FirstEnergy steps up – who’s next?

by Max Fawcett, Managing Editor

It should come as no surprise, given its well-deserved reputation for charitable giving, but Calgary’s FirstEnergy Capital deserves credit all the same for its generous response to the disaster that’s still unfolding in Slave Lake.

Tomorrow, the company will donate all commissions earned to the Canadian Red Cross, the agent for disaster relief in connection with the Slave Lake wildfire. “We don’t know what the future holds for a lot of these folks, but one thing we do know is that they don’t have a place to stay for the rest of this week . . . or maybe for much longer,” says CEO Jim Davidson. “Our hearts go out to these people, and we are organizing this Charity Commission Day to get them through the next several days and weeks.” In a press release, the company encouraged its clients to “generously direct as much of their trading as possible to FirstEnergy on Thursday, May 19, since each trade will add critical assistance to this cause.”

This isn’t the first time that FirstEnergy has come through for Canadians in crisis. Three previous Charity Commission Days were organized for the victims of flooding in Manitoba, ice storms in Ontario and Quebec and prairie drought in Western Canada, and they came through in a big way, raising over $1 million. Here’s hoping that other members of Alberta’s business community can find their own creative responses to the Slave Lake wildfires.

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