Good afternoon. I'm Pentti Karkkainen, Chair of the Board at AltaGas. On behalf of the board, it's my pleasure to welcome you to AltaGas's 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Thank you for joining us. Before we get started, I want to introduce today's speakers and provide an overview of the meeting format. We'll start with Mel Gerner, Director of Indigenous and Community Relations, providing a land acknowledgement. Then I'll be joined by Jimmi Duce, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, who will assist me in providing an overview of the conduct of the meeting. We'll then have the formal portion of the meeting, and once the formal meeting is complete, I will turn it over to Vern Yu, President and Chief Executive Officer, to provide a short update.
We'll have James Harbilas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, join Vern and I on stage for a Q&A session to close the event. Other members of our board and management team are joining us virtually. With that, I will turn it over to Mel.
Thanks, Pentti. We're speaking to you today from downtown Calgary, which is land deeply rooted in the histories and cultures of many diverse Indigenous peoples and communities. Today, we convene on the traditional territories of Treaty Seven signatories, which include the Siksika Nation, the Piikani Nation, the Kainai Nation, the Îethka Stoney Nakoda Nation, comprising the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney bands, and the people of Tsuut'ina Nation. Calgary is also homeland to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta Districts Five and Six. As an Indigenous business leader and member of Treaty Three, I humbly stand as guest on this land, and I want to thank the original keepers for their generosity in sharing these lands, for their stewardship and advocacy, and fostering deeper connections between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples.
It is my reciprocal responsibility to honor this relationship continually and work toward meaningful outcomes in areas where our business activities intersect. I invite each of you to join me on this journey of continuous learning, embracing the challenges and opportunities that may arise in our pursuit of truth and understanding.
Thank you, Mel, and thank you to our Indigenous partners and the local communities where we work and call home. Before we start the formal meeting, I would ask Jimmi to address a few housekeeping matters related to the formal proceedings. Jimmi, over to you.
Thank you, Pentti. Good afternoon, everyone. As is the case with our in-person shareholder meetings, only shareholders of record at the close of business on the record date of March seventh, twenty twenty-four, and their duly appointed proxy holders may ask questions and vote on the meeting matters. If you wish to ask a question, simply click on the messaging icon and type your question in the chat box at the bottom of the messaging screen, then click the arrow icon to submit. Your questions will be put in the queue and addressed at the appropriate moment during the meeting. Questions about meeting business will be answered during the formal portion of the meeting. Other questions not focused on the formal meeting will be brought forward during the Q&A session.
We encourage you to submit your questions early, and if your question relates to an item of business, to specify the item to which it relates at the start of your question. When reading a question, I will first note the name of the registered shareholder or proxyholder submitting the question. To ensure all questions are addressed, questions of a similar nature may be answered only once. Any questions we are not able to address during the meeting will be referred to our investor relations team for follow-up. To assist us in doing so, please include your email address or phone number with your question. All items for shareholder approval today will be conducted by poll online through the Lumi platform and must be approved by a majority of the votes cast. All items being polled will appear on your screen at once.
As in prior years, a significant amount of voting occurred before the meeting, and the response was positive. Thank you to our shareholders who have voted in advance. We have received your votes, and your votes have been included in the final count. You do not need to vote again today. Any vote you cast at this meeting will revoke your prior vote. If you plan to vote today, you may choose to vote on the resolutions immediately when they appear on your screen, or wait to cast your vote until the conclusion of discussion. To vote, simply click on your choice, "For," "Withhold," or "Against," as applicable. A confirmation message will appear to show that your vote has been received. To change your vote, simply change your selection. If you wish to cancel your vote, press Cancel.
If you do not submit a vote, the vote will be shown as abstained. The votes you submitted on each polling item when the poll closes will be recorded. Totals in favor or against, or withheld for each resolution item will be tallied by the scrutineer once the polls close, and the chair will report on the outcome of all motions at the end of the formal meeting. For meeting efficiency, the chair will make the motions, and I will second. We are both shareholders of AltaGas. As noted in the information circular, the board recommends voting in favor of each of the resolutions being tabled. With the housekeeping matters taken care of, I will turn the meeting back to the chair.
Thank you, Jimmi. In accordance with our bylaws, I will chair today's meeting, and Jimmi will serve as secretary. I will also appoint Falon Watara, who joins us today as a representative of our registrar and transfer agent, Computershare Investor Services, Inc., to act as scrutineer for the meeting. I now call the meeting to order. I have been advised by Computershare that the notice of meeting and meeting materials were duly delivered to shareholders and that a quorum is present. Accordingly, I declare that the meeting has been duly called and is properly constituted for the transaction of business. Computershare's statutory declaration of mailing and the scrutineer's report on attendance will be filed by the secretary with the minutes of this meeting. I now declare the polls open on all resolutions. Each person entitled to vote should see voting choices displayed on their screen.
As a reminder, you may vote on the resolutions immediately or wait to cast your vote following discussions on the motions. We will now commence with the business of the meeting. The agenda is as set forth in the notice of meeting, being the presentation of financial statements, the appointment of auditors, the election of directors, and the advisory vote on AltaGas's approach to executive compensation. Let's begin with the first item of business. The consolidated financial statements of AltaGas for the year ended December 31, 2023, management's discussion and analysis, and the auditor's report thereon, have been provided to shareholders. They are available on AltaGas's page on SEDAR+ and on AltaGas's website, in accordance with notice and access provisions. No action is required by the shareholders on this item.
The next item of business is to vote on the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as auditors of AltaGas to hold office until the next annual meeting. I now move that Ernst & Young LLP be appointed as the auditors of AltaGas until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until a successor is appointed, and that their remuneration be fixed by the directors of AltaGas.
Mr. Chair, I second the motion.
Thank you. You have heard the motion, and it's now open for discussion. Jimmi, have we received any questions on this motion?
Mr. Chair, we have received no questions on this motion.
Thank you, Jimmi. We will proceed with the next item on the agenda. The next item of business is the election of directors. The board of directors of AltaGas has fixed the number of directors to be elected at the meeting at ten. As noted in the information circular, our bylaws contain advance notice provisions, which provide a procedure to be followed for the nomination of directors at meetings of shareholders. No other nominations were received. Therefore, the only individuals entitled to be nominated as directors at this meeting are the individuals named as nominees in AltaGas's information circular. In accordance with our majority voting policy, you are being asked to vote for each director separately. Jimmi, can you please read the names of the ten director nominees set out in AltaGas's information circular, who are standing for election?
Mr. Chair, the director nominees are as follows: Victoria Calvert, David Cornhill, John L. Duplantier, Robert Hodgins, Cynthia Johnston, Pentti Karkkainen, Phillip Knoll, Angela Lekatsas, Nancy Tower, and Vern Yu. Each of the nominees has consented to act as a director of AltaGas until the next annual meeting or until their successor is duly elected or appointed.
Thank you, Jimmi. The nominees bring a mix of knowledge, experience, expertise, and perspectives to the boardroom. The various skills and attributes of the nominees are set out in the information circular. All the nominees currently sit on our board, though Vern and Angela will be standing for election for the first time today. Vern Yu joined AltaGas just under a year ago as President and Chief Executive Officer. Since Vern joined, AltaGas has continued to advance its strategic plan and deliver long-term value for our shareholders, including industry-leading total shareholder returns in 2023. Angela was appointed to the board in September 2023. Angela is a recently retired executive with over two decades of broad industry and corporate finance experience, and her strategic depth, wealth of experience across a wide range of organizational functions, international knowledge, and collaborative leadership style has already proven a benefit to the organization.
Her strengths and experience made her a natural choice as successor to the role of audit committee chair. We look forward to your continued leadership in this role, Angela. I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank Linda Sullivan, who is not standing for re-election at today's meeting as she embraces her new role as chair of another board. Linda, thank you for your contributions and valuable insights during your tenure, including your leadership as audit committee chair and as a member of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee. Linda, I know I speak on behalf of the entire board when I say it has been a pleasure serving alongside you, and we will miss your presence in our boardroom.
With that, I now move that the individuals nominated as directors, as listed by the secretary, be elected as directors of AltaGas to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders, or until they cease to be a director by operation of law, or until their resignation becomes effective.
Mr. Chair, I second the motion.
Thank you. You have heard the motion and it's now open for discussion. Jimmi, have we received any questions on this motion from shareholders?
Mr. Chair, we have received no questions on this motion.
Thank you, Jimmi. With that, we will move on to the next item on the agenda. The final item of business is the consideration of AltaGas's approach to executive compensation. This is an advisory vote, so the results will not be binding, but the board will take the results into consideration in its ongoing review of executive compensation. I move to accept, on an advisory basis and not to diminish the roles and responsibilities of the board of directors, AltaGas's approach to executive compensation, as disclosed in AltaGas's Management Information Circular, dated March 7, 2024.
Mr. Chair, I second the motion.
You have heard the motion, and it's now open for discussion. Jimmi, have we received any questions on this motion from shareholders?
Mr. Chair, we have received no questions on this motion.
Thank you, Jimmi. That was the final agenda item. For those of you who have not yet cast your votes, please do so now, and I will pause briefly before closing the polls.... Thank you. The polls are now closed. We will take another moment to let the scrutineer finish tabulating.
Mr. Chair? Oh, Mr. Chair, we have now received the preliminary results from the scrutineer, and I can advise that each of the motions has passed by a majority of the votes cast.
Thank you, Jimmi, and thank you to the scrutineer. On that basis, I declare that all motions have been carried. Final voting results will be published on SEDAR+ tomorrow. As there is no further business, I now declare the meeting terminated. Thank you to all our shareholders for participating in the annual meeting, either by voting in advance or attending and voting today, and thank you for your support of AltaGas. Prior to turning the meeting over to Vern, I'd like to draw your attention to our advisory statement. Please take a moment to review the posted advisory statement regarding forward-looking information and non-GAAP measures. Within our corporate update, we may make forward-looking statements which involve certain assumptions, and we have inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ from these statements.
We may also reference certain financial measures that do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by U.S. GAAP. The past year was another active one for AltaGas, with many purposeful decisions focused on driving long-term value, including delivering a meaningful total shareholder return and ensuring the right leadership is in place. In 2024, AltaGas continues to focus on progressing its long-term strategy of building a diversified energy infrastructure business that is positioned to provide resilient and compounding value for our stakeholders. As the stewards of the company, the board of directors focuses on providing our foresight, oversight, and insight to guide the organization and ensure the highest ethical standards are maintained. Our core values embody how we define success at every level of our organization. They are at the heart of how we do business and what we stand for as a company.
I would like to recognize and thank the leadership team and employees of AltaGas for their continued execution of our strategic priorities, as well as our stakeholders and our Indigenous and community partners for joining us on our journey. I would also like to thank my colleagues on the board for your stewardship and sound counsel as we collectively execute our responsibilities. With that, I will turn the mic over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Vern Yu.
Thanks, Pentti. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to be with us today. I'm pleased to be here for my first AltaGas AGM. It was a busy 2023. We had a lot on the go, and as a team, we delivered large successes across the enterprise, which I'll talk about in a little bit. But before I do that, we want to share with you a short video on who we are and where we're going.
AltaGas is a leading North American infrastructure company that connects customers and markets to affordable and reliable sources of energy. We operate a low-risk, high-growth energy infrastructure platform that is focused on delivering stable and growing value for its stakeholders. Our mission is to improve quality of life by safely and reliably connecting customers to affordable sources of energy. Today, that revolves around connecting our customers to lower carbon natural gas and NGLs. But in the years ahead, we'll begin incorporating alternative fuels like renewable natural gas and hydrogen into our platform to advance the lower carbon future and the role AltaGas will play within it. Providing energy security is a responsibility that we take seriously.
As an essential service provider, there is nothing more important than ensuring our customers have access to safe, reliable, and affordable energy, and we do that one home, one neighborhood, and one region at a time. We deliver on this vision through two core businesses, utilities and midstream, both of which are geared toward building a stable and growing enterprise. Within our utilities platform, our strategy is to operate a safety-focused, digitally enabled, and high-growth utility that exceeds our customers' expectations and provides them the energy they need to fuel everyday life. Every day, our team focuses on connecting our customers to the critical energy they need to power their businesses, heat their homes, and cook for their families. Within our midstream business, our strategy is to manage a world-class midstream platform that safely connects producers to domestic and global markets.
From wellhead to tidewater, we are focused on providing our customers with safe and reliable service and connectivity that facilitates the best outcomes for their businesses. This includes global market access for North American LPGs, which provides producers and aggregators with the best net backs for propane and butane, while delivering a diversity of supply and stronger energy security in Asia. Every day, we strive to deliver better outcomes for our stakeholders in the communities where we live and serve. We believe there is more to running a business than solely focusing on profits. We have a long history of operating with strong environmental, social, and governance practices that will continue to be key aspects of our long-term success. However, operating with strong financial underpinnings and having a strong financial base is the foundation on which we achieve our goals.
It's the footing on which we have the resources to invest in our communities, develop our employees, create social purpose, meet our customers' needs, and have a positive impact over the long term. Over the past number of years, we've reshaped our forward trajectory, which is driving strong stakeholder value creation. In the years ahead, we will continue to deleverage the balance sheet, de-risk the business, and adopt commercial structures that provide the appropriate risk-reward to execute on our business plan.... We believe that executing on this strategy will deliver positive long-term outcomes, including strong rates of return, the capacity to invest, ongoing dividend growth, and the opportunity for continued capital appreciation. We look forward to the continued partnership on the road ahead and partnering with all our stakeholders to deliver the best outcomes possible.
2023 was a successful year for AltaGas. We made strong progress on our strategic priorities. We advanced a number of growth projects. We de-levered the balance sheet, and we de-risked our commercial operations. As highlighted on this slide, we delivered normalized EBITDA of CAD 1.575 billion for the year, which was in the upper half of our 2023 EBITDA guidance range. Meanwhile, 2023 normalized EPS came in at CAD 1.90 per share, also within our guidance range. Commercially, we made strong progress de-risking the business. In the midstream segment, we grew tolling and global exports from around 25% at the start of the year to 40% at year-end.
This aligns with our long-term plan to grow our take or pay, cost of service, and fee for service portion of our business mix from around 80%-90% of AltaGas's total EBITDA over the next couple of years. We have continued to show progress on this front in 2024, with our global exports tolling expected to exceed 55% as we start the new year. We entered a 5-year transportation agreement with CN that supports our growing LPG exports. This agreement provides us with cost certainty for our existing exports at Ridley Island, which will also extend to the REEF project. We commissioned a second VLGC time charter in December, which made its maiden voyage in the fourth quarter, and we commissioned our third time charter in the first quarter of 2024. We significantly strengthened our midstream value chain through the acquisition of the Pipestone assets.
This deal supports our long-term strategy and adds complementary assets that strengthen our footprint in the Alberta Montney and provides our export business with additional liquids. We signed a new joint venture with Vopak on the REEF project, where we have operational responsibility for the project going forward. Since that time, we've been actively advancing the venture through commercial, engineering, regulatory, and stakeholder work streams to ensure we are positioned to make a positive final investment decision in the first half of 2024, which will provide long-term growth to our exports platform. Within our utilities, we were also very active in 2023 and took significant steps to maximize long-term value creation. We continued to make significant investments in our network, focused on new customer connects and network modernization.
This included investing CAD 745 million in 2023 on safety and reliability, pipeline replacement, and extending delivery to new residential and commercial customers. We closed the sale of our Alaskan utilities, which provided more than $1 billion of cash to reduce debt and provide financial flexibility to move forward with our strong organic growth. We took active steps on cost management to ensure unnecessary expenses are removed from everyday operations, and that will continue to be a strong focus in 2024. We also continued to make strong progress on climate initiatives. This included signing an RNG deal with Opal Fuels to add RNG into Washington Gas' network and support the production and consumption of low carbon fuel supply for our customers in the DMV region.
We also advanced three RNG projects in Michigan as we focus on reducing our long-term emissions across the business, including Scope 3 emissions within the utilities. All of these actions help drive strong shareholder value creation. During 2023, AltaGas outperformed our peer group by approximately 22% on a total shareholder return perspective, and we have continued to show top quartile relative performance in 2024. As we look ahead, we have a number of major growth projects that we're excited about. The first is our large ongoing utility investments, where we have deployed approximately CAD 4 billion since 2018. We also expect to invest another CAD 700 million in 2024, focused on safety and reliability, pipeline replacements, asset modernization, and system expansion. The second is Pipestone 2, which is a deep cut sour gas processing plant in the Alberta Montney.
We reached a positive FID in December 2023, with 100% of the capacity contracted under long-term take-or-pay contracts. We have drilled the first acid gas injection well for the facility in February and will be progressing pipeline and facilities work this spring and summer, and we look forward to adding critical processing and gas handling capacity in the region. The third is the REEF project, which continues to make strong progress, and we expect to make an FID by the end of Q2. We're excited about all these projects, which will be important additions to our business platforms. Let's look ahead and move to our key priorities for 2024. This includes our commitment to an equity self-funding model, moving towards our 4.5x leverage target, and operating with strong capital discipline, ensuring the best projects continue to be funded.
Within utilities, our number one objective is to improve returns and further close the ROE gap at WGL. We've made tremendous strides, however, the journey continues. We had some positive regulatory outcomes and some challenging ones over the past few months, and we'll continue to take active steps to ensure we are disciplined with our capital, costs, and file new rate increases at appropriate intervals to ensure we get the best possible regulatory outcomes. We will continue our work on modernizing our aging infrastructure to reduce leaks and improve system safety and reliability. We will continue to invest in and explore growth opportunities related to climate initiatives such as RNG and energy efficiency programs. We will also tirelessly advocate for natural gas, as we believe the fuel is the most viable path to balancing the energy trilemma of energy reliability, affordability, and long-term climate initiatives.
Within Midstream, our near-term priorities are threefold. First is to fully integrate the Pipestone assets and complete the Pipestone Two project. Second is to bring REEF to FID by the end of Q2 2024. Finally, we want to continue to de-risk the midstream business with more tolling and more take-or-pay contracts. I will close with our value proposition. We're positioned to deliver industry-leading dividend growth through stable and increasing earnings and cash flows. We will be able to improve our risk profile through better commercial contracts and our ongoing balance sheet deleveraging. The long-term fundamentals for AltaGas are strong and underpin our visible industry-leading growth. The Canadian upstream industry will deliver significant growth in natural gas and NGL production through 2030. Growing NGL volumes will need additional West Coast egress to maximize value for our customers and provide critical energy security to Asia.
Our utilities have a bright future, with natural gas being a critical fuel that will be required to balance the needs of energy affordability and energy reliability with our climate goals, and we will be disciplined allocators of capital. We're very excited about the days ahead. We believe the execution of our long-term strategic plan will continue to drive outsized shareholder returns in the years ahead. With that, I will open the floor to any questions from our shareholders.
Thank you, Vern. Now we are pleased to have James Harbilas join us on stage and open the floor for questions.
Jimmi, can you tell us if there are any questions from the shareholders?
We have received no questions yet, but we'll give it another moment. There are no questions.
Well, thanks, Jimmi. With that, we've reached the end of our Q&A session. We encourage you to reach out through to us throughout the year by contacting our investor relations department. If your question is governance related, by contacting the board through our board shareholder engagement policy. But before we close out the meeting today, I want to recognize our hardworking employees from the East Coast to the West Coast, here in Canada and the United States. The work you do every day matters, and I'm glad you're here with us, so thank you. To our valued shareholders, thank you for your ongoing support and joining us today. To our customers, our Indigenous partners, and communities where we work and live, thank you. You all play an important role in helping us deliver the essential services that we do.