Bonjour et bienvenue à l'Assemblée générale annuelle 2024 des actionnaires de BCE. My name is Gordon Nixon, and I'm pleased to preside over this meeting as Chair of the Board of Directors of BCE. I will now call the meeting to order. To begin, I wish to acknowledge that we are joining you today from Montreal, located on the land which has long served as a site of meetings and exchange amongst Indigenous people, including the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabe nations. Bell recognizes and respects the commitment of Indigenous people who have lived and worked on this land and is dedicated to fostering positive and mutually respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples and communities. Néwa, Miigwech, merci, and thank you. Today is the fifth consecutive year that we have conducted our annual general meeting virtually. We initially adopted this format due to the unfortunate realities of COVID-19.
However, to align with our core communications business, our ESG standards, and our journey from a traditional telco to a techco services and digital media leader, and to enable more people to attend and enjoy an equal opportunity to participate in our meeting, we are again holding this meeting virtually. Please view this, as we do, as one more example of how the strength of communications, technology, and our networks can minimize environmental impacts while enabling even broader and more diverse participation of our shareholders, regardless of where they are located. We have made every effort to afford shareholders the same rights that they would have at a physical meeting. We will shortly go over the procedures of the meeting and how shareholders can vote and ask questions during the meeting. The business of this meeting will be conducted in both English and French.
Online, you may choose the language of the meeting by selecting English, French, or original feed at the top of your broadcast screen. If you select original feed, you will hear the original language spoken without any translation. Closed captioning is also available on all feeds. It can be turned on at the top right of the broadcast screen. If you are listening by telephone and you wish to change the language, you must hang up and dial back into the meeting using the phone number that corresponds with the language of your choice and that is indicated on our website. I will now introduce the members of the BCE team joining me here today. On my left is Mirko Bibic, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and on my right is Martin Cossette, our Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and our Corporate Secretary.
In accordance with the BCE bylaws, I, as Chair of the Board, will act as Chair of this meeting, and Martin will act as Secretary. Also attending today's meeting via phone are Jacqueline Mercer and Paul Fletcher, who are representatives of Deloitte, the shareholders' auditors. Curtis Millen, our Chief Financial Officer, is also with us today to answer questions, and members of the Board of Directors and Senior Management of BCE are also on the webcast. Before I begin, I would ask Martin to take us through the procedures of today's meeting. Martin?
Merci, Monsieur le Président.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Voting during today's meeting will be through the Lumi platform only. As described in the proxy circular, only registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who receive a controlled number from our transfer agent, TSX Trust Company, may vote online during the meeting. Please note that you do not need to vote during the meeting if you have already voted by proxy. Starting now, you can register your vote on all items of business for today's meeting. To vote, click on the voting tab at the top of your screen. You will see the meeting resolutions displayed on your screen. To vote, select one of the voting options available. Your vote will automatically be submitted to our transfer agent after you make your selection. Votes may be changed up to the time voting is closed.
The poll will remain open until the Chair declares voting on all matters closed right after the motion approved on the adversary resolution on executive compensation. Preliminary results will be announced later this morning, and final results will be posted on our website. Shareholders were encouraged to ask questions ahead of the meeting through our website, by contacting our Corporate Secretary's Office, by contacting our Investors Relations Group, or through our transfer agent. We wish to thank shareholders who submitted questions ahead of the meeting. For those who wish to have their question answered during the meeting, we'll be doing so at the appropriate time. Now, you can submit the question at any time during the meeting, in English or in French, until the Chair closes the question period at the end of the meeting.
It is recommended that questions be submitted as soon as possible during the meeting so that they can be answered at the appropriate time. To ask a question in writing online, click on the messaging tab at the top of your screen and submit your question. Enter your full name, whether you are a shareholder, proxy holder, and your question in the Ask a Question box, then press the send arrow to submit your question. Your question will be read at the appropriate time. Assuming they have been submitted in sufficient time, questions related to the matters of business to be voted on will be addressed at the time if such matter is discussed. Other questions will be addressed during the question period after the business of the meeting has been completed.
To ask a question by telephone, call the number appearing on the proxy circular on the meeting page of BCE.ca and on the homepage of Lumie platform and press star one. A Lumie representative will dial you into the meeting at the appropriate time for you to ask your question live. For the good conduct of the meeting, questions should be of the interest of all shareholders and not personal in nature. If your question is related to a personal matter, a BCE representative will communicate with you after the meeting if you have provided your contact information. To allow us to respond to as many questions as possible, we will limit each person to one question and ask that it be succinct and in no event longer than two minutes.
If you have an additional question that hasn't already been asked, please feel free to submit it, and if we have time, we will address it. We just want to make sure we can be responsive to as many questions during the time allotted for the meeting. Written questions on the same topic or otherwise related may be grouped and addressed at the same time. I would now like to bring your attention to the notice appearing on screen. Today's remarks will contain forward-looking statements. They are based on several assumptions and are subject to important risks. The notice on screen contains a cautionary statement, and in that regard, it is made on behalf of all speakers whose remarks today will contain forward-looking statements. Finally, I can report that Bertrand Gelly and Isabelle Vachon, employees of TSX Trust Company, have been appointed to act as scrutineers at this meeting.
Mr. Chair, I turn the meeting over to you.
Merci, Martin, and once again, thank you all for joining us today. It is great to be here with you at our 2024 annual shareholders' meeting live in Montreal. As Canada's largest communications and media company, Bell is dedicated to creating value for our customers, our shareholders, our team members, and our communities in which we work. Our purpose is to advance how Canadians connect with each other and with the world. To deliver on that purpose, we are transforming from a traditional telco to a company focused on communications, tech services, and digital media, offering better products, better services, and better experiences for our customers. Over the past year, we have been exploring new areas of growth and crafting a roadmap for resilience in a rapidly changing environment.
As we look back, we can be proud of the results that Bell has accomplished during what was a very challenging year for our industry. First, on community impact, Bell recognizes that our influence extends beyond our core business. We have an important role to play in building a brighter future. Corporate responsibility is a fundamental element of the strategic imperatives that guide BCE's policies and our actions. We are reducing our environmental footprint through our emissions reduction and environmental protection efforts. Earlier this year, Corporate Knights named Bell the most sustainable communications company in the world in the Global 100 rankings. Our longstanding dedication to mental health awareness and better access to care is also delivering results. Bell Let's Talk has become the world's largest conversation about mental health, and we expect to reach our funding commitment of $155 million by the end of 2025.
Last year, as an example, we committed $15 million to the Kids Help Phone Feel Out Loud campaign to expand access to online mental health services, and we also gave $1 million to IWK Health in Halifax to build a dedicated mental health space in the children's hospital's emergency department. We are also focused on mental health in the workplace, offering unlimited mental health benefits to our team members. After extensive consultation, BCE launched the first company-wide accessibility plan in 2023, allowing us to prevent and remove barriers to accessibility. The Bell team is working hard to make a real difference in the communities in which we serve. In terms of financial performance, in 2023, we saw solid financial results, and we worked hard to deliver for our shareholders, which included the 16th consecutive year of dividend growth.
Having said that, I would acknowledge that there have been bumps on the road as we have navigated a period of transition, and like our telecom competitors, we have seen significant downward pressure on our shares. Persistent inflation, high interest rates, slow economic growth, and an unfavorable exchange rate are affecting our business and the sector. I would also highlight a major challenge on the regulatory front. The federal regulator recently mandated Bell to provide access of our fiber networks to resellers, but that also included large telecommunications companies, our major competitors, at artificially low rates. This decision is already having a negative impact on the current and future investments that we make, as we are challenged to spend our shareholders' money on infrastructure that benefits our competitors and impairs our ability to earn a reasonable return on that investment.
Canada faces a productivity crisis and anemic economic growth, and penalizing companies and critical industries will only discourage investment and move dollars, people, and resources elsewhere. The networks we are building should be the basis for Canada's future economic growth, for productivity growth, for prosperity, and we would like to expand that reach to even more Canadians. But to do so, we do need a public policy environment that supports investment. Before I conclude today, I would like to take a moment to publicly welcome Johan Weiburg, who has joined the BCE Board in November. His experience in technology and innovation dating from his time as CTO of Vodafone and at Ericsson is already providing a valuable addition to our board. I would also like to thank David Denison and Robert Simmons, who are both retiring from the board, for their contribution over the past several years.
David drew on his considerable knowledge of the financial and pension sector to deftly lead our Management Resources and Compensation Committee. Bob's extensive experience in Canada's telecommunications sector provided an invaluable perspective on mobile networks and spectrum issues. They will both be missed, and we wish them the very best. Team Bell works hard every day to live up to our purpose and strategic imperatives, and I would also like to thank all of our employees and Team Bell for their continued hard work. I would also like to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued support. I trust that you share our confidence in the BCE Group of Companies as we innovate and grow into the future. The meeting today will proceed as follows. After confirming the establishment of a quorum, we will proceed with the receipt of the 2023 consolidated financial statements and auditors' report.
We will then vote on the election of directors, the appointment of auditors, and an advisory resolution on executive compensation. To facilitate proceedings, I have asked Martin to move on all three motions. Our President and Chief Executive Officer, Mirko Bibic, will then address the meeting, following which we will announce the results of the votes. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we conclude the meeting with a question and answer period, and we welcome your questions. Starting with agenda item number one, the scrutineers have provided me with their report on attendance, which will be filed with the records of the meeting. The attendance report, together with the proxies which I hold, confirm the shareholders representing a minimum of 25% of all the outstanding shares of BCE that are entitled to vote are in attendance at this meeting.
I therefore declare that the meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of such business as may properly be brought before it. Now, moving to item number two, the BCE annual financial report for the year 2023 contains the consolidated financial statements with the auditors' report thereon. A copy of the 2023 annual financial report will be filed with the records of this meeting. Attending today, as I said, is Curtis Millen, our Chief Financial Officer, as well as representatives from Deloitte, your auditors, who are available on the phone to answer any questions you may have on our financial statements. Martin, are there any questions relating to this particular item of business?
No, Mr. Chair, there are no questions on this item of business at this point.
I remind you that the polls for all items submitted to a vote at the meeting are open. The next business on the agenda is the election of directors. There are 13 directors to be elected, and 13 eligible candidates have been nominated. The director nominees of this meeting are Mirko Bibic, Robert Dexter, Catherine Lee, Monique Le Roux, Sheila Murray, Lou Pagnuti, Kaylin Rovinescue, Karen Shareff, Jennifer Tory, Louis Vachon, Johan Weiburg, and Cornell Wright, as well as myself, Gordon Nixon. These are your board nominees. We will now turn to questions related to this item of business. Martin, are there any questions related specifically to this item?
There are no questions on this item of business, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Martin. Could we please proceed with the motion?
Monsieur le Président, je propose que les 13 personnes nommées.
Mr. Chair, I move that each of the 13 persons previously named be elected as director of BCE, Inc., until the earlier of the end of the next annual shareholder meeting and the date they cease to hold office.
Merci, Martin. The next item on the agenda is the appointment of our auditors. I remind you that the polls remain open. Martin, are there any questions related specifically to this item of business?
No, there are no questions on this item of business, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Martin, and please move the motion.
Monsieur le Président, je propose que Deloitte soit nommé auditeur de BCE.
I propose that Deloitte be appointed as auditor of BCE until the next annual shareholder meeting.
The next item on the agenda is the advisory vote on BCE's approach to executive compensation. Please note that voting on all matters will close after the motion is approved and this resolution is made. Martin, are there any questions specifically related to this item of business?
No, Mr. Chair, we have not received any questions on this item of business.
Thank you, Martin. Please move this motion.
Monsieur le Président, je propose que la résolution consultative sur la rémunération.
Mr. Chair, I move that the advisory resolution on executive compensation be approved.
I now declare that the meeting on all matters is now closed. The results will be announced before the question and answer and comment period. Now, I would ask Mirko Bibic, our President and Chief Executive Officer, to address the meeting.
Merci, Gordon. Bonjour à tous et à toutes. C'est un plaisir de m'adresser à vous aujourd'hui en direct de Montréal.
Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to speak to you from Montreal. This city is Bell's hometown, and mind you, it's fitting that we're broadcasting from here. Bell's success has always been thanks to our agility in the face of changing market dynamics and a shift in the economic and regulatory landscape. Our purpose is to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world. Our six strategic imperatives support this proposition: build the best network, drive growth with innovative services, deliver the most compelling content, champion customer experience, operate with agility and cost efficiency, and engage and invest in our people and create a sustainable future. I first thank Bell Team for the impressive ability to live up to our purpose and strategic imperatives.
As Gordon mentioned, Bell is accelerating its transformation from a traditional telco to a company that's focused on communications, tech services, and digital media. This is a company-wide effort. It touches everything we do, from the customer experience to the networks we build, to the products and services we offer, and to the way we work together as a team internally. We're embracing the transformation mindset. We're making the right near-term decisions, and at the same time, we're putting in place a solid foundation for long-term growth. 2023 was another year of progress for Bell. We connected more homes and businesses to our fiber networks, and we made our wireless networks available to more Canadians. We continue to enhance the customer experience by adopting digital solutions. Bell Media delivered Canada's most compelling news, sports, and entertainment content, pivoting to digital-first experiences in response to audience preferences.
At Bell, we offer customers the best products and the best services, and those are backed by the best networks. Last year, we expanded our pure fiber network by 633,000 locations, and we expanded 5G and 5G+ wireless coverage. For the second year in a row, Ookla recognized Bell Fiber as the fastest internet and Wi-Fi in the country, and Global Wireless Solutions ranked Bell's 5G Canada's fastest 5G network for the third year in a row. As networks have expanded, prices for internet and wireless services have declined. Internet prices are down more than 15% year over year, and since 2020, wireless prices have come down by 45%. In fact, Statistics Canada has identified the telecom sector as a leader in the fight against inflation, and this is at a time when Canadians feel they are paying more and getting less for everything else.
Today, Canadians pay consistently less for wireless than in the U.S., and that's confirmed this week by the federal government's annual price comparison study. Provide an example. Bell currently offers a 75-gig plan for $60 compared to $104 on AT&T. That's more than $40 less for the same amount of data on a superior network, better quality, and better network coverage. Great networks and lower prices are just the beginning. Here are just a few more examples of how our transformation is driving change.
On my Bell app, it's easier for a customer to access their bill, manage their services, and access a virtual repair tool to fix common issues directly in the app. At home, self-install offers a fast, convenient, and safe way to connect to our fiber network, and we have enhanced our outage notification, helping customers to stay informed during extreme weather events. We are transforming a new way to sell through innovative partnerships that reach customers in more places and in an easier way. Here are a few examples. Earlier this year, Bell joined forces with Best Buy Canada to operate 165 of their Source stores, rebranded as Best Buy Express that will launch later. Through our partnership with Staples, we are reaching more small and medium-sized business owners. A few weeks ago, we launched a partnership with No Frills to support budget-conscious wireless consumers with No Name Mobile, and more.
End-to-end expertise internally that we can then sell to our business clients. Here's how we help. Most large companies in Canada are Bell's clients, and like us, most of them are undertaking their own digital transformation. Our networks, the best networks in Canada, are the clear option for business transformation. To transform, these companies need access to cloud services and cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and ServiceNow. Bell has strategic partnerships with all of them. But moving apps and platforms to the cloud also requires IT expertise, and that's where our acquisition of Montreal-based FX Innovation comes in. FX has a particular expertise in helping customers move to the cloud, transitioning their workflows and processes from the old way of doing things to the new way of doing things.
And of course, all this requires the best security, and we offer that too, and we are a trusted brand in security. In fact, we're the only Canadian telecom to partner with SentinelOne, a global leader in AI-powered security. Du côté de Bell Media, on continue de diffuser le contenu le plus important.
Bell Media continues to deliver Canada's most compelling content in French and in English. When we launched Survivor Québec, Original Survivor Québec, Amazing Race Canada, Canadians continue to embrace Crave. We are the number one Canadian streaming service, and 2023 was the most watched year in its history. We offer 13,000 hours of francophone content on Crave and growing. Canadians want access to content on digital platforms, and in response, we want to make it easy to find. We are exploiting new digital opportunities with FAST channels for kids, news, sports, entertainment, and all of these contents.
Digital news stories in an average day than when Bell acquired it. These stories are available across our lineup of news applications like the BNN Bloomberg app, the CP24 app, and the CTV News app. Soon, for the first time ever, CTV National News will have dedicated journalists telling stories from all 10 Canadian provinces. The network now airs more original national newscasts than at any point in its 60-plus-year history, as well as 25,000 hours of local news per year. I'm optimistic about Bell's future. We're hyper-focused on our customers. We offer the best fiber internet, Canada's fastest 5G network, a superior cloud TV platform, and Canada's best streaming service. We're making it easier for Canadians to purchase our services and to control them, and our end-to-end business solutions keep getting better. Like so many businesses across the country, we're facing challenges.
Gordon mentioned some of them: persistent inflation, high interest rates, and the impact that those have on our consumers. Our response to all of that is to transform. The success of our transformation will allow us to remain competitive, to deliver solid results, and to be well-positioned for the future. Exciting possibilities lie ahead in areas like AI, advanced advertising, cloud, and cybersecurity services, and much more. Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your support. Now back to you, Gordon.
Thank you very much, Mirko. I will now ask Martin to provide the preliminary results of the scrutineer's tabulation of today's votes.
Merci, Monsieur le Président. Les scrutateurs confirment les résultats préliminaires suivants.
They confirm these results. All director nominees receive at least 97.7% of votes for. Approximately 90.6% are favorable for the appointment of Deloitte as auditors. And the advisory resolution on the executive compensation is approved by approximately 94.7% of the votes. Scrutineer's final report will be available shortly after the meeting.
We will now take questions and comments from our shareholders. Martin, can you just remind us of the procedures to ask a question?
To ask in writing, click on the messaging tab at the top of your screen and submit your question in writing. Enter your full name, whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder, and your question in the Ask a Question box, and then press the Send arrow to submit your question. To ask a question by phone, call the number appearing on the proxy circular on the meeting page of BCE.ca and on the homepage of the Lumi platform, and then press Star 1. A Lumi representative will dial you into the meeting at the appropriate time for you to ask your question live. These rules of procedure that we outline in the beginning of the meeting will continue to apply for this question and answer session. Thank you, Martin.
Online?
Yes. We received two questions about share price, so we'll answer them. I'll read both of them and ask you to answer them all at once. From a shareholder, Sandy Goal, will someone be able to explain why the share price has dropped by a third in the past one year? Thank you. From Jerry Plant, on January 18, BCE was at $56.02 per share. Since that date, the price has fallen approximately 20% to a low of $44.98 today. Can you please outline the main aspects of why BCE has experienced this drastic fall in share price? Second, what is the one-year plan to recover this share price? Thank you. Thank you for your commitment to mental health initiatives.
Okay. Thank you, both Sandeep and Jerry. Obviously, very timely, appropriate, and good questions. I will kick off, and then I will turn it over to Mirko, who I'm sure will have something to add. The first point is the whole sector is under tremendous pressure, and there's a variety of reasons for that: high interest rates we mentioned, very slow economic growth, a very competitive environment. We have four major telcos in Canada, probably one of the most competitive markets in the world. Just by comparison, on the wireless business in the United States, which is 10 times our size, they have three major competitors being AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Most countries around the world have two or three; very few have four. It's been a competitive environment during a period of very slow economic growth.
As a result, the whole industry has underperformed the overall marketplace. In terms of our positioning, we've slightly outperformed one of our major competitors and slightly underperformed one of the others, but the whole industry is under pressure. Having said all that, we believe our fiber strategy is certainly working. We spent a lot of money—you've heard about our significant CapEx programs over the last couple of years—to put fiber in the ground and to expand our network, and we're very encouraged by the long-term aspect of this. I mean, ultimately, everybody is going to move towards a fiber network, and we are clearly the leader in terms of being in a position to have a well-built and expansive fiber network, and we think that the ability to capitalize on that going forward is going to be very significant.
Mirko touched on a number of other initiatives underway, and as a result, we remain very optimistic with respect to the future, but clearly, we have found ourselves over the past little while operating in a very challenging environment, which has impacted our industry and a lot of other industries in Canada as well. With that, I'll ask Mirko perhaps to jump in and talk a little bit or expand a little bit on what we expect to do over the next year or so to get our share prices moving in the right direction.
Thank you, Gord. That was very well answered and covered. Thank you for the question. As Gord said, it's a very important one. Just to quickly add to some of the points that Gord mentioned, we're going to continue to make significant investments, particularly in our networks, to continue to drive wireless and fiber internet service revenue growth. You can see the benefits of the long-term approach we've always taken. We started our fiber journey in 2010. We're now in—everybody knows—in 2024, and there's been billions of dollars invested in delivering the very best internet networks to Canadians.
That's allowed us, years ago, to be in a position of weakness when it came to internet market share to now approaching 50% market share in some geographies, and we're going to continue to drive forward because when you offer the best customer experience on the best networks, you will drive revenue growth, and ultimately, the share price will follow. On the media side, I touched on it in my opening comments. It's really we're undergoing significant, essentially turbulence in the Canadian media industry with much of the ad revenues having been taken by global web giants who come into Canada and are competing against us without contributing to the Canadian media sector. But by pivoting ourselves to digital, delivering the best content on the platforms that Canadians want, we're going to see a recovery in advertising as we take our share of digital advertising revenue as well.
I spent some time in my opening remarks, which I won't repeat, on how we're going to drive revenue growth in the enterprise sector, and that's by offering innovative business solutions along with the best connectivity. As we put all those things together and have a focused strategy and make investments in the right places, we're going to see our revenues grow, our earnings grow, and our share price should follow, especially as some of the macroeconomic factors that Gord highlighted dissipate. Thank you.
Thank you, Mirko. And perhaps we'll do one quick one on the screen, and then we can move to the phone if there are any questions.
Yeah, we don't see any on the phones for now, so keep going. Next question from Scott Bradley. With respect to shares owned or held by directors, why does Johan Weyberg not personally own a single share of BCE?
Firstly, he does own DSUs, which are similar to shares, but we have a director shareholder requirement, of which DSUs are included, and it's one of the most aggressive of almost any Canadian company. If you look in our proxy, you'll see significantly shares held by all of our directors. We do provide a time period for new directors to get up to those levels, and rest assured that Johan will be at and through our minimum levels in a very short period of time. That will correct with time, and I would encourage you to look at the minimum requirements, which are included in our proxy documents.
Thank you. We still have no questions on the phone, so we'll keep going with questions online. It's from an anonymous shareholder. When it comes to environmental commitments, how do you compare to your peers in the telecom industry?
Thank you. Thank you for that question. It's a very topical one. I'll give you the headline answer: it would be that because we are the largest fiber provider in the country right there, we are ahead of our peers as fiber is cleaner technology than cable in the sense that it is less energy intensive. But we've been focused on energy efficiency for decades, and we've been delivering large greenhouse gas emission reductions for many years, and we're going to continue to progress on that journey over time. I'll give you some key milestones that we're very proud of. We're the first telecom company in North America to have our energy management system certified to the ISO 50001 standard, and that was in 2020. We calculate and report on our carbon footprint via the Carbon Disclosure Project, and we've done that every year since 2003.
We formed our own carbon reduction task force; that was in 2021, and an innovation working group in 2022, and we continue to increase our investments to decarbonize our operations. We've done that with the introduction of a green budget, and we expect to start seeing savings from these projects in 2024 and 2025. I highlight those examples to tell you that we've been on this journey for many years. We've reached a certain number of milestones, and it's because, again, having a plan in place for years, working to that plan, measuring our performance, adjusting, and we'll continue to do that. Thank you.
Thank you. Still no questions on the phones. Keep going online. Next question is from Angela Acree. With all the financial pressure that is the expected—what is the expected impact on dividends? How can you continue to increase dividends in this cash flow environment?
A very good question. Obviously, our payout ratio is through our state of objective, which is 65% to 75% of free cash flow. What we have been trying to do is balance the appropriate capital allocation between investment in the future, investment in infrastructure, and return to shareholders. First and foremost, I think it's important to acknowledge that BCE is very much a dividend stock. It has been for almost—certainly over the last 20 years. If you look at our history and our objectives, which are annual dividend increases, we've been able to increase our dividend annually, going back, I think, it's 17 years, although we did reduce the growth rate of our dividend this year. We always were within our range. Unfortunately, COVID threw a real wrench into that, and coming out of COVID, we have constantly been above our 65% to 75% range.
One of the reasons for that is because we've used so much of our free cash flow to invest in fiber and infrastructure, which is, as both Mirko and I have said, critical to the future. We're going through this period now of heavy CapEx, which has elevated our payout ratio, which is one of the reasons we reduced our growth rate. This year, it was 3%. Going into the future, ultimately, you will see a shift in terms of reducing CapEx and more free cash flow. We would very much like to get back to our objective of 65% to 75%, and I think we've been very transparent with the investment community in terms of the time frame that it will take us to get back there.
As we move forward, though, we continue to recognize that, as I say, we are a dividend stock. Our shareholders not only expect dividends but are expecting dividend growth, and that's part of the reason that we are able to attract capital and to attract investments. So we've gone through this transitional period, but hopefully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
If I may, I'd just like to highlight a couple of points that you surfaced, Gord. In 2020, with the onset of COVID, while many companies in the country cut back on investment, Bell did the opposite, and we leaned in. It's at that point in time that we announced, as you mentioned, we announced an aggressive capital expenditure program, the most aggressive CapEx program in the history of this country. Last week, it was our 144th year birthday. So we've been on the most aggressive investment program in the history of this company, and we've spent—by the end of this year, we will have spent $23 billion since 2020 delivering the best fiber internet and the best 5G, 5G Plus networks and other services to Canadians.
At that time, when we announced the aggressive program in 2020, as you mentioned transparently, we outlined back then that until 2025, we would therefore be operating at a payout ratio that's higher than our stated policy. It's because we were making long-term strategic investments that will sustain us for decades to come. Thank you.
We had a related question coming in, so I'll read it in case you want to add anything to your answers. From Doug Drummond. As stated in the annual report, the target dividend payout ratio is 65% to 75%. However, it is currently running at 111%, but there have been media reports that it is actually much higher than that when you include lease costs that are not included in the payout ratio calculation. Is this actually true? Second question. When do you expect the payout ratio to be reduced to the target range? Third question. Can you comment on your level of concern as to whether the dividend will have to be cut in the near term as the media is starting to speculate?
Thank you for that question. I'll start with the last part. I was actually asked a similar question by a telecom analyst in this morning's call where we were discussing our latest quarterly results, and the dividend for 2024 was announced in February, and the dividend will remain as it is, and that reflects a 3% dividend growth for 2024. I can categorically tell you that that will be the dividend for 2024. In terms of the payout ratio, I think we've answered that in the previous answer. We will be operating at a payout ratio that's above our stated policy until the end of 2025, and then we'll work to get it back down as our historical CapEx program starts to subside.
On the way we calculate free cash flow, we've been consistent for years and years, and nothing has changed in that regard, and there are no new developments. How we calculate free cash flow has been clearly identified in our financial statements for the entirety of that time period. Thank you for the question.
Next question online. You say wireless prices are going down, but my bill just went up. Do you care to comment?
Yes, thank you, because that's another very topical question. We are in an environment now where we can categorically assert that the wireless prices we have in this country are the lowest they've ever been. You can see that reflected in Statistics Canada reports. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the federal government just issued this week its annual price comparison study, and that's also corroborated there. There may be a number of factors that have an impact on any individual's bills. I'll give you some examples because I don't have this individual's account in front of me, but it may be that other services are part of a household bundle. It could be that the customer was on a rate plan that had, let's say, a six or 12-month promotional price, and the end of that promotional period came to an end.
It could be that the customer, in this case, a shareholder, is on an older rate plan from years ago. What I can assert, however, is if any customer who walks into a Belle store today will see very, very attractive prices and prices that are consistently less than you would see if you walked into a comparable store by a provider in the United States. Thank you to the shareholder for being with Belle.
Thank you. Next question from Scott Bradley. I recently sent an email to Mr. Bibic asking if it was ever considered that even a single member of the board resigned or be let go during the recent 4,800 employees that were let go. I have not received an answer. Further, during the recent Heritage Commission hearings, Mr. Bibic was asked if there was ever a consideration that his own executive compensation be reduced. That question was not answered. Will the board consider reductions in their numbers or pay? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Bradley, for your question. I would start off by saying that no, we did not reduce the number of people on the board. I would remind you, as a shareholder, that the board is elected by the shareholders. As Martin just reported, I think the results of our directors were all in the high 90s. In terms of board compensation, our objective is to be at the median, and we've been below the median of our comparative group. I would also remind you that a number of executives were part of the downsizing that was unfortunately announced by the company in a recent period.
I say unfortunately because obviously, that is not something that we would like to do or wanted to do, but it is in response to a very different operating environment that we are faced with, which both Mirko and I have talked about in our remarks. We talk about enhancing productivity in this country. Productivity comes from growth or efficiencies, and unfortunately, given the environment that we're in, both economically and regulatorily, growth and competitively growth is challenged. So we take no pride in that decision. Fortunately, a number of those employees opted for early retirement, which is certainly beneficial. In terms of CEO pay last year, there was no increase in Mirko's base salary between 2022 and 2023. There was a long-term incentive award, the result of which slightly increased his overall comp. But I would also note that 81% of Mirko's compensation is share-based.
When you read these stated numbers, given the underperformance of the stock, there's a big discrepancy between the numbers that are seen and the actual numbers that are paid out. Hopefully, over time, those numbers will continue to grow, not just for Mirko, but for all employees and for all shareholders. We benchmark our objectives to be at the medium, which we are. We are well below some of our major competitors in the Canadian marketplace with respect to both executive compensation and CEO compensation. We hire a consultant. That consultant advises us in terms of appropriateness for the organization, given the competitive environment, given the performance environment. I would also mention that the proxy advisors also play a role in this.
Both Glass Lewis and ISS have recommended our executive compensation in terms of the say-on-pay vote, which is different with respect to our major competitors, where they have recommended against. So it's a tricky issue during a very difficult period of time, but we think, as a board, we have done a very good job at our compensation committee in terms of acknowledging both the challenges as well as the fact that we want to ensure that we maintain the best talent, not just at the CEO level but at our executive level across the board.
Okay. Next question from Carolyn Stewart. How does BCE propose to keep ahead in the competitive market and deliver value to its shareholders?
Thank you, Ms. Stewart. So in our case, and given the surrounding circumstances, which we've highlighted already, be they economic or competitive or regulatory, the way we're going to stay ahead over the long term is through the transformation that we've talked about. Transformation is a word that's often used. We've used it several times today, and other companies use it, but for us, it means a number of things. Let me give life to that a little bit. Continuing to improve the customer experience would be a significant part of that transformation, delivering services, interacting with customers the way they want to interact with us. For example, offering them the award-winning MyBelle app, where they can buy their services directly in the app or manage their services in the app, virtual repair tools, self-install capabilities.
These are the things that, before COVID, we couldn't offer, and now we do. That would be an example of our transformation. As well, in the context of the previous answer that Gord gave in terms of some of the job reductions, a key element to our transformation is our people. While we've had to make some difficult decisions this year, we still have 40,000 proud employees who wake up every day to deliver on our corporate purpose and to better serve customers. We continue to invest in our people because they're going to drive this transformation going forward. I want to give you some information that's kind of been lost in recent weeks. The investments we're making in people to drive the key growth areas that we're leaning into. We hired over 7,500 new team members in 2023, in the first quarter of 2024.
Over that time period, 7,500 new team members, 6,000 of them are in non-management roles. If you think about it, as we drive more fiber out there and more customers are choosing fiber over cable, we need technicians to connect Canadian homes to our network. We've hired pretty aggressively in that area. We're shifting resources to critical high-tech talent like software developers, cybersecurity, and digital media specialists. That makes sense in the context of some of the areas that I surfaced in my opening statement. We've grown that group of employees 15%, and they now represent over 25% of management roles since 2020. Again, areas: software development, cybersecurity, and digital media. We hired over 900 new grads and interns last year, and over 70% of them were in critical STEM roles, science, technology, etc.
Over the past two years, we've converted over 600 contractor roles to permanent Belle jobs. People that we used to pay as outside contractors, we brought them in to be Belle employees, and two-thirds of them are in high-tech talent roles. We're going to continue to invest in key resources and key roles and key talent in that way to drive the transformation. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question. I get an online. There's nobody on the phone. From Louis Gagnon, and this one is in French. From Louis Gagnon, pour le compte du MEDAC, le mouvement.
For the MEDAC account, education movement, and defense of the shareholder, and he's a shareholder, what stops BCE from having a person assembly in addition to the virtual one? We did this for many decades without any problems. A proposition of the MEDAC asking the return of live assembly was the major voting for many companies this year. Should we send you the same proposition next year?
Thank you very much, Monsieur Gagnon, for your question. You're welcome to send that proposition. That's shareholder democracy at work. I would say that we are continuing to monitor the debate, if you will, between in-person and virtual meetings and, in some cases, hybrid meetings. I talked about this in my remarks. I mean, we are a telecommunications company, and strong virtual meetings play into who we are and what we represent. In addition, we've provided every opportunity for shareholders to ask questions and to participate that they would have at a virtual meeting. I would also say that virtual meetings or, sorry, in-person meetings come at a cost and an expense. One has to question whether that expense is justified.
One of my directors or one of our directors had a major Canadian corporation last week or so ago, had an in-person meeting at not an insignificant expense, and one shareholder showed up. Obviously, not a great way to spend shareholders' money. If you look at our meeting, I think last year we were close to 400. I'm not sure how many participants we have on this year, but hopefully, it's close to that number. It does provide an opportunity for shareholders to participate regardless of where they're located. They don't have to travel, and certainly, it reduces the expense from a Belle perspective. We certainly think that the virtual meeting is working effectively. Having said all that, as I say, shareholders have the right to weigh in on this as they have at other companies.
I know that it is a source of debate, not just here in Canada but in the United States as well, where virtual meetings are clearly the norm. We'll see how it all unfolds. But as a telco, we certainly support the concept of a virtual meeting, and we think it provides for excellent shareholder democracy.
Et Monsieur Gagnon, je peux confirmer qu'on a à peu près 400 personnes en ligne, plus ou moins, actuellement ?
We do have about 400 people online.
Mirko mentions that Belle is moving from a telco to a techco. How does this compare with other telco competitors, and who becomes our new competitors outside the telco and media industries considering this change?
Thank you. It's an excellent question. I've talked a bit about the changes that are driving our transformation, particularly on the telecommunications side. Maybe this time, I'll focus, as an example, as a way to answer the question on the media industry. You have the if you take our media asset generates revenues two ways. It's subscriptions, consumers buying the services, and advertising. Advertisers using our platforms to reach audiences. On the advertising side, more and more of advertising spend in Canada is going to digital advertising. The market leaders in that regard are global web giants like Meta and Google, to just give you two examples. What we've had to do is make sure that we have, like I've mentioned before, the very best content on digital platforms.
Now we're able to offer our content and, therefore, somewhere for advertisers to go, whether on the TSN app, on the RDS app, on Crave, which we launched a plan on Crave that is advertising supported. We launched the fast channels that I mentioned in my opening remarks. We have the iHeartRadio digital platform. Our traditional news properties are now all available digitally. What that does is it gives advertisers a place to go so that we can be competitive with the Metas and Googles of the world. That would be on the digital advertising side and is a perfect example of how we're transforming. On the subscription side, we're competing today with Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, obviously, Paramount, etc. Particularly, the US platforms have come into Canada, are offering great options for consumers.
We have to meet the competition, and that's why we launched Crave. We continue to feed Crave with the very best content, including Francophone content, so that we are relevant to all Canadians across our country in either English or French. But with that comes significant disruption to the industry. In that regard, harkening back to another question about the Heritage Committee a little earlier on, what we've been advocating for is just for the public policy environment to create a level playing field where we can compete against these large foreign global giants on an equal footing. Because as it stands today, Canadian broadcasters have to make significant commitments to the Canadian ecosystem, which is fair. However, the large platforms do not.
We're going to continue to advocate for public policy change so that it can continue to drive the transformation we're trying to undertake in the media industry. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question online from Po Weilin reads as follows: Will Bell offer more options for cell phone devices? The smartphone flat screen is not ergonomic. I miss my flip phone. Will BCE, during its transformation, ensure flip phone servicing, mostly talk and text, also work on 4G and 5G networks? The smartphone flat screen encourages bad posture and people spending too much time looking at a screen. It's sad the small selection of phone hardware the last time I visited Best Buy. How will BCE ensure they don't make too much or refurbishing too much?
So I'll take that one. Thank you for being a shareholder, and thank you for being with Belle. We appreciate it. We do not have a role in the manufacturing of devices, and particularly the devices that were mentioned in the question. We would encourage our customer to engage directly with the manufacturer to share those insights and that point of view. But again, thank you for being with Belle.
Next question from Anja Stewart: Can you explain why the decision was made to increase the dividends while reducing the staff by 4,800 people in 2024 during such a tough economic time, even though BCE continues to make profits of more than $2.3 billion in 2023? How can you claim to support mental health when decisions such as this cause employees to suffer from extreme mental health issues?
Thank you for your question, Angela. I will take the first part and then turn it over to Mirko, who can talk a little bit about the process in terms of what was a very difficult decision. Firstly, we have to recognize the importance of dividend stability and dividend growth, which, as I said, we reduced this year to our shareholders. It's a big part. Our profitability as well. You can include the $2.3 billion of earnings in 2003. Those earnings are large numbers, but as you know, they have not been growing at the rate that we would like as a company in order for our shares to grow and our dividend to grow even at a higher rate. That's part of the way we manage and we run the company.
The ability of us as a public company to grow, to invest, to attract capital, to make capital investments is contingent upon our ability to grow our earnings and to grow our dividend and to perform. So there's not a direct correlation between the difficult decision that was made with respect to people and the dividend and the earnings themselves. But it's a logical question, certainly, to ask. As I say, I will turn it over to Mirko. But I would say, from a board perspective, we were very focused on how the process of this difficult decision was executed. We're quite satisfied in terms of the response and performance of management in terms of managing through this. So to explain that, I'll turn it over to Mirko.
Thank you, Gord. As Gord mentioned, the decisions were very difficult. Particularly, I do acknowledge that the decisions were hardest on those asked to leave Belle. Certainly, I want to acknowledge all their contributions over the years and as well the continued commitment of our 40,000 employees to drive forward. We tried, given the context and the difficulty, particularly for those leaving the company, what we tried to do first is, in terms of the job reductions, is eliminate vacant positions. That was a way to ensure that if jobs were going to be removed from the company, that we, first and foremost, took jobs that had not been filled. That minimizes the impact. We also put forward a voluntary separation offer for unionized members.
In terms of the unionized team members who left, over half of those, as Gord had mentioned a bit earlier, raised their hand and opted in for the voluntary retirement package. We also tried to reduce the number of contractors that we engage at Belle. Again, it has an impact on those individuals, but they were not directly employed by Belle. But the most important of all that is we ensure that each affected employee received a fair severance package, career transition services, and continued access to mental health benefits and health benefits, generally. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question online from Carolyn Stewart: What measures does BCE have in place to safeguard telecommunications infrastructure and networks from cyberattacks as well as damage from catastrophic weather events from climate changes that can result in widespread service outages?
Thank you. We take security of our networks and the reliability of our networks extremely seriously. We have dedicated teams that focus only on that. In terms of weather events, our network is built as best as it can be to withstand inclement weather situations. We've seen a rise in weather-related emergencies over the past couple of years due to climate change. We have a corporate emergency operations center that we activate as required. After every major event, our crews are on site to make necessary repairs as soon as it's safe to do so because we want to make sure our customers are connected as soon as possible. Those are the ways we're going to continue to address the situations that our shareholder indicates. It also goes back to my commitment on improving the customer experience.
What we now do, which we were not able to do several years ago or a few short years ago, actually, is notify customers in real time of outages and the reason for the outages and the expected time it will take to repair the network in the event that something occurs.
Thank you. Next question online from Pietrina Doyle: Mirko, do your current comments about purposefully hiring so many managers mean that you intend to push out the unions in the future?
Thank you for that, Pietrina. In fact, no, it's quite the opposite. As I mentioned, we hired 7,500 individuals over the last 15 months. I think 6,000 were unionized technicians because we need those job functions at the company to connect all the customers that we are gaining given our superior fiber internet service. So that's one example. But it's a major, major and important example. I believe in Unifor's mention that we have close to 19,000 unionized team members and, therefore, one of the largest unionized employer of unionized team members in the country. I thank each and every one of them for what we do because, as you can see from our results this morning, we are winning market share with our fiber internet services. It takes all of you to be able to do that. Thank you.
Next question from Sylvain Huat: The jobs cut looks to me was done in the lower-tier workforce. Was there any changes done at VP level and up or to the board?
Yes. Thank you. No, there were changes done at all levels of the company. Just to give you the accurate numbers, I believe that our VPs since 2020 are down by over 20%. In terms of the direct reports, so the executives directly reporting to the CEO in 2019, we had 12 individuals. Now we have 7. So we are collapsing the executive roles across the company as well. It's part of the need to become more efficient. That's applying at all levels of the company. As I mentioned, I'll say it again because it's very important, we are also investing in more resources in critical growth areas. That does include field technicians.
Okay. Next question from Justin McKinnon: Are there any plans to promote more flexibility with in-office presence? Offering full remote work, especially with high-tech talent, would be a great incentive to grow the Belle team.
Thank you. This is an issue we've discussed over time, and particularly with the onset of COVID. We now have a three-day-a-week-in-the-office policy. I think that that's the right number of days in the office. I think that does offer flexibility to employees. But it also allows us to be together in our premises as a team to foster more collaboration. Because as we continue on this transformation journey for it to work, we need to continue to build that positive culture. We need to build that transformation mindset. There is a lot of power there being together as a team and working in our offices. So we're going to maintain the three-day-a-week policy for the time being.
Thank you. Next question from Stephen Farber: Dividend sustainability. Can Mirko clearly outline and communicate the company's dividend strategy, how it intends to get to a sustainable payout ratio, and whether it intends to continue its long history of dividend growth over time?
Thank you for your question, Stephen. It's Gord Nixon. I'm going to answer that question because dividend policy is a board issue. Our objective is to seek to achieve dividend growth while maintaining our dividend payout rate within the range I referenced, the 65% to 75% of free cash flow, and balancing our capital expenditures. As I talked about earlier, that has not changed. Our strategy is to still not just maintain but to continue to grow our dividend. We're going through this trough where our payout ratio is significantly higher. As Mirko has outlined, our strategy, our objective is to, over time, through a combination of top-line growth initiatives, hopefully economic growth, and very importantly, CapEx reduction as our fiber build is completed, should allow us to migrate back to our more normalized and historical levels of payout that we had pre-COVID.
That has been our policy. It continues to be our policy. We recognize the higher payout range at this point in time. But over time, our objective through growth is to get back to a more normalized level. I would also note, by the way, that a number of other companies around the world in our industry, including here in Canada, have had very elevated payout ratios for a period of time as they manage through their transitions as well.
Thank you. Next question appears to come from a group of employees. As a group, my colleagues are wondering if we're making comparisons to the U.S. market. Can you comment on lower Canadian salaries for Belle employees versus much higher U.S. tech worker salaries?
I love the engagement from our employees. Thank you for your engagement and the great questions you're asking. Really appreciate it. I made comparisons to the U.S. market in terms of wireless pricing for a very specific reason. That's because an unfortunate and false narrative has sometimes taken hold that Canadian wireless pricing is higher than in other countries in the world. It's just false. That's the reason for that comparison. It's very important to dispel those myths as they pop up. As far as the salaries go and comparing Bell Canada salaries to those in the U.S. and we are a Canadian company. All our revenues are generated in Canada from Canadian consumers in Canadian dollars. The appropriate competitive benchmarks would be with our Canadian competitors and other industries who operate in Canada.
Okay. Next question in French. Second question: De la part de Willy Gagnon pour le compte du Bureau.
Willy Gagnon for the MEDAC. Why is it impossible to intervene in the virtual with video or audio? Why is it not possible to see who's there at the assembly and who waits to talk in the file, in the queue? Why is it possible to intervene in an anonymous way? At the beginning of the assembly, the President was saying that we are a telco and we are proud of it. It's curious when it's possible to do all this in a small meeting through Zoom or Teams, technologies that everybody is used to. Why BCE Technology or Lumi don't allow this? It's incredible.
Over to you, Mirko. I'll try, Willy. I think you've stumped us on that question. If I interpret it correctly, I think what you're saying is you want the meeting to be even more interactive, a virtual meeting to be more interactive, and in terms of being able to see more people or see those who are asking questions or participating. In terms of this meeting room itself, I mean, what you see is really primarily what is here, which is Martin Merkel and myself, as well as some of our board members who are sitting in during this period. In terms of the ability to have shareholders be on the line, I think, through a WebEx function where you'd have people on virtually, I must honestly say that it's something we will take back, Willy, and look at.
I don't know the answer to that question, whether it is possible given the numbers of participants, which I gather is over 400 on the line. But if it is, it's certainly something that we can look at going forward. People would have the ability to sign on virtually with respect to their camera. Or they could choose not to. So certainly, we can look at that in the future. But we'll have to get back to you on that one. I don't know, Mirko, whether you have anything else to add.
No. I think our position on virtual meetings is clear. I think there are many shareholders who support virtual meetings for many of the reasons that Gord's already described.
Yeah. To that point, Anne Strelchak just made a comment online saying, "Please keep the virtual meetings for many reasons, especially the environment." Willy, it would be our pleasure to take the question offline if there are suggestions.
Willy, we'll take the question offline. If you have any suggestions to improve what we do, you just need to call our office. We'll take your question.
From Anna Teplitzky, sorry: In regards to in-office work, Ottawa is one of the very few locations where parking is not free. Can the company negotiate to offer complementary parking for the Ottawa employees at least once a week? Currently, only the Enterprise Salesforce has free parking in Ottawa. Considering the salary freeze for 2024, a $19 per day parking fee at three times per week is a very significant expense.
Anna, thank you for the question. I think we'll have to take that one away and get back to you.
We don't have any more questions, Mr. Chair.
Okay. I would conclude. I think Mirko has said this. But we really appreciate people's participation in this meeting. It's been a challenging but also very transformational year for the organization. I think having people's participation and the ability to answer questions as honestly and as directly as we've been able to is a good thing. So thank you for your participation. As there are no further meetings, I now declare that the question and comment period is closed. Finally, again, thanking everyone for their participation. Hopefully, you remain as optimistic about the future of this company as we on the board do. So thank you very much.
Thank you.