TELUS teams up with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation to support young entrepreneurs across Canada

TELUS donation will launch seven new businesses

TORONTO – April 19, 2012 – TELUS and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) announced today a milestone campaign that will help young entrepreneurs launch businesses across Canada.

TELUS is donating up to $150,000 to CYBF to help seven young entrepreneurs start and succeed in their business venture. For every person that attends a TELUS Challenge event, the company will donate $100* to CYBF in support of the young entrepreneurs. TELUS Challenge events are a year-long event series that supports small businesses with speakers and information to help them in successfully tackling their business challenges. The fundraising goal will be reached through a combination of funds raised through the event series and other efforts throughout the year.

“At CYBF, we are delighted to work with TELUS to celebrate and support a culture of youth entrepreneurship in Canada,” said Vivian Prokop, chief executive officer of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. “Teaming up with TELUS on their Challenge events is a unique way for CYBF to gather important intelligence about the challenges facing young entrepreneurs, while celebrating their unique solutions.”

“Enabling young entrepreneurs and helping them bring their business ideas to life is an exciting opportunity for us,” said Jim Senko, vice-president of Small and Medium Business Marketing at TELUS. “TELUS is a strong supporter of small business and through this initiative, in partnership with CYBF, we are fostering a more entrepreneurial Canada.”

The first donation was made today at TELUS House Toronto in celebration of The Challenge contest, sponsored by TELUS and the Globe and Mail. The contest, now in its second year, invites Canadian small business owners to present their biggest business challenge for the opportunity to win a $100,000 grant from TELUS. To enter the contest, visit Globeandmail.com/thechallenge. The contest closes May 28, 2012.
*up to a maximum of $150,000.

About the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF)
Canada’s Entrepreneur Gateway
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) is the ‘go to’ place for youth entrepreneurship. As a national organization, we are dedicated to growing our nation’s economy one young entrepreneur at a time. We look at character not collateral, when providing youth, age 18-34, with pre-launch coaching, business resources, start-up financing and mentoring, to help them launch and sustain a successful entrepreneurial business. CYBF is a member of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20 YEA) and founder of the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit (G20 YES). For more information about CYBF, please visit www.cybf.ca.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.4 billion of annual revenue and 12.7 million customer connections including 7.3 million wireless subscribers, 3.6 million wireline network access lines and 1.3 million Internet subscribers and more than 500,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $260 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.2 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eleven TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS’ local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.
For more information about TELUS, please visit www.telus.com

-30-

For more information contact:

Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF)
Nicolee Tattersall
Manager, Media Relations
E-mail: ntattersall@cybf.ca
Phone: 416-408-2923 x2208

Elisabeth Napolano
TELUS Media Relations
416-906-9830
Elisabeth.Napolano@telus.com