Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, good afternoon. My name is Claude Dussault, and I am the Chair of the Board of Intact Financial Corporation. On behalf of the directors, I would like to welcome you to the 2021 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders of Intact Financial Corporation. Bienvenue à cette assemblée annuelle et extraordinaire 2021. Veuillez noter que cette assemblée se déroulera en anglais. Cependant, nous offrons la traduction simultanée en français, et nous serons heureux de répondre à vos questions en français si un actionnaire le souhaite. Please note that this meeting will take place in English. However, simultaneous translation is being provided through our French webcast, and we welcome questions. In addition, closed captioning is available by clicking on the CC button on the bottom right of the webcast player located on the right side of your screen.
Should you have any technical support issues during the meeting webcast, please refer to the FAQ page at lumiglobal.com. Before we begin the meeting, I would like to take note that we are once again holding our shareholder meeting virtually in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we regret that we cannot meet in person this year, the decision to hold a virtual meeting by webcast was made given current social distancing requirements, and to ensure the health and well-being of our shareholders, customers, and colleagues. On behalf of the company, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our first responders, healthcare workers, and essential service workers who are keeping us safe during this extraordinary time. Thank you. As chair of the board of directors of the company, I will act as chair of this meeting as per the company's bylaws.
I call the meeting to order. I would like now to draw your attention to the forward-looking statement disclaimer currently displayed on the webcast page. Certain forward-looking statements may be made during the course of this meeting. Joining me today are Charles Brindamour, Chief Executive Officer of the company, who will deliver his report later in the meeting. Bill Young, the chair of the board's Conduct Review and Corporate Governance Committee, who will step in for me if I experience technical difficulties during this meeting. Louis Marcotte, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Frédéric Cotnoir, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Legal Services, and Secretary of the company, who will act as secretary of the meeting. My fellow directors, as well as members of the senior management of the company, are also joining us remotely for today's meeting.
Patti Sajan and Shirley Tom, representatives of Computershare, will act as scrutineers of the meeting. At this time, I would like to review the procedures for voting and for asking questions during the meeting. If you have already voted by proxy in advance of the meeting and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to vote again. The following is the procedure for shareholders and proxy holders with us today who have logged in using the username and password provided by Computershare. If you are a shareholder or proxy holder who has not yet voted or wishes to change your existing vote, you may do so by clicking on the Voting button, which is the second icon from the right, appearing on the top left portion of your screen.
Voting is now open and will remain open until all voting matters have been presented. Those attending the meeting as guests are not able to vote. For the purpose of this meeting, I will ask Frédéric Cotnoir, who is a shareholder, to move all proposals. Following the closing of voting, preliminary voting results will be announced by the secretary for each matter. Final voting results will be published by press release and will be available on the company's website as well as on SEDAR following the meeting. Shareholders and proxy holders attending the meeting and wishing to ask questions are encouraged to pose their question by clicking on the Message icon, which is the second icon from the left on the top left portion of your screen.
Once you have finished typing out your question, please indicate whether it relates to a specific item on the meeting agenda or is of a more general nature, then click the Send button. Those attending the meeting as guests are not able to pose a question. We will address questions regarding specific agenda items at the time these items are presented. General questions will be addressed following remarks by our CEO. The secretary of the meeting will read the questions received. Questions of a similar nature will be grouped together in a single question. If your question concerns a client matter, please include your contact information, and a member of our customer service team will get in touch with you following the meeting.
Finally, if there are any questions we are not able to answer today, we will reach out to you personally after the meeting to ensure we answer your question. Thank you in advance for your support of these procedures. I have received satisfactory proof that the notice calling this meeting was duly sent to all shareholders of the company under the notice and access regime, held in conformity with the bylaws of the company and with the corporate and securities laws of Canada. We have received proxies representing more than 79% of the over 143 million common shares outstanding. I hereby declare that notice requirements have been met, that the quorum is present, and that this meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business.
I further direct that the secretary maintain the proxies and records of attendance with the official records of this meeting. The meeting is now open. At this time, I would like to remind everyone attending the meeting that the minutes of the last year's annual meeting of shareholders, along with the meeting agenda and other documents, including the management proxy circular and annual financial statements, are available by clicking the Documents icon, which is the icon located on the right-hand side of the banner appearing on the top left portion of your screen, as well as under the Investors tab of the company's website. The first order of business is the receipt of the company's financial statements for the year 2020. Copies of these financial statements were made available to shareholders who requested them, along with the annual meeting documentation.
Copies are also available on our website and may be obtained from the secretary's office or the investor relations department of the company. Can the secretary confirm whether any questions have been received with respect to this matter?
Mr. Chairman, I confirm that we have not received any question with respect to this matter.
Thank you. I confirm that the consolidated financial statements of Intact Financial Corporation for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the auditor's report related to these financial statements have been hereby received by this meeting. The next item of the meeting is the appointment of the auditor. Management, the audit committee, and the board of directors of the company have recommended the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditor for the 2021 fiscal year and until the next annual meeting. Can the secretary confirm whether any question have been received with respect to this matter?
I confirm we have not received any question with respect to this matter.
Thank you. May I have a proposal in this regard?
My name is Frédéric Cotnoir , and I am a shareholder of the company. I would like to move that Ernst & Young be appointed as auditor of the company for the year 2021 and until the next annual meeting.
Thank you. I would like to remind all shareholders and proxy holders in attendance that voting is currently open and will remain open until the last voting matter has been presented. We will now proceed with the election of the directors of the company. 12 directors are nominated for election at this meeting. Except for Dr. Indira Samarasekera, who is being proposed to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Carole Stephenson and the recent appointment of Carolyn Wilkins, all directors proposed by management of the company are the same directors elected by the shareholders at last year's annual meeting. Please also note that in accordance with the company's advance notice by-law, adopted by shareholders last year, it has been confirmed that no other director nominations were received by the company.
This year, we bid farewell to longstanding board member, Carole Stephenson, who is retiring from our board after 17 years, and before that, was serving on the ING Canada Advisory Board, so for more than 20 years overall. Carole was among those that guided us when we became a public company in 2004. She also chaired the Human Resources Committee and the Corporate Governance for many years. She also chaired a strategic committee of the board that led to establishing Intact as a fully independent company in 2009, and has since contributed greatly to its growth and evolution. I'm very thankful to Carole for her much valued leadership and service. Thank you, Carole. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the nomination of Dr. Indira Samarasekera to the board of directors.
Indira brings a wealth of expertise as an experienced director, and we believe that she will be an excellent addition to the company's board of directors. Can the secretary confirm whether any questions have been received with respect to the election of the directors?
I confirm that we have not received any question.
Thank you. May I have a proposal in this regard?
My name is Frédéric Cotnoir , and I am a shareholder of the company, and I hereby propose the following persons as directors of the board of directors of Intact Financial Corporation as of this meeting, and to remain in that function until the next annual meeting: Charles Brindamour, Janet De Silva, Claude Dussault, Jane Kinney, Robert Leary, Sylvie Paquette, Timothy Penner, Stuart Russell, Indira Samarasekera, Frederick Singer, Carolyn Wilkins, William Young.
Thank you. Voting is currently open, if you wish to do so, and will remain open until the last voting matter has been presented. The next item on the agenda is the vote on the resolution relating to the amendment to the company's Articles of Amalgamation to authorize the board of directors to appoint additional directors to serve on the board until the next annual meeting of shareholders. Can the secretary confirm whether any question had been received with respect to this matter?
I confirm that we have not received any question with respect to this matter.
Thank you. May I have a proposal in this regard?
My name is Frédéric Cotnoir, and I am a shareholder of the company. I propose that the resolution relating to the amendment of the company's articles of amalgamation, as published in our management proxy circular, and as displayed on the slide being shown to the meeting participants, and available in the documents section of the meeting, be approved.
Thank you. Voting is currently open, if you wish to do so, and will remain open until the last voting matter has been presented. The next item on the agenda is the advisory resolution relating to the company's approach to executive compensation. The board of directors believe that shareholders should have the opportunity to fully understand the objectives, philosophy, and principles that the board of directors has used and integrated to make executive compensation decisions. It is the board of directors' intention that the shareholder advisory vote will form an important part of the ongoing process of engagement between shareholders and the board of directors on compensation. The board of directors has recommended that shareholders approve the non-binding advisory resolution. Can the secretary confirm whether any question had been received with respect to this matter?
I confirm that we have not received any question.
Thank you. May I have a proposal in this regard?
My name is Frédéric Cotnoir. I am a shareholder of the corporation. I move that the following resolution be approved. Be it resolved on a non-binding and advisory basis, and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the board of directors, that the shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation as disclosed in the company management proxy circular, made available in advance of the 2021 annual meeting of shareholders.
Thank you. I remain, remind you that voting remains open if you wish to vote on any of the matters presented, and will close following the presentation of the next matter. The next item on the agenda is the vote on the resolution to ratify and approve the executive stock option plan of the corporation, most recently approved by the board of directors at its meeting of March 26, 2021. Can the secretary confirm whether any question had been received with respect to this matter?
I confirm we have not received any question.
Thank you. May I have a proposal in this regard?
I propose that the resolution to ratify and approve the executive stock option plan of the corporation, as published in our management proxy circular, and as displayed on the slide being shown to meeting participants, and available in the documents section of the meeting, be approved.
Thank you. Voting remains open if you wish to vote on any of the matters presented, and will be closing momentarily. Thank you. We will be closing voting now. I invite those shareholders and proxy holders who have not yet cast their votes, but wish to do so, to complete voting now. Voting has now closed. I will now ask the secretary to report the preliminary voting results.
Thank you, Claude. I have received the preliminary scrutiny report. The final results will be filed on SEDAR and made available on the company's website, as well as via press release. The following are the preliminary results: Ernst & Young has been appointed as auditor of the company for the year 2021, and until the next annual meeting, by at least 94% of the votes cast. All directors nominated for election have been duly elected with at least 97% of votes cast, and will hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders, or until their successors are elected or appointed.
The special resolution to authorize the board of directors to appoint additional directors, not exceeding one-third of the directors elected at the previous annual meeting, and to hold office until the completion of the next annual meeting of shareholder, was approved by at least 99% of votes cast. The advisory resolution to accept the approach to executive compensation was approved by at least 97% of votes cast. And finally, the resolution to adopt the executive stock option plan of the company was approved by at least 89% of votes cast.
Thank you. We have now completed the official business of the meeting, and will now hear reports from myself and the Chief Executive Officer. This will be followed by a question and answer period. As a reminder, if you are a shareholder or proxy holder and wish to ask a question, you can submit it by clicking the messaging icon, which is the second icon from the left, located on the top left portion of your screen. The past year was certainly a time of unprecedented challenges. Intact's strength and resilience were showcased where and when it mattered most. Driven by a shared purpose and values, the company entered the COVID-19 crisis in a position of strength, both financially and operationally. With the strong leadership of the management team, Intact delivered value for our customers, brokers, and shareholders.
Strong results came from disciplined execution of Intact's sound strategy, while continuing to strengthen its competitive advantages. The acquisition of RSA Insurance Group will significantly accelerate Intact's strategy, leadership, and capabilities. Intact's results are a testament to the bench strength of the leadership team and the resilience of employees, brokers, and their support of customers. Intact is committed to building the best team by providing a workplace that attracts, retains, and develops current and future high-performing employees from the broadest talent pool. Having different experiences, perspectives, abilities, and backgrounds around the table are critical to this. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated many underlying societal challenges, from poverty to racism. The past year has shown us that many changes need to occur for our society to be inclusive. With that in mind, Intact has made a commitment to move beyond words and take action.
One of those actions was approving an update to our board and senior management diversity policy to include additional diversity targets. Being a purpose-driven business provides a clear focus to help people, businesses, and society prosper in good times and be resilient in bad times. For Intact, addressing broader societal issues, such as climate change, is both an ESG position and a business strategy. You'll hear more on this from Charles in a moment. Among Intact's objective is to be recognized as one of the most respected companies, and the board and management have taken another step in this direction. We attained the top position in the Globe and Mail Board Games in 2020 rankings, which evaluates the quality of governance practices and disclosures for Canadian publicly traded companies. This recognition reinforces the importance of Intact's clear purpose, values, and strong governance.
An important aspect of strong governance, and in line with Intact's value of integrity, are transparent discussion between shareholders, the board, and management. With my colleagues on the board, I met virtually with shareholders representing 33% of our investor base in 2020. On behalf of the board, I want to thank employees for living the Intact values every day. I would like to thank Charles Brindamour and his leadership team as they continue to realize opportunities and face challenges with calm, confidence, and a steadfast stewardship of the interest of all stakeholders. And thank you to our customers, brokers, and you, shareholders, for your trust and dedication. I will now invite Charles to deliver his remarks. Thank you.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. As you know, our purpose at Intact is to help people, businesses, and society. We want to help them prosper in good times and be resilient in bad times. Over the last year, it seemed our purpose mattered more than ever. Indeed, 2020 has been extraordinarily difficult for everyone. The pandemic has inflicted tremendous pain across the globe. It's put incredible pressure on the healthcare system, in addition to severe social and economic consequences that will hurt for years to come. As we tried to do our part, we were inspired by the dedication of essential and healthcare workers, and we were energized by people's resilience across so many communities. 2020 helped us redefine resilience.
We started the year in a position of strength, and the integration of our latest acquisition, The Guarantee Company of North America, was at the top of our list. By March, we were in full crisis management mode, sending 99% of our 16,000 people home to protect them. Within weeks, we launched the first relief effort, which has helped over 1.2 million customers. We also worked quickly with elected officials across Canada to provide risk management expertise in managing this crisis. With customers and broker service undisrupted, thanks to our employees' engagement and unwavering commitment, we turned our attention to winning in the marketplace. By April, we started to focus on the strategic implications of the crisis and doubled down our investments in digital and AI to advance the long-term positioning of Intact.
With strong financial performance and resources, we then went on to announce the RSA acquisition, one of the largest and most transformative in our industry, a tremendous accelerator to our strategy. And we delivered strong performance for our shareholders while beating our competitors by close to 600 basis points of ROE. Throughout all of this, people were at the heart of our decision making, and I'm proud to say that we have welcomed close to 2,000 new colleagues during the pandemic. So while 2020 was extraordinarily demanding on our people, we increased employee engagement and solidified our position as one of North America's best employers. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we mean by resilience. Our ability to deliver strong results, accelerate our strategy, and help people comes from being grounded in our values and purpose. That purpose to help drives everything we do.
Today, I'll tell you a bit about the steps we're taking to address the effects of the pandemic, win in the marketplace, and build a more resilient society. Our response to the pandemic has indeed been swift. Over the past year, we've leveraged our leaders' can-do attitude, our employees' willingness to step up, and our strong financial position to help people in need, and while continuing to execute on our strategy. Beyond protecting our employees, our focus from the start was to help those most in need. We provided a total of CAD 530 million in relief in 2020, through policy adjustments, premium reductions, and flexible payment options. Our Intact Small Business Relief Program offered CAD 50 million in financial support for about 100,000 small business customers. The latest waves have been especially tough.
That's why in March, we introduced a new round of customer relief equivalent to one month of auto premium. This additional CAD 75 million commitment brings our total customer relief to over CAD 600 million. While the vaccine now gives us hope that we will see some return to normalcy in the second half of the year, it's important that businesses continue to protect and support their employees and communities. A lot has changed in the past year, especially for consumers. We're seeing an increased focus on value for money, ease of access, and strong digital engagement. But beyond the pandemic, the environment in which we're operating keeps changing. There are a number of big trends we're watching very closely. First, the disruptive forces in the insurtech market tops the list. The pace of digital adoption over the past year is forcing all industry to reassess their capabilities.
I think we're well-placed here. We've been preparing for this for years, but we're taking a fresh look, challenging the status quo, and asking ourselves where we can invest more. Secondly, is the future of transportation, and we've studied this extensively. Recently, electrification has really accelerated. We're now looking at how to adapt and modify our distribution, relationships, and products to make the most of changes we're seeing on this front. The last trend is climate change. We've taken transformative action to protect and prepare our business and our customers, and I'll share a bit more on this later. We will continue to lead on adaptation, and we'll turn our attention to how we win in the marketplace as the world transitions to net zero by 2050.
For Intact, we see these trends as opportunities to continue leveraging our strengths in digital, data, and AI, to create value through new and emerging ecosystems, distribution channels, and value-added services. We will use these trends to win in this changing environment and achieve our three main objectives, which are our customers are our advocates, our people are engaged, and our company is one of the most respected in the markets where we operate. To achieve these objectives, our game plan is based on five key strategies, all of which are accelerated by the acquisition of RSA. My colleagues and I are really keen to welcome thousands of new colleagues when the acquisition closes at the end of the month. The first pillar in our strategic roadmap is to expand and strengthen our leadership position here in Canada. Engaging customers digitally is key.
In fact, we're aiming to have three out of four customers actively, digitally engaged with us. Over the past year, we made significant progress by meeting customer demands for digital options, by offering market-leading insurance apps and telematics capabilities, in addition to many changes in claims. Then strengthening our Canadian distribution channel remains a key focus. BrokerLink continues to grow organically and through acquisition, and is headed towards CAD 3 billion of revenue over the coming years. belairdirect's national and digital presence is also strong and is well on its way to have the simplest customer experience in Canada, all that at a fraction of the cost of our competitors. The RSA acquisition will expand our leadership in Canada by 30%, while bringing complementary offerings in commercial lines and a well-known affinity business with Johnson Insurance. Our second strategic pillar is building a leading global specialty lines insurer.
In 2020, specialty solution premiums grew to CAD 3 billion, helped by the integration of the Guarantee Company of North America, while meeting our initial objectives. With the acquisition of RSA, we're strengthening our North American position and gaining global capabilities. We're on course to double the size of that business by 2025. Our third pillar is strengthening a leading position in the U.K. and Ireland. While RSA has strong positions in both home insurance and commercial lines, we believe there's an opportunity to reinforce these positions by leveraging our skills in risk selection, data, claims management, and technology. We want to build on the momentum that the team has created in those markets and create outperformance within three years. The fourth pillar in our strategic roadmap is transforming our competitive advantages.
While we've outperformed our peers by nearly 700 basis points of ROE over the last decade, we don't take this performance for granted. We're doubling down on our technology platform investments to fast-track improvements to the customer experience, and by growing our revenues by close to 70% with the acquisition of RSA, our ability to invest in our outperformance core capabilities will be greatly enhanced. Finally, we're focused on investing in our people. Employee engagement is something we work on every day, as employees are essential to our success. Despite the challenges of the past year, we had a record high level of engagement in 2020, and our people have not missed a beat. In return, we're committed to providing employees with the opportunity to shape the future, win as a team, and grow with us.
We've invested heavily throughout the year in a number of areas, including the roll out of digital collaboration tools and a new e-learning platform to help our employees adapt and succeed as we prepare the workplace for the future. And I want to thank all our employees. They've been here day in and day out for our customers, brokers, and communities, and I commend their can-do attitude, flexibility, as well as their empathy. While we've been focused on the pandemic, our work on climate adaptation and resilience continues to be a top priority. The pandemic has driven home the importance of good risk management practices and the need to prepare for large tail risk events. Over the past decade, we've made much progress on preparing Intact and helping society anticipate the consequences of climate change.
As natural disasters have increased by a factor of four in the past 30 years, this effort is existential. We started transforming our property products and how we price and select for risks over a decade ago. We then invested significantly in the claims supply chain and in helping customers mitigate the consequence of extreme events. Today, protecting our customers against natural disasters is a profitable and growing business. From those learnings, we've invested heavily to help society be better prepared. We created the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation in 2015, and to back our research with concrete actions, we've supported more than 90 projects through climate adaptation grants across Canada. Beyond our know-how and resources, we've committed in excess of CAD 16 million to support these ideas.
I'm proud of our commitment to help fight climate change, and we'll continue to build on our leadership in this area, but it's just not enough. As a society, if we don't modify how we consume goods and services, how we move, how we live, we're headed for an increase in average temperature in excess of 3-4 degrees Celsius over the next 30 years. Under that scenario, we'll see more storms, extreme heat, drought, and forest fires, as well as a whole range of consequences to coastal areas, biodiversity, health, prosperity, and ultimately, security. Many countries, including Canada and the U.S., have committed to achieve net zero emissions in the next 30 years. This will be really, really hard. That's why governments, businesses, and individuals will all need to contribute, and that's where we come in. Our plan is rooted in 4 big ideas.
First, become carbon neutral by 2025. Double down on adaptation, then leverage our technology to shape customers' behavior. Finally, enable the transformation of industries that are key to the transition, and help the creation of new ones. And so governments, businesses, and communities must work together to build a climate-resilient society. We have a collective responsibility to ensure that our most vulnerable and climate-afflicted communities are climate resilient. So in conclusion, while we as a society are facing many challenges, both in the short and long term, we're optimistic about the future, and we believe that Intact has an important role to play. We're looking forward to welcoming our RSA colleagues to the Intact family very soon. And I wanna close in thanking our board of directors, shareholders, brokers, customers, and our employees.
We're ready to continue delivering strong results and play a role in rebuilding our communities and the economy. We're energized by the possibilities ahead. Thank you.
Thank you, Charles. We will now address any general questions that have been submitted. As a reminder, shareholders and proxy holders wishing to ask questions are encouraged to pose their question by clicking the messaging icon, which is the second icon from the left, located on the top left portion of your screen. The secretary of the meeting will read the questions received. Questions of a similar nature will be grouped together in a single question. If your question concerns a client matter, please include your contact information, and a member of our customer service team will get in touch with you following the meeting. Finally, if there are any questions we're not able to answer today, we will reach out to you personally after the meeting to ensure we answer your question. Can the secretary confirm whether any questions have been received so far?
Mr. Chairman, I confirm we have not received any questions.
Okay, thank you, everyone. We have now completed our agenda for this meeting. I declare the meeting terminated. Thank you for attending.