Linda is the Chief Executive Officer of Spruce Meadows. She's the Chair of Akita Drilling. She's on the Executive Committee and the Director of SandCraft, our family holding company.
And she's been a longstanding Director of ATCO and Canadian Utilities. And I know no one better to be my voice for you today. So with that, I will turn it over to Linda to say thank you.
Very big shoes to fill on all fronts. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, directors, people of our company, shareowners, may I welcome you to the 49th ATCO Annual Shareowners Meeting. As you've heard, my name is Linda Southern Heskotte, and I will be acting as your chair for the meeting this morning. As Nancy said, this is a particularly touching and heart rendering meeting for my sister and me, just as we know it is for many of you. On behalf of our mother, Mark Southern, my sister, Nancy, our respective families and the people of our company, I want to thank so many of you for your tender and considerate notes and thoughts on the passing of our founder.
We know that he's still with us and wanting very much for you to know how happy he is that you are here and how proud he is of the people of your company and your belief in them. We want to take time to pay special tribute to the founder and many of you call him our founder, but he really was our father at the end of this meeting.
So that is still to come.
I would like to take this time to welcome our very, very special guest joining us today, Mr. Wang, Counsel General. Thank you. Mr. Feng, Vice Counsel and Mr.
He, thank you for joining us. Stan Warkow, thank you so much for joining us. I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that Mr. Wang and Mr. Fei are from the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China.
And thank you so much for joining us and excuse me for my mistake for not doing that first. Got me wired pretty hot here. Our long standing share owners, Mr. And Mrs. Bessie, thank you so much for joining us.
Branson, Lisa, Posnerata, thank you. Sharon and Norm King, great to see you. We saw got a chance to chat yesterday. Norm Robertson and Dale Richardson are here with us. Karl Wobenhurst, thank you.
And Ed Hockaluck, it's great always to see Ed. Emile Skibney, thank you. Mark Truman, Ed McCulloch, Donna Arison, Sylvia and Walter Kmetz, Roy McClellan, Ron Krueger, Ray Johnson and Fazil Kashy. Thank you all very much for coming today. First time I'm going to say this.
Joining me on the dais today, the Atco team. Nancy Southern, our Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer, Atco Limited. Beside Nancy is Carol Geer, our Corporate Secretary Brian Bail, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Your Corporation and Siegfried Kiefer, President and Chief Operating Officer of Canadian Utilities. Also joining us from your Executive Committee are Earhart Kiefer, Senior Vice President and Chief Administration Officer Seth Palachicchio, Managing Director of Shared Services Steve Lockwood, President and Chief Operating Officer of ATCO Structures and Logistics. I would also like you to meet your directors standing for reelection who are with us today.
Bob Booth. Bob is a partner in the law firm of Bennett Jones. Dennis Ellard, Corporate Director who held many senior positions with AAFCO before his retirement in 2003. Tony Fountain was recently appointed Chairman of Cellafield Limited, which is responsible for nuclear fuel reprocessing and decommissioning in the U. K.
Michael Rayfield, former Vice Chair of Investment and Corporate Banking at BMO Capital Markets. Rob Routes is a Corporate Director and Former Executive Board Member at Royal Dutch Shell. Roger Erwin, Chair of ATCO Australia and Former Group Chief Executive of National Grid in the UK Susan Wirth, Corporate Director and Former Chief Administration Officer of ATCO Group Chuck Wilson, our Lead Director, who was previously President and Chief Executive Officer of Shell Canada Nancy Southern, your Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer, ATCO and Canadian Utilities and myself, Linda Southern Heskotte, President and CEO of Spruce Meadows and Chair of Akita Drilling and the Director of ATCO. Thank you very much to our directors. Joining us from your companies are George Lidget, Managing Director of our newly formed Pipelines and Liquids Global Business Unit.
Did you stand? You sat down too quick. Wayne Stenzby, Managing Director of Electricity Global Business Unit. Thank you. Bobby Lambright, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer for us in ATCO Australia.
That's a long way. Pat Creon, who is the President directly in charge of our extensive initiatives in the Fort Saskatchewan Heartland region for industrial water, processing, transportation and our liquid storage business. Norm Bogner, President of our newly launched ATCO Energy, who joined us in April and Boris Rassen, President of ATCO Sustainable Communities. Thank you very much for joining us today. Now to the formal part of our meeting.
Copies of the minutes of our annual meeting, copies of the minutes of our annual meeting of the shareowners held at the same location on May 13th last year are available in the reception area. I will ask Carol Gere to act as the recording secretary for this year's meeting. And with the consent of the meeting, I will ask Nazim Nafu and Gloria Gershim of CST Trust Company to act as our scrutineers. CST Trust Company is the registrar and transfer agent for the corporation's shares. Mailing of the notice of this annual meeting to all shareowners of record at March 22 was completed on April 1.
As you know, all shareowners and visitors are welcome to participate in this meeting by asking questions and joining our discussion. However, only the shareowners of the voting Class II shares and the holders of valid proxies of those shares are entitled to vote on the election of directors and the appointment of the auditors. The scrutineers have advised that there is a quorum present and therefore I declare the meeting regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. In order to expedite matters, we have asked certain officers and employees of the corporation who have also owned shares in the company to move and second the motion we have for your consideration. First, I wish to table the company's consolidated financial statements and the auditors report for the year end of December 31.
They're here and there are copies in the foyer if you would like them. We have copies of the financial statement, management's discussion and analysis and the proxy circular. They've all been mailed to all registered share owners and to those beneficial owners who requested a copy. Additional copies are also available in the foyer for you as I mentioned. The next item to proceed with is the election of your directors as proposed in the management proxy circular.
The meeting is now open to receive nominations for directors.
Good morning. My name is Seth Palacicchio, Managing Director, Shared Services. I've been with the corporation for 37 years and I'm a proud shareholder. I nominate for election as Directors of the Corporation, Robert Booth, Dennis Ellard, Anthony Fountain, Linda Heathcotte, Michael Rayfield, Nancy Southern,
Robert Routes,
Roger Erwin, Susan Worth and Charles Wilson.
Thank you, Mr. Palaticchio. Are there any other nominations? If not, I declare the nominations close. May I have a motion to elect those nominated as directors?
My name is Bobbi Lambert. I'm the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of ATCO Australia. I have been with this corporation for 30 years and I am also a proud shareowner. I move that the 10 persons nominated be individually elected as directors of the corporation until the next annual meeting of share owners or until their successors are elected or
appointed. Thank you very much Ms. Lambright. May I have a seconder please?
My name is George Lidget, Managing Director of Pipelines and Liquids Global Business Unit and I've been with the corporation for 31 years and I'm a proud shareowner. I second the motion.
Thank you very much, Mr. Lidget. This resolution to elect directors individually will be conducted by ballot. Registered Class 2 shareowners and ballot proxy holders should have received, a green ballot on when you registered this morning. So if you have already completed and handed your ballot to the scrutineers, your vote will be recorded.
If you have not completed a ballot, please raise your hand and the scrutineers will bring a ballot to you. Okay. Once the ballot for while the scrutiny are tabulating the results of the ballot, we will continue with the next item on our agenda, which is the appointment of the corporation's auditor. May I have a motion to appoint the auditor, please?
I'm Wayne Stenzby, Managing Director of the Electricity Global Business Unit. I've been with the corporation for 27 years and I'm a proud shareowner. I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers chartered accountants be appointed auditor of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareowners.
Thank you, Mr. Stembe. All those who wish to vote for the motion, please raise your hand. May I have a seconder please?
I'm sorry. It was my part.
I'm Clint Worthington, Vice President Finance and Risk. I've been with the company for 6 years and I'm a shareowner. I second the motion.
Thank you very much, Mr. Worthington. Sorry, the auditors just didn't get voted in. All those who wish to vote for the motion, please raise your hand. Thank you.
Contrary minded, the motion is carried. I would like to introduce you to Cal Jacober. I saw Cal when there he is, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Cal is with us today. Thank you very much for joining us.
We really appreciate that. I am pleased to announce the scrutineers have reported that shareholders voted 99% or more in favor of the election of each nominee director. And therefore, I adopt this scrutineers report and declare that each of the nominees have been elected as a Director of ATCO. Ladies and gentlemen, your Board of Directors. May I be the first to congratulate each of you?
And on behalf of all the share owners, I would like to thank our directors for your continued hard work and the tremendous contribution each of you bring to this company. Thank you so much. At the conclusion of the formal business part of this meeting, there will be presentations by your senior officers and an opportunity for you to ask questions. As you know, we genuinely welcome all questions. Your participation is so important to each of us.
But if you are shy or not comfortable asking a question, you should have found a question or a card on the seat and feel free to fill it out and just raise your hand and the ASCO team will pick your question up and we can ask it or we can answer it or we can answer it then or we can answer it later for you. As this concludes the formal part of our business, I propose that we bring this part of our meeting to an end. May I have a motion, please?
Good morning. I'm Erhard Kiefer, Senior Vice President and Chief Administration Officer for the ABCO Group. I've been with the corporation for 35 years and I'm a proud share owner. I move this meeting be terminated, Sharon.
Thank you, Mr. Keefer. A seconder please.
My name is Dennis DeChamplain. I'm Senior Financial Officer for the Electricity Global Business Unit and I've only been with the corporation for 24 years. I too am a proud shareowner and I second the motion.
Thank you, Mr. Duchampagne. All those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. Contrary minded, the motion is carried. Ladies and gentlemen, that completes the formal business of our meeting.
It is now my great pleasure to call on your Chief Financial Officer, Brian Bail.
Well, thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to address this meeting as your Chief Financial Officer. But before I start my presentation, there are a couple of things I'd like to address. First, I know that the fire in the Fort McMurray area is on everyone's mind. And it is in times like these that I'm especially proud to be an ATCO employee.
Many of our people are working hard to reestablish the critical supply of electricity and natural gas. The fire is certainly a tragic event, but from a financial perspective, we have risk management techniques already in place, such as insurance coverage that will minimize the impact of the company's assets. But the important thing at this point is to offer our assistance to those impacted in any way we can. And this includes offering housing solutions, getting their utilities back in service and donating personally to help those in need. Our Chief Operating Officer will tell you more in his presentation about the actions we're taking to help the communities in the Fort McMurray area.
Now I'd also like to say a few words about our company's founder before I start my presentation. Ron Southern was the key architect behind the growth of ACCO since its formation in 1947 and he was the visionary behind every major development at ACCO since that time. His leadership and business achievements over the years were executed with a long term focus and fiscal prudence. With his passing in January, he's no longer physically here with us, but the lessons that he instilled will continue to guide the company in the years ahead. And in fact, I think Mr.
Southern would agree with the 4 things I'd like to talk about this morning. First, we've been successful in growing a base of high quality earnings in the last 5 years. And in 2015, we took action to address the Alberta economic downturn. 2nd, that high quality earnings space is the foundation that has contributed to drive dividend growth for you, our shareholders. 3rd, we expect to continue growing in the years ahead.
And finally, we remain focused on making prudent decisions to maintain our financial strength and create long term shareowner value. We've experienced tremendous growth in our balance sheet over the last 5 years. In 2010, we had total assets of $10,000,000,000 Now today, we have assets of $19,000,000,000 And most of that has been organic growth in our regulated utilities. As you can see on the slide, we've invested $9,500,000,000 in the regulated utilities over this time. And our investments have translated into significant growth over the past few years.
Our regulated utilities continue to provide a stable earnings space. In 2015, 77% of our earnings came from our regulated utilities and that's significant change from 2011 when we had 39 percent of earnings that came from our regulated utilities. And you can see that on the blue bars on the chart. Now since late 2014, the world has been faced with declining oil and other commodity prices. And the challenges that are impacting many of our customers also had an impact on ATCL in 2015.
As you can see by the black bars on the chart, 2015 non regulated earnings have decreased. This was mainly due to lower business activity in the Structures and Logistics business, mainly as a result of weakened capital spending by our customers and lower Alberta pool prices also had an impact on our earnings in 2015. But in response to these challenging market conditions, we're taking action to improve our business. And in 2015, ACCO undertook a transformational change that shifted our global business strategy. We restructured into 3 global business units: electricity, structures and logistics and pipelines and liquids.
These global business units are vertically integrated and better able to efficiently and effectively respond to our customers' needs. The long term success of ACCO is also dependent upon our ability to grow the business by expanding into new markets and into new business lines. To achieve this, we're expanding our ability to create more innovative business solutions in all of our activities. And at the same time, we're also pursuing cost savings and efficiencies in every part of the organization. Our Chair is going to speak with you about the progress on this transformational change in her presentation.
But I want to make it really clear that while we restructured our business, our financial tenants remain the same. We will continue to make prudent decisions, maintain our strong financial position and create long term shareowner value. And I'm pleased to say the change is showing benefits. 2016 is off to a much stronger start compared to 2015. We recorded $121,000,000 in earnings in the Q1 of 2016.
Now our high quality regulated earnings space from our utilities provides the foundation for continued dividend growth for you, our shareholders. ACCO has consistently increased its dividend every year for 23 years. And in January of this year, ACCO announced another 15% quarterly dividend increase. This is the 5th year in a row we've announced a 15% dividend increase. But I'm sure you're asking yourself, what comes next for ATCO in these challenging economic times?
Well, what comes next is that we're going to continue to grow our business in the years ahead. And in the 2016 to 2018 period, ACCO expects to invest an additional $5,300,000,000 in regulated utility and commercially secured capital growth projects. And this capital investment is expected to contribute significant earnings and cash flow for your company. The 3 year plan includes $4,100,000,000 of planned capital expenditures in regulated utilities. Electric Distribution and Electric Transmission are planning to invest $2,100,000,000 in regulated infrastructure and we're planning to invest $2,000,000,000 in regulated natural gas distribution and transmission infrastructure.
The company also intends to invest a further $1,200,000,000 in long term contracted capital from 2016 to 2018. Dollars 1,100,000,000 is planned for capital investment in the Alberta Power Lines 500 kv project and approximately $100,000,000 is planned capital investment in contracted hydrocarbon storage and distributed generation in Alberta and a natural gas pipeline in Mexico. We're also pursuing other business development opportunities which are not yet included in these committed investment estimates. In our Structures and Logistics business, we're implementing business wide cost reduction initiatives to make us even more competitive and increase our profitability. We added workforce housing and lodging projects that will keep us busy in 2016
and beyond.
And in 2015, we acquired a business in Ontario, which increased our modular fleet in Eastern Canada by 10% and builds on our current operating platform in this market. Now our latest business development is a return to the South America marketplace. Last month, we acquired a 50% interest in an established workforce housing company based in Santiago, Chile. Our new partnership with Sabenco called Aco Sabenco provides the foundation for further expansion with potential opportunities in other South American markets. Structures and Logistics has the expertise to rapidly deliver turnkey solutions anywhere they are needed with sales offices around the world and operations on 5 continents.
This business is going to emerge from our transformative restructuring more nimble, more competitive and stronger than ever. And now to my 4th point for today. We remain focused on making prudent decisions to maintain our financial strength and to create value for the long term. And this is particularly important with today's weaker global economic conditions. In this tough economic climate, our financial strength is a real advantage for us.
Maintaining our A range credit rating is fundamental to our company's current and future success. It ensures that the company has the financial capacity to fund our existing and future capital investments through access to capital markets at attractive rates. Maintaining our strong financial position enables the company to sustain its operations and to grow through economic cycles, thereby providing long term financial benefits to the shareholders. Over the past 5 years, we financed nearly $11,000,000,000 of total capital investment, mostly through funds generated by operations. Now put simply, funds generated by operations is our ability to generate cash.
And as you can see on this chart, funds generated by operations made up 61% of our funding sources. Now we also continuously review our holdings to look for opportunities to monetize mature or non core assets and redeploy that capital to higher returning investments. And because of our strong credit rating, we are also able to issue debt and preferred shares at very competitive rates. Going forward, our funds generated by operations will grow and will continue to be the largest funding source for our capital growth program. We also think it's prudent to maintain enough liquidity to fund 1 full year of cash needs.
And by liquidity, I mean our overall access to cash. Our liquidity is supported by $3,300,000,000 of readily accessible credit lines and $600,000,000 of cash on hand. Now we don't plan to draw on all of these credit lines nor is it our plan to draw down our cash, but it is important to have these options in place as a safety valve so that we can weather any economic storm. So in summary, ACCO has a long track record of generating reliable and growing earnings and dividends. There's no doubt that we face some challenging conditions with low commodity prices and reduced activity levels in some of our markets.
But in response, we've taken action to address these issues by pursuing cost savings and efficiencies and transforming the business to become more customer focused. And as you saw and can see again on this chart, we're off to a great start with our Q1 2016 results. And now, I'll turn the meeting back to your Chair, Linda Southern Hefko.
Great quarter. Congratulations to the team. Thank you very much, Brian. Brian highlighted the change and where the company is going and the strength of the company. And that I know is really through the leadership of Nancy Southern and the team at ATCO.
It is they work day in and day out and spend so much time, not only focused on the economy, the efforts of the company, but the people within it and the customers. And that is really the heart and mind of ATCO and that comes from the leadership of Nancy Southern. So thank you very much, Nancy. Her organization, but our organization as well, has adapted to the changing socioeconomic climate we encountered this last year. However, the fundamentals of our lessons learned from the past continue to stand the test of time as we fortify the granite like pillars of our fundamental tenants.
Maintaining
and strengthening our strong balance sheet. Maintaining the principal control position, which provides us with the platform. And please understand, these are really Nancy's words. And they are really meant for Nancy to be speaking to you because it is she has given her life to this corporation. So I really want to reemphasize that.
I'm happy and honored to speak for you. Maintaining the principal control position, which provides us with the platform to plan long term and deliver sustainable enduring results and upholding the ethos of our company's method of operating, always striving for excellence. And it is the people of this company who bring this to your enterprise each and every day. People of great heart, courage, determination and unquestionable integrity. Our company has weathered many challenges in the past, the present and no doubt we will in the future.
But today as we survey the whole and face the future, we take great confidence that we have learned and taken wide counsel from our Board and our Founder, and we are truly excited about
the
future and the remarkable resilience and drive of our people. In fact, it was in the fall of 2014 when we, they began their preemptive actions in preparation for a deteriorating economy. And by mid-twenty 15, we moved into the full on implementation of Operation Imagination, a full scale transformation of our organization. Imagination, it has been said, is the greatest form of courage. I guess that's true as it would have been so much easier to hope that we could stay the same and alter nothing.
But your executive team and the thousands of people in your company knew that that was not an option. And they embraced what was needed to be done. With commitment and determination and a unanimous understanding that to be number 1, to be ahead of the competition, to continue creating long term share owner value, we would need more than just cost cutting measures. We would need to create new products and new ways to deliver our products. Flexibility, agility, imagination and innovation.
Easy to say, right? Not so easy to do. Our first step, the first step reorganize our businesses into vertically integrated units, thereby creating efficiencies and greater free flowing communication across our company by removing redundancies and duplicate processes. Our 3 main industries and core competencies are well suited to this approach.
Structures,
housing and logistics, electricity generation and transportation pipelines and liquids processing, transportation and storage. We have realized rapid improvement from this first step, which is giving us far greater productivity and competency to respond to our customers' needs. Serendipitously, each business unit is approximately the same size as the whole corporation was just 10 years ago. And therefore, we believe their scale today allows for greater autonomy and an opportunity for significant growth from each business unit. But we haven't stopped with reorganizing.
We have also invested an enormous amount of time on strategy and the development of a cohesive and united approach to our future. By diving deep into the details of what it will take to make our customers successful and you the owners. And so our transformation is not just about organization, but we are actually changing the way we think about our business and businesses. Who will our new customers be? What will they need?
When will they need it? And where? All the while keeping in mind that our customers, new and existing, expect easy answers, competitive pricing and turnkey holistic solutions that incorporate sustainable technologies. And perhaps most importantly, one point of contact for their entire infrastructure need anytime, anywhere and always there, one ATCO. As we continue to fine tune our strategies and the responsibilities of our business units, we realized a tremendous untapped opportunity to further improve our competitiveness and remove non core functions from the business units.
Through a shared services approach that will allow each business to focus on sales, new products and services, operational excellence and strategic procurement. The rest of the necessary functions in any business will now be handled by our newly formed internal customer service team, who are tasked with driving down costs and delivering top tier service and quality to our business units, So they can concentrate on operating and growing their businesses. Brian Bail, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Erhard Kiefer, Senior Vice President and Chief Administration Officer and Seth Palachicchio, the newly appointed Managing Director, Shared Services. Seth has most recently led the construction and commissioning of the Eastern Alberta Transmission Line. Congratulations, Seth.
It is the largest project ever undertaken by your company. Together, this group will be responsible for project management, global supply chain and generic procurement, security, fleet management, finance and accounting, HR services, corporate communications and real estate. While this past year was rough and strewn with potholes, the road ahead fueled by the imagination of the people of your company and our customers' future needs is one of great opportunity. And we are off to an excellent start as we've seen in this year's record Q1 results. It is my hope and it is Nancy's and your executive team's commitment to you that we will continue to grow and improve your company and continue to provide jobs and meaningful careers to the people of Alberta and this great nation for generations to come.
As a cohesive one ATCO, one solution, One stop for all infrastructure needs. Just imagine the possibilities. Whole communities, housing, heating, water, electricity and so much more anywhere in the world from one company, your company, your ATCO. A company that will continue to build on the integrity of our brand and unwavering commitment to our customers, underpinned by our financial strength, yet polished and sparkling with a thirst for new territories and a ferocious desire to win. That might have come from our founder.
And the first demonstration of this transformation arrived in the form of ATCO Energy. Launched just 12 years ago sorry, 12 weeks ago she can still talk, don't get me wrong. My apologies. Launched just 12 weeks ago, over 11,000 customers already, which is very exciting for the team. It is a new kind of energy company for households and businesses, one that responsive and caring, low cost and soon to drive incredible value for all your energy and household needs, right when Albertans need it the most.
Energy, we all use it. We all need it. It helps us work and play. It gives us the life we love. Now it's time to be positive about it.
Introducing ATCOenergy, a new kind of electricity and natural gas company for your home, one that wants to sell you less and bring some positivity to the people of Alberta. We are building on the ATCO legacy of doing more than others expect by looking after the smallest detail and going the extra mile. Because at ATCO, we believe excellence means caring. It means making a special effort to do more in small ways and bigger ones. That's how we create positive energy together.
I love the ad. It's great. And we will continue to do more. On behalf of Nancy and her team and all of the people of ATCO, we want to announce today that ATCO will be providing 10,000 meals to the first responders as they continue to protect and rebuild the Fort McMurray and surrounding communities. Thank you so much.
Atco is one of the first teams into Fort McMurray and they have done so much on all of the various tragedies in Alberta. I would like to now invite Siegfried Kiefer, your Chief Operating Officer to the podium to tell you more about the accomplishments of your company. Sieg?
Well, thank you, Linda. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Before I provide an overview of some of the operational highlights from last year, I did want to take a moment and reflect on the situation in Fort McMurray. Alberta has faced significant adversity over the last number of years. Fires in Slave Lake in 2011 devastated the town, while the 2013 floods in Southern Alberta caused damage that is still being dealt with 3 years later.
On Tuesday, May 3, Alberta once again faced adversity on a scale that has been captivated or that has captivated the entire world. A fire that forced the evacuation of 80,000 people from the city of Fort McMurray. The images of vehicles fleeing the city with fire raging around them will be forever etched in my mind. Miraculously, no one was killed during the evacuation. Thanks to the orderly and dedicated work of the first responders.
Approximately 2,400 structures were destroyed in Fort McMurray representing 10% of that community. Now what all three of these horrible disasters have in common was the rapid and immediate response from ATCO to support the community. As the fire took over the city, evacuees headed both south and north. ATCO immediately opened additional space at its Creeburn Lake and Bard Landing Lodges that are located about an hour north of the city accepting nearly 3,600 people and pushing our facilities far past its capacity to ensure that people had a safe place to stay. And that included adults, children, babies, pets and I might even add a pet pig.
ATCO's crews were on the ground the very next day starting to evaluate the damage to both natural gas and electricity infrastructure and working directly with the emergency operating center or EOC as we like to refer to it. Electrical service is critical for the town to be able to operate the infrastructure that's needed to coordinate response activity. Right from the very beginning, our team worked closely with the EOC to identify the priority areas that would need power to support the community's recovery. Those included the emergency operating center itself, local hotels, the hospital, the fire halls and perhaps most importantly, the water pumping infrastructure to allow firefighters to continue to battle this enormous fire. Our electrical crews have been working around the clock to assist with the community's recovery.
Combined, the ACTO team is now more than 300 people strong working to support recovery efforts on the ground. This kind of response requires places for these people to stay. And our Aqua Structures and Logistics team quickly mobilized a 44 person camp that's been providing beds for our first responders inside the city since Sunday night and that location will have capacity for 184 people by the end of today. The ability for your company to mobilize during a crisis is what truly differentiates ADCO. The speed of our camp and logistics deployment is enabling our dedicated crews from across the province to progress with their critical work at an accelerated pace and that effort has been significant.
Electricity has been restored to more than 75% of the customers in the city with the priority locations all energized. Repair work is taking place on the transmission system while the work on replacing damaged power poles, city street lights and helping our customers get back into their homes lies ahead. Yesterday, I attended a meeting with the Premier and all of the oil sand plant owners where the oil sands unanimously asked the province to prioritize and focus on returning into service the power and pipelines infrastructure that allow them to restart their operations and reemploy their staff. The gas team has completed its work on evaluating its above ground facilities and has now identified and started integrity dig to evaluate the underground network. A total of 7 buildings are now being supplied with temporary natural gas including 3 hotels, 2 fire halls, McDonald Island, the hospital and other priorities being identified daily.
This is a picture of our gate station number 1, one of our critical stations that was destroyed in the fire. We will continue to work on repairing priority areas identified by the EOC and ultimately be there to support our customers as they relight their furnaces. Structures and Logistics team has been mobilizing units to the area in response to significant demand for temporary office space, modular structures and accommodation. And I'm pleased that ATCO is working very closely with the Alberta government to assist with the deployment of additional housing in the city, the Fort McMurray to support the emergency responders and the other individuals who'll be helping rebuild the city. We take on this responsibility with great pride.
Alberta is our home and we stand with the people of Fort McMurray in providing essential services that will get that community back on its feet as quickly as possible. Additionally, our lodges north of Fort McMurray will open next week to begin welcoming back the workers in that area. Now things will not get back to normal in this area for a long time, but you can rest assured, ATCO and its people will be there every step of the way for the long run. And I would like to take this chance to acknowledge the incredible dedication and efforts of the people of ATCO. Now when this crisis started, our people from across Alberta volunteered to be part of the team that would help rebuild Fort McMurray.
We also have 4 of our employees who are volunteer firefighters that are still undertaking the incredible task of battling the blaze. The dedication and commitment of our people is what makes this company truly unique. And on behalf of our leadership team, I want to thank each and every one of them for their amazing efforts. And now to 2015, our Structures and Logistics business unit faced another difficult year, but the impact was somewhat mitigated by the diversification of business lines and geographies that Brian mentioned. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one of our key projects, which is the design manufacturing and installation of a 1600 person workforce housing facility for BC Hydro Site C Clean Energy Project.
Valued at $470,000,000 this was the business unit's largest contract win of the year. We were also successful in securing 10 year contracts to continue operating a 30,000,000 liter fuel storage facility in Resolute Bay and the operation and maintenance of the Alaska radar system. In our newly formed pipelines and liquids global business unit, there were 3 key focus areas in 2015 investing in new infrastructure, continuing to manage growth and focusing on projects to enhance our system safety. In 2015, we invested more than $460,000,000 in capital projects in Canada and in Australia. One project I would highlight is the $50,000,000 we directed to expanding and improving ATCO's multi user industrial water system in Alberta's industrial hard land.
And to explain our full capabilities in this region, we've put together a short video for you.
Located Northeast of Edmonton, Alberta's industrial heartland is Canada's largest hydrocarbon processing region, connecting Canadian energy products to global markets. The heartland has seen more than has seen more than $30,000,000,000 invested in developing the region over the last 60 years. In the early 80s, ATCO recognized the region's potential by building a natural gas salt cavern storage facility with associated water infrastructure to support its network of transmission pipelines. Capitalizing on the significant growth in the Heartland, we invested more than $70,000,000 to expand our existing water system, creating a new business able to supply industrial water and temporary water services across the region. The new multi user water system is also enabling ATCO along with our partner to develop 4 new cabins to sell natural gas liquid storage to customers.
Today, ATCO is the leading provider of industrial water solutions in the area, offering unmatched speed to market, cost efficiency and sustainability. Drawn from the river and reducing the impact of our operations. We are also focused on growing our energy storage business by acquiring the rights to develop 40 additional cabins and are evaluating additional transportation and logistics solutions. In addition to our new industrial water and energy storage solutions, ATCO has a long history of serving and supporting the people and businesses of the Alberta industrial heartland, including electricity generation and transmission as well as natural gas transmission and distribution. As activity in the region grows, we remain dedicated to providing innovative solutions to make life easier for our partners and customers.
ATCO, always there, anywhere.
Thank you and thanks to Stan and we're still with us here today. He's our partner on our salt cavern storage initiative and thanks for joining us today, Dan. And I think all of you will agree that's quite an impressive array of industrial services for a very important industrial area in this province and in Canada indeed. In Mexico, construction of our Ramaltula natural gas pipeline is well underway. We will convert the Francisco Perez Rios power plant from a diesel fire generation to a natural gas fire generation source for Mexico, a more cost effective and cleaner way to produce electricity.
Moving to electricity, your company's second project in Mexico is the development of a natural gas fired cogeneration plant at the Miguel Hidalgo refinery also near Chula. In our electricity global business unit, a major milestone achieved in 2015 that Linda mentioned was the completion of our Eastern Alberta transmission line, the largest project in your company's history. And we placed that line into service at the end of 2015, EVIL as we like to call it, is now reinforcing Alberta's power grid and providing the capacity to handle new sources of renewable electricity. As you can see from the numbers, this project had an incredible scope and scale. And it established in addition to that, it established a new standard for landowner and community consultation with more than 98% of the landowners in agreement with the route, a great accomplishment indeed.
Switching to sustainability and the environment, your company has not relied on government regulation to focus its efforts on improving our performance. As evidenced by some of the latest stats just released in our newly published sustainability
report,
The 39% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 21% reduction in methane emissions and an 84% reduction in lost time injury frequency, an impressive list of accomplishments I think you would agree. This overview of 20 15's operational highlights combined with your chair strategy presentation showcases the direction we are pursuing to build a sustainable profitable future for your company. Going forward however, a critical issue is facing us, our customers, your province and the vibrancy of Alberta's future economy. And that is how will the electricity market transition and evolve to allow for increased use of renewables and natural gas with the full phase out of coal by coal generation by 2,030. Alberta has introduced a climate change leadership plan that includes targeted mechanisms to reduce the province's greenhouse gas emissions.
Many have a direct impact on the electricity market. This is an important large and complex issue. This chart we affectionately call inside of ATCO our puzzle chart as it tries to depict the many moving pieces that are all interrelated and impact the achievement of the climate leadership plans and objectives for electricity. The first piece, as I mentioned, is the phase out of coal fired generation by 2,030, but also includes that the replacement of that generation be with 2 thirds renewable energy. Now keep in mind the scale we're talking about here.
There are 16 coal units in Alberta that combined generate 6,200 megawatts of electricity, which is almost 65% of our province's power generation and we have only 14 years to close them. Plus, these units all operate with extremely high availability. Wind and solar alone cannot replace coal. We will need reliable sources like natural gas and hydro generation or battery storage to provide dispatchable power or backup power for when the wind doesn't blow and when the sun doesn't shine. The next piece of the puzzle is maintaining grid reliability.
Doing so depends upon the adequate supply or capacity to meet the demand for power. To keep supply and demand in balance, a schedule for the shutdown of these 16 coal fired units over the next 14 years will be required. Plus, renewables with sufficient dispatchable power will need to be introduced to back them up. Now let's turn our attention to the increasing carbon regulation in our province. Alberta was the 1st to introduce a specified gas emitters regulation and the Clean Air Standards Act.
The federal government followed that with a coal must perform as good as gas or shut down at 50 years of life legislation. And last year, Alberta increased its specified gas emitters charge, which will have an immediate effect on the cost of coal generation. And Alberta also introduced a new carbon levy and the federal government continues to talk about a national carbon levy for Canada. All of these increasing regulations have an impact on the coal units in the province. All of these coal units except for 2 were transitioned into deregulation using power purchase arrangements.
Those arrangements were for the most part to get us to 2020 when the market was expected to have grown and developed enough scale that these coal plants could be returned to their owners and allowed to run to the end of their economic lives. However, the many regulations imposed on coal plants now have the economic viability of these arrangements being challenged here in the province. And when I add, the economic viability of these plants continuing even after these arrangements are very challenged. So next, let's look at power market impacts. Alberta operates only one of only a few energy only competitive generation marketplaces.
The Alberta government's objective is that the transition from coal not result in a price spike for electricity and that it not strand invested capital. Equally important will be that the Alberta power market provides the investor confidence that delivers the more than $25,000,000,000 required to fund this transition. How will we attract that investment and incentivize renewables to be built? The Alberta electric system operator has been asked to devise a competitive auction process for attracting renewable generation into this market. And the first auction for that competition is scheduled later this year.
Looking at reliability and higher reliance on renewable forms of energy, we will need to look to interconnect to other regions so that we can access greater amounts of dispatchable generation. However, every province around us has its own unique power market design with Alberta being the only deregulated market. So, Alberta will have to establish new rules for the import of power. Finally, let me touch on community impacts. All of the coal plants are large employers in the region that they operate in and all the replacement forms of generation that we can see will utilize less labor to operate.
However, these communities and these sites represent an important opportunity to take advantage of the existing transmission that's been built to the area and the water infrastructure that exists there and a very skilled workforce. Of course, with all of this, the devil is in the details. The electric industry is in for significant change and I haven't even mentioned microgeneration, electric vehicles, smart grids and the list goes on. Let me assure you that Acto can and will be a part of this transition. Beyond our continuous evaluation of renewable and low carbon energy technologies, we have recommended a number of initiatives we explored as part of the strategy to advance Alberta's clean energy future.
The first being large scale hydro. You can see from this chart how tremendously underutilized this resource is in many provinces in this country. Hydro provides as we like to say, a once in a generation opportunity to bring Alberta with a guaranteed baseload 0 emitting electricity source. In Alberta alone, 3 high quality projects immediately stand out. A minimally invasive Run of River, 1800 Megawatt facility on the Slave River, the Peace River could also be used to generate 1500 Megawatts of Green Power and a more traditional 1500 Megawatt facility on the Athabasca River near Fort McMurray.
This site would be an exceptional place for a more traditional dam like project. But we should not limit ourselves to just these opportunities. Hydro projects are complex, difficult and take a long time to bring into service. So every potential hydro project should be explored including those that lie beyond our provincial borders. Opportunities exist to work together with other provinces on an interprovincial transmission strategy.
Interprovincial tie lines between Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories and BC would allow access to new and existing renewables including hydro that could have a powerful impact on meeting climate change and emission targets. I believe that this would be a truly impressive Canadian success story demonstrating how the country can work cooperatively for the economic and environmental good of all. We believe that Alberta can achieve smart sensible solutions that secure the province's access to affordable, reliable, clean energy into the future and importantly avoid unintended consequences. So, thank you. I'll now turn the podium back to Linda Southern Hathcock, your Chair for this meeting.
Thank you, Siegfried. We are all so proud of our people's efforts and the hard work that they've gone to in assisting the first responders. And it really is amazing, the commitment of 10,000 meals. That's awesome. Thank you to Nancy and the team.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure you will agree that the ATCO team led by Nancy Southern have identified some wonderful opportunities ahead. Yet still tremendous uncertainty in the marketplace. However, we remain optimistic. Government, customers and your company are all striving to achieve the best outcomes for Alberta. With the unshakable values of your company and the significant transformation efforts we have taken will provide us with a well charted road towards our future success.
The heart and mind of your company is perhaps the greatest legacy left by our founder. R. D. Southern was a leader, perhaps the leader for our nation in understanding the importance and the value of partnering and working with the indigenous people of Canada. And we are so proud of the work we've done.
The work he started 50 years ago that today has led to more than 40 joint venture partnerships, service agreements or other relationships across Canada and Alaska. Last year, we undertook a number of projects with First Nations, Metis, Inuit and Aboriginal peoples to provide critical infrastructure. In Southern Alberta, we built a multiplex sports complex for the Kukani Nation. In Standoff, Alberta, a youth wellness center for the Blood Tribe. In Ontario, a fire hall for the Attawapascat First Nation.
In Nain Labrador Community Center for Jeremiah Sillett First Nation. And in Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories, a gas station and convenience store for the Salt River First Nation that was constructed in just 3 short months. Additionally, your company supported Ski Fit North, an important program that promotes leadership and healthy active living to youth in indigenous communities across Alberta. This partnership with Olympic Gold Medalist Becky Scott teaches our youth how to cross country ski and promotes healthy eating through our ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen. It's a great program and is the EPIC program, which stands for employees participating in communities.
Last year, our people raised more than $3,600,000 for more than 500 charitable organizations, assisting thousands of people in the communities where we work who are less fortunate. This year, in addition to the money raised, 28,000 service hours were volunteered by the people of ATCO. And since its inception in 2006, more than $31,000,000 has been raised and it is a source of great pride for the people in our company. Similarly, with the Slave Lake Fire and the Southern Alberta floods, your company once again ramped up our friends and family program internally, where colleagues can donate and the company will match all donations. These donations assist the people in our ATCO family who have been impacted by the Fort McMurray fire and surrounding area.
In closing, our history is not just one of tackling adversity, but of emerging stronger with a more prosperous and dynamic future ahead. And I believe this course this I believe this is the course we have set once again. With the support of our directors and the terrific people of our company, We are even more capable and ready to win and achieve than ever before. In the future, we foresee ATCO as a leader in renewable energy, as well as enterprise, the customers as an enterprise, the customers seek out globally to build integrated infrastructure solutions, always there, anywhere. And we are who we are today in large part due to the architecture put in place by our founder.
Before I pay tribute to our founder, I would like to open up the floor for any questions that you may have. And if you have a question, please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you so that you may ask your question. Here we have one. First question.
Yes. My name is Emil Shribney. I'm a long time shareholder. First of all, I'd like to thank the ATCO Group for putting groceries in my table through the dividends.
I found your
commercial very interesting. And I think it behooves me as a shareholder to switch over to ATCO Electric. But I know when I bring this subject up to my wife, she'll grill me. So we'll switching over from Enmax to ATCO, what are the advantages or disadvantages? Is it going to cost us dollars in our family budget?
Norm? Yes. We're happy to
answer that.
12 weeks. Thanks
for the question. And the simple answer is yes. The mandate of ATCO Energy is to bring value as well as service to Albertans in a new way. So what we offer is very flexible plans, very flexible among the lowest rates, if not the lowest rates on both electricity and natural gas. Our administration fees, which is something that everyone should really pay attention to when evaluating, they are among the lowest, if not again, the lowest among our peers.
Credit card payment options, flexible other payment options as well. So there are a lot of advantages to moving over. And again, risk free because there are no cancellation penalties or otherwise.
Are there any concessions for ATCO shareholders?
We do have a friends and family. We have friends and family promotion ongoing that you and I, we can certainly discuss afterwards here. So let's make sure and chat about that. We've extended that
to our group as well. You're definitely part
of the family.
Thank you.
And I would add, when we switched over, it was the person on the other end of the call was excellent and walked us through, Tom, my husband and I, through all of our questions. And they were really a great resource when we were looking at it. So I would certainly contact them.
I'd just like to support the comments of the new General Manager of ATCO Energy. I made the switch And I did research it very closely and there is no question the electricity rate that's available is definitely lower than I could get from Ennax. The gas is probably balanced. For sure the administration cost is lower and the change was no stress at all. It was just done for me.
So I would encourage everyone to make that switch.
Thank you. Great question. Are there any other questions? Yes. Norm?
I didn't think I'd have any today, but for Siegfried, I've got a question as we switch. I know out of Sheerness, they do a combination of coal and a bit of natural gas. Is there a possibility with the plants we've got to reduce down that we can switch to a natural gas format and then destroy the coal plants or whatever to get it across and still maintain the clean energy objectives? And then the next question is natural gas is not totally clean. So what's going to happen with the carbon tax in relationship to that?
Thanks, Norm. Those are both very good questions. Yes, we are looking at both of our coal sites as to whether or not we can cost effectively put gas to work and whether we can salvage the turbine there feed the steam turbine with 2 gas turbines rather than the coal train that's there is work that's underway. But if that isn't successful, we still think they're great sites. They've got great transmission access, great water access.
And even if it is a combined cycle gas plant that's there, we will look at those sites in earnest as to whether we can redevelop them to get off of coal. You raised a very good point in the gas is only about half as clean as coal. And in the long run, if all we do is replace our existing coal fleet with natural gas, given the growth that we expect in demand in the province, by 2,030, we will likely be emitting more greenhouse gas emissions than we are today. And so, it's that's why we're proposing those initiatives around hydro and interconnectivity to bring a truly non emitting source of generation into the mix in substantial quantities. So thank you.
Yes, another question here.
Yes, we've made the switch from NMAC to positive energy. And I can hardly say that it is well worthwhile. It went without a hitch and we endorse it tremendously. Siegfried, the impact that ATCO has had on the Fort Mac fire situation, it blows me away. I knew only of a fraction of it.
Also, the work that ATCO is doing with indigenous communities, what to do, that's something. And also the local feet on the ground that you have here in the Calgary area for their volunteer hours and their monetary contributions to those self same charities. They deserve a real round of applause.
Thank you, Ms. Desi. We are very proud of the people up in Fort McMurray. And I think we actually, as we did with the floods and the slave like fire, we have many of our ATCO people in the various communities that are volunteer firefighters. We actually have people in Fort McMurray that are not repairing infrastructure, they're actually helping to fight the fires right now.
They've come from across the province to be up there and to support firefighters. We're very proud of them as well. Thank you for your comments.
Any other questions? Andrew?
Yes. Andrew Pollocks of Calgary, Alberta. Yes. They own that 2 of the voting shares. And the thing is, I love going to annual meetings.
I can't own a million I can't afford to own a 1,000,000 shares of each company, but I'll buy 2 in each of a variety of companies and then gives me the right to vote, ask questions, things like that. So I really appreciate your meeting, even though I'm perhaps the smallest of all your shareholders. And one thing I loved about it was this might seem like a brief or, while essential to business a minor thing. So the way your people, brought motions to the floor and seconded them, oh, they were so articulate, they did it so well. And I hear a lot of annual meetings.
I mean, and these guys were good. It's a small part of the meeting, but necessary and in particular when Seth Polisicchio, hope I'm pronouncing your name right, and I believe you've been with the company was it 37 years? He named all 10 directors when he was nominating them without any notes. None of your people use notes. I mean, I was really impressed.
Now my question is, not specifically about the dual class share structure, though it may relate to that. And I can accept your view that there's an advantage in long term planning to have that family control through means of a dual class share structure and that outweighs the hesitancy of some money managers to invest in dual class structure type companies. My question though is about corporate governance and this issue may or may not be impacted by the share structure in Family Control and I'm not sure. But in some companies you'll have a clear division between CEO and a Chair within like the big Canadian banks for an example. They really strongly believe for the last dozen years or more that you ought to have a separate person be chair from the person who is CEO and that there are advantages to corporate governance in doing so.
Of course, you can find other companies where the two roles are combined into one person and it's not necessarily a matter of whether it's a dual class share structure or not. So I'm just wondering what do you see as the advantages of combining the roles of President, CEO and Chair all into one person and that may or may not have anything to do with a dual class share structure? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Andrew. I'll comment on that, but I'd also like to ask Chuck Wilson, our Lead Director to make a few comments on our governance. I actually feel in our circumstance, it is just a matter of timing. It is very difficult. There is no doubt about it, difficult to manage both the chair position and the CEO position.
I believe that we have a tremendous group of independent directors that bring incredible due diligence and robust discipline around independence to the Board and to the management of your company. I don't foresee my role in this position forever. As I say, it's a matter of transition, a matter of timing. And for sure, our shareowners can rely on the fact that our family will have a significant role in the future from a governance perspective, perhaps from management, but for sure from a governance perspective. I truly believe that Ardie, our founder, our father, was quite remarkable in his ability to understand what was required for transition and succession in this organization.
In less than 20 months, we'll be 70 years old and we will have gone through 3 generations. And it is Linda's and my commitment to you, our share owners, and the people of our company that the transition the next time around will be as smooth. And then our owners of our shares and the people of our company can rely on this company to move through the generations for many generations to come. I'll turn it over to Chuck to talk a little bit about the independence and the role of the directors. Thank you, Andrew.
I don't
know why I'm always so lucky
to have this.
Nancy is correct. One of the things that we do here is make sure that the majority of our directors are independent and not just the majority, the vast majority are independent. And you can see that in the proxy and from the introductions today. I can also tell you, I've been on this Board for quite a number of years. And both the Founder, Ron and Nancy, during any of the meetings, whether they're Board meetings, committee meetings, listen to the directors.
I have never once seen them use their majority vote to run over the directors. They let the directors make the decisions. And then the last thing we do or not the last, but one of the important things we do is after every Board meeting, we gather all the independent directors only and have an in camera session to talk about what went on at the meeting, what's do we want to talk to the Chair and the CEO about. And that's a very important function that we do perform. That's in essence the kind of the fundamentals of our governance.
Thank you.
Any other questions? I know we've kept you a long time, but we just have a little bit more. I want to I really
I'm going to go off
script, which Nancy will be frightened of. But I really want to thank Mrs. Bessie, because and as well, ML. Because it really it is very, very important. And also Andrew, our father and the founder love these meetings and he really loved meeting you and taking the time to be with you because it is a large corporation, but the people are the most important part.
And the people that supported our family have been the most important part of this enterprise. And I would also like to add that before we pay tribute to RD, joining us today are so many people that were here at the beginning when it started so long ago. First of all, our mother, Mark Southern and my sister, Nancy. But Norm Robertson, Director Emeritus, Dale Richardson, Walter Kmet, Susan Wirth, Kathy Dreiber, Siegfried and Earhart, your father and Jeff Wood, your uncle and your father. And it is wonderful that you would join us here today.
Sorry. Thank you for taking the time to join us. If I may before we part, as I'm sure you're aware, the start of this year was marked by the passing of our founding Chairman. On January 21, 2016, Ronald D. Southern passed away peacefully at home.
R. D. As we affectionately called him was an extraordinary man of unquestionable integrity, fierce determination, alliance courage and immense imagination. While it may not be for us to say it is rare to meet someone who can be truly called great, but he was such a man. His rare depth of accomplishment his range and depth of accomplishments were sterling, but it was his warmth, humility, decency and unwavering sense of duty and pride for his city, his province, his country and the shareowners of this company that distinguished him the most.
I know the personal connection that my father has with so many of you, our shareowners and the people of this company, its customers, suppliers and even its observers and its critics. He held each of you in the highest of regard. Ronald DeSouther?
I've always believed in everything. You can call it dreams or goals or objectives, whatever you want. But I think it's important to have a goal or a
dream. Not
an unreasoned sort of thing. Something that there's some possibility that you could accomplish. My father saw these units and he thought that this would be a good way for me to earn money to make my way through the university. We bought 10 of them, just a few $1,000 that we had. And we put them on service stations throughout the city of Calgary.
In the midst of this very commonplace, so dear to me, and so many of my colleagues are still alive today, I remember their efforts. So many thousands of people over the generations, in so many countries of the world, in Pakistan, in Venezuela, in Argentina, Algeria,
wherever you go in the world, I remember the people back home. They have been terrific. Well, I'd like to thank each of you for taking the time to attend our 49th Annual Shareholders Meeting and I hope you'll join us for some refreshments before you leave. Available for you in the foyer are traditional prints of this year's annual report cover capturing the Northern Lights over the Elbow River here in Calgary. And along with that, Ronald's other trippy booklet.
So please make sure you collect the copy on your way out. Thank you.