management's report
Management is responsible to the Board of Directors for the preparation of the Consolidated financial statements of the Company and its subsidiaries. These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and necessarily include some amounts based on estimates and judgments.
The Company maintains a system of internal controls that provides management with reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded and that reliable financial records are maintained. This system includes written policies and procedures, an organizational structure that segregates duties and a comprehensive program of periodic audits by the internal auditors. The Company has also instituted policies and guidelines that require TELUS team members (including Board members and Company employees) to maintain the highest ethical standards, and has established mechanisms for the reporting to the Audit Committee of perceived accounting and ethics policy complaints. In addition, the Chief Compliance Officer, appointed in 2003, works to ensure the Company has appropriate policies, controls and measurements in place to comply with all legal and regulatory requirements. Annually, the Company performs an extensive risk assessment process, which includes interviews with senior management, a web-enabled risk and control assessment survey distributed to a large sample of employees, and input from the Company's strategic planning activities. Results of this process influence the development of the internal audit program. Key enterprise-wide risks are assigned to executive owners for the development and implementation of appropriate risk mitigation plans. During 2002, the Company implemented a Sarbanes-Oxley certification enablement process, which, among other things, cascades informative certifications from the key stakeholders within the financial reporting process, which are reviewed by the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer as part of their due diligence process. In 2004, the process was enhanced to comply with new Canadian securities regulations, which went into effect in the first quarter of 2004. In 2006, the final stages of Section 404 of the United States Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding internal controls over financial reporting were successfully implemented. One of the 2006 developments included the integration of SOX 404 sign-offs with the SOX 302 cascading certifications of key stakeholders in the financial reporting process.
The Company has a formal policy on Corporate Disclosure and Confidentiality of Information, which sets out policies and practices including the mandate of the Disclosure Committee; the policy was approved by the Board of Directors, and put into effect, in 2003.
The Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer have evaluated the effectiveness of the Company's disclosure controls and procedures related to the preparation of the Management's discussion and analysis and the Consolidated financial statements, as well as other information contained in this report. They have concluded that the Company's disclosure controls and procedures were effective, at a reasonable assurance level, to ensure that material information relating to the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries would be made known to them by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which the Management's discussion and analysis and the Consolidated financial statements contained in this report were being prepared.
The Board of Directors has reviewed and approved these Consolidated financial statements. To assist the Board in meeting its oversight responsibilities, it has appointed an Audit Committee, which is comprised entirely of independent directors. All the members of the committee are financially literate and the Chair of the committee has financial expertise and meets the applicable securities laws as a financial expert. The committee oversees the Company's accounting and financial reporting, internal controls and disclosure controls, legal and regulatory compliance, ethics policy and timeliness of filings with regulatory authorities, the independence and performance of the Company's external and internal auditors, the management of the Company's risks, its credit worthiness, treasury plans and financial policy, and its whistleblower and accounting and ethics complaint procedures. The committee meets no less than quarterly and, as a standard feature of regularly scheduled meetings, holds an in-camera session with the external auditors and separately with the internal auditors without other management, including management directors, present. It oversees the work of the external auditors and approves the annual audit plan. It also receives reports on the external auditor's internal quality control procedures and independence. Furthermore, the Audit Committee reviews: the Company's major accounting policies including alternatives and potential key management estimates and judgments; the Company's financial policies and compliance with such policies; the evaluation by either the internal or external auditors of management's internal control systems; and the evaluation by management of the adequacy and effectiveness in the design and operation of the Company's disclosure controls and internal controls for financial reporting. The Audit Committee also considers reports on the Company's business continuity and disaster recovery plan; reports on financial risk management including derivative exposure and policies; tax planning, environmental, health and safety risk management and management's approach for safeguarding corporate assets; and regularly reviews material capital expenditure initiatives. The committee pre-approves all audit, audit-related and nonaudit services provided to the Company by the external auditors (and its affiliates). The committee's terms of reference are available, on request, to shareholders and at telus.com/governance.
Original signed by,
Robert G. McFarlane
Executive Vice-President
and Chief Financial Officer
February 14, 2007
Original signed by,
Darren Entwistle
President
and Chief Executive Officer
February 14, 2007
report of management on internal control over financial reporting
Management of TELUS is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting.
TELUS' Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have assessed the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as at December 31, 2006 in accordance with the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and effected by the Board of Directors, management and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Due to its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Based on this assessment, management has determined that the Company's internal control over financial reporting is effective as at December 31, 2006. In connection with this assessment, no material weaknesses in the Company's internal control over financial reporting were identified by management.
Management's assessment of the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as at December 31, 2006, has been audited by Deloitte & Touche LLP, the Company's Independent Registered Chartered Accountants, who also audited the Company's Consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2006. As stated in the Report of Independent Registered Chartered Accountants, they have expressed an unqualified opinion on management's assessment of the Company's internal control over financial reporting and an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2006.
Original signed by,
Robert G. McFarlane
Executive Vice-President
and Chief Financial Officer
February 14, 2007
Original signed by,
Darren Entwistle
President
and Chief Executive Officer
February 14, 2007