I will now turn the meeting over to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dollarama, Mr. Stephen Gohn. Please go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Once again this year and to ensure the health and well-being of all participants, we are holding our annual meeting by way of live audio webcast. The online platform allows shareholders and guests to attend the meeting virtually. Procedures for voting and participating in the online Q and A session reserved exclusively for shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders will be explained by our corporate secretary in a few minutes. Today's meeting is available in both English and French.
You can select the language of your choice on the webcast box located at the bottom left of your screen and toggle between feeds should you wish to hear the speaker as opposed to the translation. Note that there may be a slight delay between the English and French feeds. Joining me this morning from Dollarama's headquarters in Montreal are Neil Rossy, President and CEO and Member of the Board JP Towner, our CFO and Jose Koury, Senior VP, Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary. I'd like to formally welcome JP to his first Dollarama Annual Meeting. JP joined us this past March as CFO following the announcement of the well deserved retirement of Michael Ross.
My fellow Board members as well as representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dollar M's auditor are joining us remotely. For today's agenda, I will start by making some general remarks. This will be followed by a presentation from management on the state of the business. We'll then move to the formal part of the meeting to consider the resolution subject to a vote today before answering questions from shareholders and proxy holders. Okay, let me start by saying a few words about this last year.
As a Board, we recognize the important responsibility we hold as stewards of Dollarama on behalf of all stakeholders. As your Chair, it gives me great pride to serve alongside a very capable group of women and men. Each brings an invaluable mix of relevant skills, perspectives and experience to the task. While our commitment to this responsibility holds true at all times, it took on a particular meeting in 2020. Looking back at Dollarama's performance and our approach in the context of the pandemic, we cannot be more satisfied with the way management and our over 24,000 employees adapted.
We were able to continue serving Canadians from all walks of life at a time when they needed more than ever convenient access to affordable essential goods. Our quick and efficient operational response speaks to the commitment of our people, the strength of our corporate culture and the resilience and relevance of our business model. Your directors were engaged early on to provide support to management. We carefully monitored and regularly reassessed the evolving situation. Management acted with purpose to ensure everyone's health and safety.
They ensured the smooth running of our business and supply chain. Management demonstrated its willingness to continually challenge itself to do better and stay true to our shared commitment to creating and sustaining long term stakeholder value. In addition to navigating a very unique crisis, the Board forged ahead with the execution of key priorities in 2020, including Board renewal, succession planning and executive compensation. In addition, we continue to take concrete steps to further integrate environmental, social and government's considerations into our operations into our operations and decision making both at the board and management levels. Let me say a few words about Board renewal.
Your Board is committed to upholding high governance standards in order to effectively fulfill our oversight role. We believe in a balanced approach to Board renewal to ensure stability and effectiveness, while promoting diversity and new viewpoints and complementary skills. We're pleased to welcome a Montrealer, seasoned pharmaceutical industry executive, Samira Sakhia as a director nominee. She brings a wealth of relevant skills to our Board. We wish to sincerely thank Richard Watt, who is not standing for reelection at this year's meeting for his many contributions to deliberations to the Board and the Audit Committee since 2012.
This year, we're also rotating the membership of all Board committees and the chairmanship of the Audit and Human Resources and Compensation Committees. Following today's meeting, your Board will continue to be comprised of 9 directors, 7 of whom are independent of management. 3 of your director nominees are women, thereby meeting our Board gender diversity target of a minimum of 30% representation of each gender. Finally, all Board committees will continue to be chaired and composed exclusively of independent directors. Turning to ESG, over the past couple of years, we've dedicated an increasing amount of time and attention to ESG matters during Board and committee meetings and to overseeing Dollarama's progress integrating ESG factors into its everyday decision making.
Our approach has evolved from a risk management focus to a more opportunity driven and value creation perspective. This year, we formally embedded the oversight of ESG factors in the Board's mandate and each committee charter. I'm proud of the progress we've made integrated ESG strategies company wide and increasing our disclosure as demonstrated by our 2021 ESG report published this morning. Our approach to ESG is guided by priority issues relevant to our business and stakeholders with whom we engage on a regular basis. Our approach is consistent with our corporate purpose, which is to serve Canadian from all walks of life by providing them with convenience and value through our proximity and our ability to offer affordable everyday items.
We continue to set actionable goals and to enhance our data collection and disclosure. We've aligned our ESG report with SASB, the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board's standards relevant to our industry. And we will be developing our roadmap to integrate the recommendations of the task force on climate related financial disclosures in the future. We're proud of our progress to date, but we acknowledge that we can and must do more. We're motivated as a team to continue challenging ourselves to meet the expectations of our stakeholders.
As I look back at all that's been accomplished in the last year and I look forward to the year ahead, I'm confident in Dollarama's future and in our ability to create sustainable value for all our stakeholders. The last year has only further solidified our role in the day to day shopping habits of Canadians. Across the organization, we are 100% committed to serving Canadians, while staying true to our simple, growth oriented business model, supported by our strong entrepreneurial values, customer focused mindset and most importantly, a passionate and agile team. On behalf of the Board, I want to once again thank management and our employees for their dedication. I also wish to thank our shareholders for their support and continued engagement with the corporation.
With that, I'll now give the floor to Dollarama's management team to take us through their presentation. Jose, I believe you have a word of caution for our audience before you proceed.
Yes. I would like to remind everyone that management's remarks today may contain forward looking statements. Several assumptions were made in preparing these and many factors could cause the corporation's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward looking statements. As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on them. For additional information on underlying assumptions and related risks, we invite you to consult the cautionary statement regarding forward looking information contained in our management's discussion and analysis dated June 9, 2021 posted on our website this morning.
Neil, over to you. Thank you, Jose, and good morning, everyone. A year ago, when we met virtually for our annual meeting, we were only at the beginning of a persistent pandemic. Since then, COVID-nineteen has continued to dominate headlines and to affect our everyday lives, and it has required all of us to constantly adapt to change. There is no question that Dollarama, like so many businesses, was put to the test Through the strength of our team, the resilience of our business model and the relevance of our brand, I believe we are emerging stronger.
Our people have responded quickly and efficiently at every step. From head office to our warehouses, from our distribution center to our stores, every team member has contributed and has done so with conviction. Thanks to their efforts, millions of Canadians have been able to count on their local Dollarama store for safe, convenient and affordable access to everyday essentials. I would like to thank our customers for navigating this situation with us and for the continued loyalty. Our customers have been very supportive and at times quite vocal about their desire to shop at Dollarama during the pandemic, and we appreciate that enormously.
This has corroborated the relevance of our value promise and product selection to Canadian consumers from all walks of life. More broadly, as a company, we are more committed than ever to managing our operations and resources responsibly and to serve our customers with purpose. This purpose has only been reinforced by the pandemic. Ultimately, our goal is to continue creating sustainable long term value for shareholders. Steve mentioned the progress we have made on the ESG front, and I invite you to consult our latest report available on our website to find out more on our progress and our near term commitments and goals.
Let's take a step back and see where Dollarama stands today. As a leading value retailer, we are proud to contribute every day to moving Canada's economy forward. We now have over 24,000 employees and will continue to grow our team as we grow our retail footprint. Our people were able to count on continued employment, guidance and support throughout the pandemic. This included a 4 month temporary wage increase and a one time gratitude bonus for store employees and equivalent temporary pay premiums and increased seasonal premiums for logistics employees and workers.
Attracting and retaining the best talent remains a priority for us. Thanks to ongoing enhancements to our talent development and retention programs in the last few years. We're seeing lower store turnover rates and an increase in internal promotion. We also continue to provide safe and well compensated work opportunities in our centralized logistics operation. We are equally committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace, representative of the communities in which we operate and the customers we serve.
Looking at store footprint, we now have over 13 68 stores across Canada. Landlords were able to count on our support throughout the pandemic. From the onset, we honored every single lease regardless of whether stores were temporarily closed at any time due to measures taken by the authorities. Where possible, we continue to open new stores, opening 65 net new stores in fiscal 2021. Earlier this year, we increased our long term store target in Canada from 1700 by 2027 to 2,000 stores by 2,031 following a careful evaluation of market potential and dynamics.
Our confidence in this new target is based on our historical performance and our strong track record of consistently meeting our annual store opening guidance year after year, as well as our hard earned position as a weekly shopping destination for Canadian families. With an average of 6 1,000 active products available at any given time, we refresh up to 30% of our product mix annually to meet the needs of our customers. While we have long been a destination for general merchandise and seasonal items, demand for consumables increased last year in the context of COVID. We work with hundreds of Canadian product vendors and service providers and 100 more around the globe to seek out the best possible value for every product we offer. Turning to our Latin American operations and our 50.1 percent interest in growing value retailer Dollar City.
Early in the pandemic Dollar City, just like Dollarama, was recognized as an essential business. The team on the ground acted quickly to support employees and adapt to strict and evolving measures in its countries of operation. Dollar City demonstrated their agility and growing relevance to Latin American consumers looking for convenience and value. Relicity has come a long way since we first entered into a commercial relationship with them in 2013, at which time they had just 15 stores in Central America. As at March 31, 2021, Dollar City had 2 79 stores in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala having already opened 15 net new stores in the 1st 3 months of the year.
Subsequent to its quarter end, Dollar City opened its 1st store in Peru. The market dynamics in Latin America from a retailing standpoint remain very compelling as does Dollar City's long term growth potential. Our long term target is to reach 600 stores by 2029 in our first three countries of operation. Peru has not yet been factored into this target as it is still in its very early stages. Overall, we are pleased with the performance of Dollar City to date and proud of the strong local management team.
I'll now turn it over to JP for more on our financial performance.
Thank you, Neil. I will start with a brief overview of fiscal 2021 results prior to discussing our results for the Q1 of fiscal 2022 released earlier this morning. Looking at full year fiscal 2021 results being the year ended January 30 1, 2021, sales increased by 6.3 percent to over $4,000,000,000 Same store sales were up 3.2 percent over and above a 4.3% growth recorded in the prior year. Gross margin was strong at 43.8% of sales, up 20 basis points year over year on account of higher sales of higher margin products. Excluding direct COVID related costs incurred to protect the health and safety of employees and customers, Dollarama improved its SG and A performance year over year by 40 basis points.
EPS earnings per share increased by 1.7 percent to $1.81 per share, reflecting improved earnings and the accretive effect of our share buyback program. These results were achieved despite a roller coaster of events throughout the year due to the pandemic and the impact of various measures taken by provincial governments as Canada grappled with surges in COVID cases at different points in time. To echo Neon, the financials the solid financial and operational performance reflects Dollarama's attractive positioning as a destination both for essential goods and seasonal items and our relevance to Canadian consumers looking for convenience and value. Concurrent with the release of our 4th quarter year end results, the quarterly dividend was increased by 7%. We remain very conservative on the share buyback front in fiscal 2021 to preserve liquidity in uncertain times, but have actively resumed our program in fiscal 2022.
For fiscal 2022 or the 3 month period ended May 2, 2021 released this morning. We once again delivered a solid performance. This is despite a new round of COVID restrictions implemented as of early April. These included a ban on the sale of non essential goods across Ontario, where we have 40% of our stores and stricter in store capacity limits across Canada. We delivered a double digit increase in sales, a 5.8% increase in same store sales and an industry leading gross margin of 42.3 percent of sales.
We continue to invest in the execution of COVID health and safety measures in our stores and across our operations as we did throughout last year. For more on our Q1 results, I invite you to dial in to the conference call at 11 am today. Looking ahead, the ban on the sale of non essential goods across Ontario will be lifted on June 11, 2021. It will have impacted the 1st full 5 weeks of the 2nd quarter underway. In addition, we had a very strong quarterly performance in the second quarter of last year, so we also face a tougher comparable period.
Despite this, our confidence in the underlying fundamentals of the business model remain. This is a temporary headwind and I can assure you that we're all very eager to be able to once again offer our full product assortment to all of our customers from coast to coast as soon as we're permitted to do so.
Thank you, JP. In this context, our priorities as a team remain clear and our long term plans unchanged. We are focused on providing our employees with a safe and dynamic work environment as we emerge from the pandemic, more relevant than ever for the Canadian consumer. In terms of our growth plan, our priority remains the pursuit of our long term store target in Canada, which should bring at least a further 10 years of profitable and sustainable growth at the current run rate. Dollar City is pursuing its own growth plan, including its entry into a 4th country, Peru.
And we continue to invest in this platform, which is only in its early stages and shows solid potential. We continue to enhance our operations across both of our growth platforms, Canada and Latin America to stimulate sales while remaining a low cost operating model. We will do so guided by our clear purpose to serve consumers from all walks of life and our strong corporate value. This concludes our presentation. Jose and Steve, back to
you. Thanks, Neil. Turning now to the formal business, I officially call this meeting to order. I will act as Chair of the meeting and Jose Curie will act as Chair of the meeting. Jose, over to you.
Thank you, Steve. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. With the permission of the Chair of the meeting, I appoint Jerry Trotter and Francine Vumbaud of Broadridge to act as scrutineers for this meeting. This year again, the corporation used the notice and access procedures permitted by the Canadian Securities Law for the delivery of the following documents to shareholders at the close of business on April 15, the record date. The circular, the management's discussion and analysis, the financial statements of the corporation, the auditor's report for the financial year ended January 31, 2021, as well as other materials related to the meeting.
Instead of receiving paper copies of such documents, shareholders received a copy of the notice of annual meeting of shareholders and notice of availability of proxy materials. This notice explains how to consult the documents online and how to request a paper copy if needed and presents the items on the agenda for the meeting. Shareholders also received a voting instruction form or a form of proxy. The corporation received an affidavit signed by Broadridge confirming that proxy materials relating to the meeting were made available to shareholders entitled to vote. A copy of each document along with the affidavit will be kept in the corporation's records.
Dollarama's bylaws provide that a quorum is present at a meeting of shareholders if the holders of not less than 10% of the shares entitled to vote at the meeting are present at the meeting or represented by proxy and at least 2 persons entitled to vote at the meeting are present. I have been advised by the scrutineers that based on proxies received on shareholders and duly appointed proxy represented in the webcast today, the representation of this meeting is well above the required quorum. I now declare that this meeting is regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of all businesses for which it was called. The scrutineers report on Quorum will be tabled later and will form part of the records of the meeting. Now before we proceed, I would like to comment on the process for the vote on today's motions as well as the Q and A session.
During the meeting, registered shareholders and newly appointed proxy holders will be able to vote online and online only if they have not already done so before the meeting. Voting will remain open throughout the meeting until the last business item has been put to a vote and the chair of the meeting declares voting closed. Each chair confers upon its holder one vote on each matter to come before the meeting. The items on the agenda are described in the management proxy circular that was made available to shareholders prior to the meeting. You will be able to vote on the following motions: 1, the election of directors 2, the appointment of the auditor 3, the non binding advisory resolution on the corporation's approach to executive compensation and 4, a shareholder proposal.
Jean Philippe LaChance and myself as duly appointed proxy holders will propose and second the motions on the agenda. If you have not already voted before the meeting, you need to have logged in to the webcast as shareholder using the 16 digit control number, which appears on the form of proxy or voting instruction form you received or as proxyholderappointee using the 8 character appointee identification number provided to you. You will need to click the Vote Here button at the bottom right of the screen to cast your vote. Voting is already open and vote may be changed up to the time the voting is closed. If you do not click for, withhold or against, as applicable, when voting is open, your vote will not be recorded and you will be regarded as abstaining from voting.
A simple majority is required to approve each matter on the agenda. Following the close of the voting period, the scrutineers of the meeting will provide a preliminary report on voting results. The final report will be filed on SEDAR shortly after the meeting. If you are a shareholder or a duly appointed proxy holder, you may submit a question in English or in French at any time during the meeting by typing it in the Ask a Question field located at the bottom left of your screen and clicking Submit. We invite you to submit your questions in advance, so we can address them at the appropriate time in the most effective way possible.
Our questions related to a specific motion will be addressed after that motion has been moved and seconded. I will read out each question received and invite one of the members of Dollarama team to answer it. General questions regarding the activities of the corporation will be addressed at the end of the meeting during the formal Q and A session. Once again, I will read out each question received and invite one of the members of Dollarama team to answer it. Time permitting and subject to the
rules of conduct, subject to the
rules of conduct, settle and the management proxy circular, which were also posted to our website and on this webcast, we will answer all questions received. Those questions received from multiple shareholders that address the same topic or that otherwise related will be regrouped, summarized and answered together. All questions that are unable to answer during the meeting before 10 am will be posted to our website along with the answers following the meeting. Mr. Chairman, I now hand it over to you for the review of each item of business on today's agenda.
This
is pertaining to the reception of the financial statements of the corporation for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 and the auditors report thereon. A copy of the annual report of the corporation, which contains the consolidated financial statements together with the auditor's report and management discussion and analysis was mailed to shareholders who requested it. The annual report is available for download under the header Meeting Materials at the bottom of the webcast and on Dollarama's website. As shareholders have had the opportunity to review the financial statements and the auditors' report and as no vote is required in this regard, I will include them in the minutes of this meeting. Jose, are there any questions relevant to this item of business?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions with respect to this item of business.
Thanks, Jose. The next item of business relates to the election of directors. This year again, the Board has set the number of directors to 9. Our management proxy circular sets out the biographies of each of the director nominees standing for election as directors of Dollarama. In addition to myself, the nominees are Josh Beckenstein, Greg David, Elisa Garcia, Tristan Mugford, Nicholas Nomikos, Neil Rossi, Samira Sakhia and Hugh Thomas.
I will now ask Jean Philippe Lechamps to move the motion to elect the directors.
My name is Jean Philippe LaChance and I am a duly appointed proxy holder. I nominate each of the individuals named to be elected as Directors of Dollarama to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until a successor is duly elected or appointed or one otherwise seizes the whole office.
Thank you. Jose, would you please second the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you, Jose. Are there any questions with respect to the election of directors?
No, there are no questions with respect to the election of directors.
Thank you. I now declare the nominations closed. 9 directors are to be elected and 9 eligible candidates have been nominated. Each nominee has confirmed that he or she is prepared to serve as a Director of Dollarama and meets all requirements under Dollarama's bylaws. If you've not already voted, you may click the for or withhold button next to the motion with respect to the election of directors.
You are able to vote for or withhold from voting in respect to each individual nominee. The Board of Directors recommends voting for each of the director nominees. Next on the agenda is the appointment of the auditor of the corporation for the ensuing year and the authorization of the directors to fix its remuneration. Jean Philippe Lachance has a motion in this regard.
Propose that the mandate that PricewaterhouseCooper as auditor of the company be maintained until closing of the next shareholder assembly, the shareholder and that the administrator be authorized to set the compensation of the auditor.
I second the motion.
Thank you, Jose. Are there any questions relevant to the appointment of the auditor?
There are no questions with respect to the appointment of the auditor.
Very good. If you've not already voted, you may click the for or withhold button next to the motion with respect to the appointment of PwC as auditor of the corporation. The Board of Directors recommends voting for the motion. The next item of business on the agenda is the consideration of the non binding advisory resolution on the Corporation's approach to executive compensation, which is explained in the management proxy circular. The Human Resources and Compensation Committee and the Board of Directors spend considerable time and effort overseeing the Corporation's executive compensation program.
Based on feedback received from shareholders in the past few years on evolving market practices and the Corporation's own evolution, the Human Resources and Compensation Committee and the Board of Directors undertook in 2020 a review of the long term incentive plan. In this context, they decided to bring an additional component to the executive pay mix and introduce a performance share unit plan, pursuant to which the vesting of long term awards is contingent upon the achievement of performance criteria set by the Board upon recommendation of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee. This new plan is aimed at complementing the existing management option plan.
Beginning with
the current fiscal year ending in January 2022, awards under the long term incentive plan are allocated so that at all times performance share units or PSUs represent a minimum of 50% of the target dollar value of the long term incentive award. This change ensures that executive compensation remains aligned with our pay for performance philosophy and long term value creation objectives. It also continues to allow the corporation to attract, retain and motivate high performing executives who are incented to increase business performance and enhance shareholder value on a sustainable basis. More information on the new PSU plan is set out in Dollarama's 2021 management proxy circular. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders may vote for or against the reproduced in the management proxy circular.
However, the result of vote will not be binding. The Human Resources and Compensation Committee and the Board of Directors will analyze the results of the vote and as appropriate, we'll take them into account together with relevant information and feedback from shareholders when reviewing executive compensation policies and programs in the future. I will call on Jean Philippe Plachance to move the motion to approve the se on pay advisory resolution.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I so move.
Thank you. Jose, will you second the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you. Jose, are there any questions relevant to the say on pay resolution?
There are no questions with respect to the say on pay resolution.
Thank you, Jose. Again, if you've not already voted, you may vote for or against the motion. The Board of Directors recommends voting for the motion. The last item of business on the agenda is the consideration of a shareholder proposal submitted by the BC Government and Service Employees Union General Fund and the BC Government and Service Employees Union Defense Fund, the BCGEU. The full text of the proposal was set out in Schedule B of the management proxy circular along with the corporation's response.
A representative from BCGEU is here today on the telephone to present the proposal. Ms. Pullman, thank you for joining us today. I'd ask you to read or briefly outline BCGEU's proposal being submitted to a vote. As discussed and agreed prior to the meeting, you will be given 3 minutes to present your proposal.
The corporation will then comment and we will proceed to voting on this proposal. Operator, you may open the line for Ms. Pouleman.
Ms. Pouleman, your line is now open.
Good morning, fellow Dollarama shareholders. I am here to present shareholder proposal number 1 on behalf of the BC Government and Service Employees Union. Our shareholder proposal asks Dollarama's Board to prepare a report outlining how it assesses and mitigates the human rights risks arising from its use of third party staffing agencies for warehouse and distribution centers. Tell the shareholders, would you believe that a majority of the workers powering Dollarama's warehouse and distribution centers supplying Dollarama stores and enabling Dollarama's growth are not even Dollarama's employees. Dollarama is opening a new store each week as we have heard.
It says that the use of employment agencies is integral to its business model in order to continuously maintain significant staffing requirements which fluctuate through the year. But other Canadian retailers face the same fluctuations and none of the major Canadian retailers disclose using staffing agencies as Dollarama does. Why is that? This may be because of the risks inherent in using such staffing agencies, including reputational risk. Is Dollarama's business model so peculiar that it must contract out the use of workforce needs or does offloading employment responsibilities on to staffing agencies release Dollarama of having to ensure the human rights of its distribution and warehouse workers are protected.
Dollarama says, as employers, the agencies are responsible to hire and train workers. We must ask ourselves if Dollarama believes that it's responsible to preserve and protect the human rights of these workers. Shareholders do not believe that there is enough information to assess whether human rights risk has been adequately mitigated. Such risks will only increase as Dollarama expands and grows the number of stores and puts increased pressure on its distribution centers. We believe a report outlining how Dollarama assesses and mitigates the human rights risks would proactively manage this risk.
Therefore, be it resolved that shareholders request Dollarama prepare a report outlining how it assesses and mitigates the human rights risks arising out of its use of 3rd party staffing agencies for warehouse and distribution center staffing needs. Taking care of workers creates shareholder value and taking care of workers makes companies more profitable. We urge shareholders to support this resolution. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Coleman. Will someone second the motion, please?
Mr. Chairman, I'm told that the movement
second the motion. Thank you. Operator, you may close the line. I'll let Neil say a few words about the proposal.
Thank you, Steve. As explained in the management proxy circular, The corporation relies on the expertise of a limited number of vetted and reputable Quebec based 3rd party employment agencies to hire and train workers to meet the ongoing staffing needs of its Montreal area distribution center and warehousing operation. The agencies with whom we partner have been diligently selected by the corporation. They have developed an expertise in recruiting and training workers for the types of positions to be filled in our facilities and understand the particular staffing needs of our business. The use of such agencies is integral to the Corporation's business model to continuously maintain its significant staffing requirements, which fluctuate throughout the year based on sales volumes and to fulfill positions that are subject to regular turnover due to the large number of entry level positions.
Employment agencies are commonly used in both the public and private sector and are governed by the same laws and regulations as all Quebec employers. Legislation in Quebec, where Dollarama's logistics operations are located, requires the corporation to apply the same health and safety standards for every individual working in its facility, regardless of their status as employee of the corporation or agency worker and maintain wage rate parity between the employees and agency workers accomplishing the same work in the same facility. Above and beyond complying with its legal obligations, it is in Dollarama's best interest to provide a safe and efficient work environment to all workers, whether employees or agency workers, through consistent operating routines and by considering health and safety in every activity and we strive to ensure that there is value alignment between the corporation and the agencies and that wages are competitive.
Thank you, Neal. We invite you to read Dollarama's 2021 ESG report for more information on Dollarama's use of employment agencies.
The Board
of Directors does not believe a separate report outlining how Dollarama assesses and mitigates the human rights risk that may arrive out of its use of employment agencies for its warehouses and distribution center staffing is required and as a result recommends voting against the motion. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders may vote for or against the shareholder proposal reproduced in the management proxy circular. If you have not already voted, you may click for or against button next to the motion with respect to the shareholder proposal. The corporation also reviewed 5 proposals submitted by the Mouvement, Decacation, E2 Despons Actionaire, MEDAC, which are reproduced in Schedule B of the Circular along with management's responses. 1 of those proposals was set aside for technical reasons and following discussions with management to MITAC withdrew the other 4 proposals.
No vote today will be held on any of these proposals, but it was agreed that a representative of the MEDDAC would speak to these proposals at the meeting today. Mr. Willie Gagnon, Seujoins, and you, part of telephone, pour exposee brevement,
is joining us on telephone to briefly outline the Midak's position. And Mr. Gagnon, as agreed, he will have 3 minutes to present your proposals. Operator, you may open the line for Mr. Gagnon.
Mr. Gagnon, your line is now open. Yes. Can you hear me clearly, Mr. President?
Yes, we hear you well. Thank you. My name is Willie Gagnon. I act on behalf of MEDDAC Education Movement and Defense of shareholders as is the case every year. The 25th year for us today, not a dollar amount, but overall, we had submitted some proposals, and I will be brief.
We had a proposal aiming an expert in compensation services, who is the services of the MEDDAC for the external experts in compensation. And the auditors of the company and the arguments that have been put forth by the company are fine with us given that the mandate of the expert in compensation that was hired does not apply to formulation with any recommendations in resources with regards to the structure or amount of the compensation. And these explanations are fine, as you can see on page before of the circular at the end of the document. We had already mentioned about the high attention votes of 2 of the Board members, but we are satisfied with the explanations of the company and the measures that they've undertaken to maintain a rotation of the different members of the committee this year. So we had submitted a proposal, as we had done for all the companies which we submit proposals this year on the reason and commitment of the company and ensure the company has now a raison d'etre, which is the case and the responsibility of this follow-up to the mandate formally of the Committee of Governance, which has been done as you can read on Page B7.
The committee, integrally in charge of maintaining the connection with the Board of Directors, maintains its presenters. The rules have been modified to better reflect this responsibility, and we are pleased with that. And that covered what we no wait, there was another proposal. We want to see if it was possible verbally during the assemblies, which is what I am doing presently. So the company has made that possible.
And we are, of course, very happy for that. And we'd like to be able to participate in video if these virtual meetings continue, but we are pleased with the exchanges we were able to have with Dollarama once again this year. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr.
Gagnon, for your participation today and a constructive dialogue with management with respect to these proposals.
Again, call of Midak's proposals will be withdrawn and no motion will be put to a vote today on any of them. We will now take a moment to close the voting period on the 4 items of business on today's agenda, being 1, the election of 9 directors to sit on the Board of the Corporation 2, the appointment of the Auditor of the Corporation and the authorization of the Directors to fix its remuneration 3, the non binding advisory resolution on the corporation's approach to executive compensation and 4, the shareholder proposal submitted by the BCGEU. If you've not already done so, please cast your votes by clicking the Vote Here button at the bottom right of your screen. After selecting your voting options, you must click Submit for your vote to be counted. Many shareholders attending the meeting today have already voted their shares through proxies or via telephone or the Internet and therefore should not complete the electronic poll unless they wish to change their vote.
We will provide registered shareholders and Joliet Point Epoxy holders with approximately 1 minute to complete the electronic poll. Once the voting is completed, I would ask that the scrutineers compile the report with the results for the voting on all matters. We will now wait the 1 minute. One minute of air silence on a phone call certainly, it seems like a long time. That's it.
Okay. I now declare the voting closed. We have received the preliminary report of scrutineers on the tabulation of votes cast in respect of each of the items on the agenda. Based on the proxies received before the meeting and on the results of the electronic vote today, each director nominee has received more than 50% of the votes cast in favor of his or her election and in all cases in excess of 92.5% of all votes cast. I hereby declare that the 9 nominees have been duly elected as directors of Dollarama to hold office until the next annual meeting or until the successor is duly elected or appointed or until one otherwise ceases to hold office.
I also declare that PricewaterhouseCoopers has been duly reappointed as Coopers has been duly reappointed as auditor of the corporation and that the directors are authorized to fix the auditors remuneration by more than 99% of all votes cast. I declare that the non binding advisory resolution on the corporation's approach to declare that the shareholder proposal submitted by the VCGEU received only 21% of all votes cast at this meeting, below the simple majority required to be adopted. The final report on voting results will be filed on SEDAR shortly after the meeting. We will now proceed with the Q and A session for shareholders and Julia Pointed proxy holders. For those wishing to submit questions, you may do so by typing your question in the Ask a Question field at the bottom left of your screen and clicking Submit.
You may submit your question in French or in English and we will answer it in the language it was received. For each question received, the secretary of the meeting, Jose Koury, will read or summarize the question, state the name of the person who asked such question and invite a member of the Dollarama team to answer it. Should we receive the same question more than once, Jose will combine these so that they may be addressed efficiently. Please note, we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are relevant to the meeting and that meet the criteria outlined in the rules of conduct of the meeting will be addressed. All questions that we are unable to answer during the meeting before 10 am will be posted to our website along with answers following the meeting.
Jose, could you please read the first question?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The first question from the webcast is from Michel Lai and would be for Neil. Just one moment. Are there any plans to expand into the fresh food market?
And if so, would it apply only to specific regions or stores? Neil?
Thank you very much for the question. We have no plans to expand into the fresh food market at this point in time and truthfully, we have no plans to do so in the future either.
Thank you, Neil. The next question is from Jamie Fitzgerald. Let me read this. In my opinion, Dollarama was created as a dollar store. The dollar concept has increased to $2,000,000 $3,000,000 $3,000,000 $5 beyond that Dollarama should open stores with $10 enough items.
It's possible that the directors give an opinion in that respect. Maybe I'll pass it over to Neil first to comment on that.
Sure. So we appreciate you sharing your opinion. And it is a very subjective matter, in fact, what a dollar store is. But the industry and the I guess the analysts etcetera consider dollar stores to be discount stores today since the $1 concept has basically come and gone because of inflation over the course of time. So today we have items between $1 $4 We have no plans at the moment to increase that until inflation and other factors require us to do so.
We will continue to stay at the lowest end of the price point chain. And as long as we are offering the best relative value in the market, we believe that that's Dollarama's raison d'etre and it is our sole focus is to provide great value at $4 and less at the time. Thank you.
Thank you, Neil. There are no more questions. So we will I'll turn it over to Steve for the for closing this meeting.
Okay. Thank you, Jose, and thank you all for making this event possible this morning, including those behind the scenes. Now I invite Jean Philippe LaChance to make a motion to conclude the meeting.
I move to conclude the meeting.
Thank you. Jose, would you second the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you. I declare the motion adopted and the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is duly closed. On behalf of my fellow directors and all of us Dollarama, I would like to extend our best wishes to our employees, our shareholders, our customers and our supply chain partners and other stakeholders. We invite you to visit our website for more updates on the corporation's activities and to take a look at our 2021 ESG report posted on our website earlier today. We look forward to seeing you next year.
Operator, back to you.