).

Balers

On the processing side of things, we take compaction to a whole new level. Remember when we talked about how nearly a million pounds of material flows through our plants every week? Well, we still have to ship all of that material to market so it can be used to make new things – and that is a lot to ship!

Both Saskatoon and Regina plants had their conveyor systems upgraded, and our Regina Processing plant received an upgraded baler, allowing them to compact the containers even more than before and do it quicker. Their new Maren 2-Ram baler can compact up to 30,000 cans into a 900 lb. bale in 7 minutes or less!

VDA Expansion

We continue to expand our network of in-depot video display advertising (VDA) systems. These systems capture the attention of the captive audience being served at SARCAN, giving them some helpful hints and important information while they are waiting.

With a VDA system now in over half of our depots, which includes our largest and busiest depots, VDA has become one of our leading customer education tools. Looking at the customer volumes for the 43 VDA-equipped depots, nearly 900,000 customers were reached by this messaging system.

Customer Outreach

With our continual work on improving the system, we’d be remiss if we didn’t reach out to the loyal recyclers in the province who visit our depots every day to see what they think about our efforts and operations. Each year, SARCAN runs a market research survey to gather this information. In October 2022, 803 Saskatchewan residents responded to our survey.

Recycling Behaviours

Brand Awareness

An incredibly impressive 99% of the general public was aware of SARCAN and 97% said that they were familiar with our operations. This was demonstrated by the fact that over 90% of those surveyed were able to identify the majority of items and materials SARCAN accepts for recycling.

We were also more than happy (and a little flattered!) to find out that 89% of Saskatchewan residents use SARCAN and, on average, 77% of their total household beverage containers are returned directly by themselves. On top of that, 13% get returned indirectly through donations.

This, of course, was referring to the beverage containers in the home, but that is not the only place that Saskers like to enjoy a beverage. We also polled them on what they do in situations where they aren’t near the comfort of their home recycling bag. It was great to see that even when out of the home, on average, 41% of those surveyed said that they would either take the container home with them or find a public recycling bin while they are out. A measly 3.5% reported throwing their containers in the garbage.

In terms of increasing the ease of access to our recycling services, we wanted to find out on average how close people are to their nearest SARCAN. We found that nearly 80% of the public is within 20 minutes of a SARCAN Recycling depot.

This is all fantastic news, of course, but we want to make sure that when customers come to recycle with us they are happy about doing so. Customer service is very important to us, so we surveyed the public to see if we are measuring up.

Overall, 89% of customers were satisfied with their recycling visits to our depots. Over 90% of our survey takers were happy with the friendliness and helpfulness of our employees, the cleanliness of our facilities, and the speed with which we processed their orders. Now, you would figure that if people were happy with their service at SARCAN that they would want to share with their friends and families, and that is exactly what we found out in October’s research! We used a Net Promoter Score™ to determine this, which is a method to determine how likely a person is to recommend SARCAN. We received a Net Promoter Score™ of 66 for the 2nd year in a row, which is leaps and bounds above the industry standard of 42. At SARCAN, we really love all of our customers, so it was excellent to see that love coming our way as well!

Spreading the SARCAN Word

All of those data points and percentages we just mentioned are far more than just numbers on a page to us. We use that research and those findings to guide our efforts to increase public awareness of who we are and how people can recycle with us in hopes of turning any non-recyclers into super SARCAN customers!

From our 2021 Market Research, we were able to create a wide variety of messages and promotional campaigns aimed at encouraging more happy returns.

Recycle Like a Pro

This year’s Recycle Like a Pro advertising campaign consisted of four sports themed broadcast commercials featuring pro recycling behaviours such as using Drop & Go for quick and efficient recycling trips, signing up for e-Transfer payments, milking their return for all the value of their dairy containers, and maximizing their visits by bringing in paint, electronics, and batteries on their next trip out to SARCAN.

Pro Tips

Our favourite social media campaign this year built off our Recycle Like a Pro campaign. Knowing our employees are the true pro recyclers, we produced 20 videos for this series, called Pro Tips, exclusively featuring our actual employees giving out expert advice on the best way to recycle with us. The full series of Pro Tips were shared on social media, our website, YouTube Channel, and on our VDA system.

From preparing containers for return, to the best time to visit, and many tricks of the trade to make visits easier and quicker, these videos gave out the best recycling tips so our customers could make the best recycling trips!

Unusual Suspects

Building off our most successful social media contest, we did a second year of our popular Unusual Suspects campaign. Unusual Suspects focuses on raising awareness for some of SARCAN’s least frequently returned materials. This year’s campaign was hosted in collaboration with the Carton Council of Canada and focused solely on cartons of all types.

We challenged the people of Saskatchewan to capture these Unusual Suspects and bring them into a SARCAN depot where we could dole out some sweet recycling justice! Our customers who snapped a photo of a caught suspect getting recycled and shared it on their social media account earned them an entry to win up to $1,000!

Supercharged Recycling

Continuing to leverage our strong social media following, we also collaborated on a social media contest with Call2Recycle called Supercharged Recycling.

This campaign asked customers to share pictures of batteries ready to be recycled at SARCAN on their social media platforms in hopes of raising awareness that SARCAN accepts household batteries for recycling, our newest material stream.

We were shocked by the reception of this contest as our customers took to social media to post those battery pics!

10 Billion Containers Recycled!

In January, SARCAN celebrated recycling our 10 billionth container! While that number alone is cause for cheers and applause, we wanted to take this opportunity to not only recognize the milestone we’ve reached, but to emphasize just what it means to have reached it.

10 billion containers recycled means so much more than just a huge number. There are the hundreds and hundreds of employment opportunities those containers help us create in the communities we serve. The incredible amount of refunds that went back into those communities as a result of recycling so much helps to build up and strengthen local economies throughout the province. And, of course, the sheer magnitude of recycling 10 billion containers is monumental in terms of environmental protection and resource recovery.

And, as with all of our advertisements, we had quite a bit of fun in spreading this message! The full 10 Billion Containers Recycled announcement video is available to watch on our YouTube channel. We encourage you to go check it out. It is pretty magical!

2022-2023 Financial Highlights

Complete information on the financial position of SARC and SARCAN Recycling can be found in our audited financial statements, available on our website.

SARC

SARC’s main source of funding is from Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Social Services with an operating grant and a grant for COMPASS training; there was a 2% increase in this grant funding in 2022-23. Education and Training revenue was up over 2021-22 due to an increase in registrations and the Fall Conference returning to an inperson format.

SARCAN Recycling

The SARCAN Recycling legislated program had total revenue of $50.61 million in the year with salvage materials sales down from 2021-22 due to lower return volumes and lower salvage prices, both of which were record-high in 2021-22.

Overall expenses for the year saw a 3.2% increase over 2021-22. The largest part of our expenses are depot wages and benefits, which comprise over 50% of total expenses.

The excess of revenue over expenses was $7.496 million which was down from 2021-22. From this amount, the maximum payouts allowable under our contract were made to Members operating depots. The remaining surplus is used to ensure the long-term sustainability of the recycling

SARC expenses are categorized into Member Association Activity, Education & Training, Consultants, SETI, Administration, and Amortization. Overall expenses were up from 2021-22. Member Association Activity expenses included the initial work on a Disability Service sector public awareness campaign.

system and to invest in our depot infrastructure across the province. The depot system is asset intensive and requires continued investment. We invested $7.6 million in capital assets in 202223, including improvements to depot buildings and investments in equipment and trailers.

In the non-legislated program, there was an increase in volumes of used paint and end-of-life electronics returned which impacted the revenue and expenses. The non-legislated program had the second full year of battery recycling and the first full year of provincial household glass, which contributed to the increases in both revenue and expenses.

2022-2023 Financial Results

SARC’s operations encompass a variety of services and activities in support of the Disability Service sector. These include Member Association Activity, Education & Training, Consultants (Human Resource Consultant, Labour Relations Consultant, and Facility Planner), Projects (Supported Employment Transition Initiative (SETI)) and Administration.

SARCAN

SARCAN Recycling is a Division of SARC. SARCAN Recycling’s operations are divided into two main Programs – Legislated, which is the collection and recycling of used beverage containers and is legislated by the Ministry of Environment, and Non-legislated, which includes used paint, end-of-life electronics, household glass, and household batteries.

Legislated Program (Used Beverage Containers)

Non-Legislated Program (Used Paint, End-of-Life Electronics, Household Batteries)