Ladies and gentlemen, Mesdames and 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 2020 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders of Intact Financial Corporation.
Welcome to the 2020 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. Please note that this meeting will take place in English, however, simultaneous interpretation is being provided through our French webcast, and we welcome questions in either language.
That this meeting will take place in English, however, simultaneous translation is being provided through our French webcast, and we welcome questions in either language. If you have any technical support issues during the meeting webcast, please note that you can contact Broadridge at 1-800-586-1548 if you are calling from Canada or the United States, or dial 1-303-562-9288 if you are outside Canada and the United States. Before we begin the meeting, I would like to acknowledge the current situation. As we have all seen over the past several weeks, the spread of COVID-19 has changed the world around us.
While we regret that we cannot meet in person this year, the decision to hold a virtual meeting by audio webcast was made given current requirements of social distancing 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 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 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, Chair of the Conduct Review Committee, who will step in for me if I experience technical difficulties during the meeting. Louis Marcotte, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Frédéric Cotnoir, Senior VP, 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. Leanne Bernstein and Joanne Di Benedetto, representatives of Broadridge Investor Communication, 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 a procedure for shareholders and proxy holders with us today who have logged in using the control number of their proxy form or voting instruction form. If you are a shareholder or proxy holder who has not yet voted or who wishes to change your existing vote, you may do so by pressing the Vote Here button located in the bottom right area of the webcast page. 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 announced tomorrow by press release and will be available on the company's website as well as on SEDAR. Shareholders and proxy holders attending the meeting and wishing to ask questions are encouraged to pose their question by typing it into the text box located at the bottom left area of the webcast page. Once you have finished typing out your question, click the Submit button. Please include your name as part of your question, along with an indication of whether it relates to a specific item on the meeting agenda or is of a more general nature. Those attending the meeting as guests are not able to pose a question. We will address questions regarding specific agenda items at the times these items are being presented.
General questions will be addressed following remarks by our CEO. The secretary of the meeting will read the questions received. Question 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, the whole in conformity with the bylaws of the company and with the corporate and securities laws of Canada.
We have received proxies representing more than 82% 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 this, 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 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 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 2019.
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?
Claude, I confirm that we have not received any questions with respect to this matter.
Thank you. I confirm that the consolidated financial statements of Intact Financial Corporation for the year ended December 31, 2019, and the auditors' 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 2020 fiscal year and until the next annual meeting. Can the Secretary confirm whether any questions have been received on 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. 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 2020 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. Please note that as announced in the press release issued by the company on May fourth, Stephen Snyder will not be seeking re-election due to personal health reasons. As such, 11 directors are nominated for election at this meeting, and the board intends to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Snyder in the coming months. Except for Stuart Russell, who is being proposed to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Eileen Mercier and the retirement of Stephen Snyder, all directors proposed by management of the company are the same directors elected by the shareholders of last year's annual meeting.
Please note that in accordance with the company's advance notice bylaw adopted by the shareholders last year, it has been confirmed that no other director nominations were received by the company. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Stephen Snyder, who is not standing for re-election this year due to personal, unfortunate health reasons. Steve joined our board in 2009, and for over 10 years, he has provided his counsel on our Audit Committee, Compliance Review, Corporate Governance Committee , Human Resources and Compensation Committee , in addition to our board. The company has benefited greatly from his guidance and service over the past decade. On behalf of Intact, I would like to thank you, Steve, for your contribution to our company. I also want to take this time to thank Eileen Mercier, who is retiring after serving for 16 years on our board.
Eileen's association with our company, however, started way before that, 16 years, back in 1999, when she joined the ING Canada Advisory Board. She was part of the group that guided us when we became a public company in 2004, and she chaired the Audit and Risk committee during the 2008 financial crisis. She was a key participant in the transition from ING Canada to Intact. You have been, Eileen, at the heart of the transformation of Intact, and I am grateful for your contribution. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the nomination of Stuart Russell to the board of directors. Stuart brings strong competency in technology and artificial intelligence to the board, and we believe he will be an excellent addition to the company's board of directors....
Frédéric, can you confirm whether any question have been received with respect to the election of the directors?
I confirm that we have not received any question with respect to this matter.
Thank you. May I have a proposal in this regard?
Yes, Claude. So my name is Frédéric Cotnoir. I am a shareholder of the company, and I hereby propose the following person 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 E. Kinney, Robert G. Leary, Sylvie Paquette, Timothy H. Penner, Stuart J. Russell, Frederick Singer, Carol Stephenson, and William L. 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 promotion, ratification, and approval of the amended and restated shareholder rights plan, last confirmed at the annual and special meeting of shareholders on May 3, 2017, and most recently approved by the board of directors at its meeting of February 4, 2020. Can the secretary confirm whether any questions have been received with respect to this matter?
Hi, Claude. I confirm that we have not received any questions with respect to this matter.
Thank you. May I have a proposal in this regard?
My name is Frédéric Cotnoir. I am a shareholder of the company. I propose that the following resolution be approved: That the amended and restated shareholder rights plan agreement, dated April 19, 2017, between the company and Computershare Investor Services Inc., be and is hereby ratified, reconfirmed, and reapproved. And that any director or officer of Intact Financial Corporation is authorized to do all such acts and things, and to execute and deliver all such instruments, agreements, and other documents, as in such person's opinion, may be necessary or desirable in connection with the foregoing, to give full effect to this resolution.
Thank you. 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 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 decision. It is the board of directors' intention that the shareholder advisory vote will, 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 you confirm, Frédéric, whether any questions have been received with respect to this matter?
Claude, I confirm that we have not received any question with respect to executive compensation.
Thank you. May I have a proposal on this subject?
I am a shareholder, and 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 disclosed in the company's management proxy circular, made available in advance of the 2020 annual meeting of shareholders.
Thank you. We will be closing voting now. I invite those shareholders and proxy holders who wish to cast their votes to do so now, please. Okay, voting has now closed. So we will now take a few moments to tabulate the preliminary voting results. Whenever you're ready, Frédéric, if you wish to report the preliminary voting results.
Thank you, Claude. I have received the preliminary scrutineer report. The final result will be filed on SEDAR tomorrow 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 2020, and until the next annual meeting by at least 91% of the votes cast. All directors nominated for election have been duly elected with at least 94% of the vote cast, and will hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders, or until their successors are elected or appointed. The company's amended and restated shareholder rights plan was ratified, reconfirmed, and reapproved with at least 95% of vote cast.
Finally, the advisory resolution to accept the approach to executive compensation was approved by at least 95% of vote cast.
... Thank you. We have now completed the official business of the meeting, and we will now, Charles and I report on the, on the year. 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 in the text box in the bottom left area of the, of the webcast page. Intact became a publicly traded company in 2009, in the middle of the global financial crisis. Just over a decade later, we are living through another uncertain and challenging time. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Intact's commitment to its purpose, which is to help people, businesses, and society prosper in good times and be resilient in bad times, is more evident than ever.
The actions and measures Intact has taken to help customers ensure the strong financial footing of the company and to protect the health and safety of its employees and partners, reinforces Intact's commitment to its purpose and values. Looking back, 2019 was a milestone year, marking the company's tenth anniversary. Last year, Intact delivered solid results across business lines and borders. The company's ambitious strategy and strong management team and employees made 2019 another successful year of outperformance. The company's investment in digital experiences, analytics, and technology continue to enhance its service and ability to help customers. Intact has also continued to invest in its people. Having an engaged workforce has been central to our success. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, the company's digital tools and engaged workforce have been instrumental in the company's response to provide support to its customers during these hard times.
Intact's purpose and values are ingrained in the company's strategic objectives and align with environmental, social, and governance principles. Last year, the company continued to uphold its high standard of governance, compliance, and ethics. This has helped Intact become one of the most respected companies in Canada and continue to be recognized for its governance practice, both nationally and internationally. Intact's commitment to building the resiliency of communities is most recently reflected by a contribution of over CAD 3.5 million to target the immediate needs of individuals and families who are most vulnerable to the social, health, and economic effects of this pandemic. To my fellow board members, thank you for your contribution over the past year and valuable counsel in defining the company's strategy and future.
You provided guidance during the recent acquisitions, ensured key ESG factors continued to be incorporated into risk management processes, and most recently, you have monitored and provided risk oversight during the current crisis. I want also to recognize and thank Intact's management team. Your leadership, commitment to the company's long-term success, hard work, and dedication to delivering results has and will continue to support the company in meeting its objectives. Thank you to all the Intact employees for living Intact's values every day, for your accomplishments throughout the year, and for being customer-focused in all that you do. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those on the front line, essential workers, healthcare providers, and volunteers, helping to keep our communities functioning and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. To customers, brokers, and shareholders, thank you for your trust and support.
We look forward to continuing to build a resilient future for you and all our stakeholders. Now, I would like to invite Charles Brindamour to give you his report on both last year and the first quarter of 2020. So, Charles?
Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Claude, and thank you all for joining our virtual annual general meeting today. Just a few weeks ago, our world changed in ways we could not have imagined as we closed 2019. The pandemic that took the world hostage has inflicted immense pain and disruption on people, small businesses, and communities across the globe. As we've attempted to protect healthcare capabilities and the most vulnerable, economic activity has slowed to levels not seen in our lifetime, and very few of us were prepared for this. But governments have moved quickly to provide support, and people and operational businesses have stepped up to do their part. And across North America, our discipline is starting to pay off as we're thankfully seeing a slowing of the spread of this virus.
At Intact, our business exists to help people both in good and in bad times, and we've built our business with resilience in mind. And we're in a very strong position to help society navigate this crisis, and are working with governments to contribute where our strengths matter. Now, let me walk you through the steps we've taken so far, but also, and more importantly, talk about the direction we're heading over the coming decades. So first, with COVID-19, let me be clear, dealing with this pandemic is our number one priority. We're working around the clock to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees while supporting our customers, brokers, and communities. While 99% of our people across North America are working from home, we haven't lost a beat. Our people have shown tremendous dedication and flexibility during this unnerving time.
Like everyone right now, our employees are dealing with their own hopes, anxieties, and struggles, and yet they continue to take a problem-solving approach with our customers every day. We mobilized quickly to help our impacted customers, providing them with payment flexibility and premium adjustments to recognize financial hardship and changing risk profiles. Our measures are aimed at providing the highest amount of relief to those that need it the most. So far, we've provided more than CAD 130 million to almost 400,000 customers, and we expect the total amount of relief to be well in excess of CAD 200 million. We released our first quarter results yesterday afternoon, and despite capital market pressure and the CAD 83 million dollar of direct losses related to COVID-19, our performance remains very strong, with an operating ROE above 14%.
We've been very disciplined over the last few years and ahead of the market, and as such, we've entered this crisis in a position of strength. With close to 580 basis points of ROE outperformance in 2019, we're in an excellent position to weather the storm and offer relief to our customers across North America. While we're hoping for a swift return to normalcy, we are prepared for the worst. While unprecedented and extraordinary in its impacts on people's health and the global economy, this crisis is temporary. It's important for Intact and other businesses to work with governments to get the economy back on track with a measured and risk-based approach. We're sharing our knowledge and resources with governments as we speak. We've offered to help with scenario planning and contact tracing of the virus.
Our AI and machine learning experts, investigative services, and customer service reps are on standby to help, and we're ready with our own cautious and gradual return to office plan. We've learned a lot in a very short period about our own capabilities and our resilience, and we're thinking ahead and charting a path forward. Last November, we introduced Intact's ten-year strategic roadmap. That roadmap has four big ideas: strengthening our leadership position in Canada, building a leading North American specialty insurer, transforming our competitive advantages, and investing in people to sustain our strong, values-driven, and engaged workforce. And while we may need to adapt to changes in consumer behavior, the economy, and society more broadly as a result of this crisis, we believe this strategy will guide us to continued growth and success that will benefit all our stakeholders. Let me expand on this roadmap.
Our first idea is to strengthen our leadership position in Canada, as I've just mentioned, and we'll achieve this by transforming our customer experience, by leveraging our digital capabilities and our service excellence in claims. This also means deepening our distribution footprint by expanding our relationship with brokers across North America and scaling up belairdirect and BrokerLink. We aim to have 3 out of 4 customers as advocates. The pandemic has been a catalyst in our efforts to advance digital options for our customers. Last week, in fact, we hit a new milestone, with the number of customers using Client Centre has doubled to more than 1 million users. We'll continue to build on and invest in this trend to expand active digital relationships with our customers, where we aim to have 3 out of 4 customers digitally engaged with us.
Again, in Canada, the property and casualty market remains highly fragmented, and we expect further consolidation is inevitable as businesses retool after the crisis is over. We intend to continue to lead in consolidating the Canadian marketplace. With that in mind, we completed the acquisition of the Guarantee Company of North America and Frank Cowan Company late last year. And despite the disruption imposed by COVID-19, the integration is on track. Policy conversions are underway. We launched our high-net-worth brand, Intact Prestige, in March, and we're on track to meet our financial objectives of mid-single-digit net operating income per share accretion, including the On Side acquisition by 2021. And while the current crisis will pass, some of its impact might last.
We anticipate that consumers will engage digitally, digitally to a greater extent, that savings rates will likely increase, and that Canadians and Americans will want more for their money. We also expect small to mid-size companies to consolidate as the economy gradually recovers. And while our strategy is sound, these trends will shape it in the coming months. Louis Gagnon, Mathieu Lamy and their teams have done a phenomenal job of managing the first part of the crisis, and no doubt will adapt to win as the environment evolves. Our second big idea is to build a leading North American specialty lines insurer, and Mike Miller and his team have made great progress in the specialty space since our acquisition of OneBeacon in 2017.
With close to CAD 3 billion in revenue already, we're now aiming to double that in the midterm, while maintaining a low 90s combined ratio and outperforming our peers. The recent Guarantee acquisition clearly expands our footprint in this segment. Our offer is richer, and we intend to leverage our wide distribution footprint to capitalize on our new capabilities. Our third big idea is to transform our competitive advantages, and it's centered on three key elements. One, risk selection. Data is fundamental to extending our leadership in this area, and we've moved quickly to integrate machine learning into how we price and choose risks. Through telematics and UBI, we've collected about 1 trillion data points, and with this data, we're leveraging our 200+ machine learning experts in our Data Lab to create proprietary algorithms for pricing, while providing value-added services for customers and society.
As a larger user and custodian of data, we recently adopted a set of data governance principles to ensure the responsible use of data and AI. Our principles are focused on security, helping society, data quality, scientific excellence, and accountability. Our goal here is to be recognized as the best AI insurance shop in the world, and we'll continue to increase our investments in this regard. The second element of transforming our competitive advantage is to leverage our scale in claims, particularly as it relates to the supply chain. While we've made important strides in leveraging our digital tools and helping customers back on track, the physical world is still very much where claims happen. Leveraging our scale has allowed us to be the best we can in terms of customer experience, and it's also helped us outperform our peers from an ROE point of view.
And we believe that a key component of improving the customer experience and our financial performance going forward, is to get involved deeper in the supply chain. And to that effect, we decided last year to invest in On Side, a national home restoration firm. This is the first step, and we'll define a key area of focus in the coming years. Indeed, given the increased burden of natural disasters, we believe that the demand for professional services in this segment will increase meaningfully over the years. And the third element of our competitive advantage transformation is to build on our proven strengths in investment and capital management. Our Intact Investment Management team is among the best in the country. Our clear and simple capital management philosophy, that capital should always be available in good times and in bad, has served us well, especially recently.
While we've seen extreme volatility in the markets over the last 2 months, our operations and capital position remain solid. The fourth and last big pillar in our decade roadmap is to invest in our people. Our 16,000 employees are essential to our success. They're at the heart of everything we do, and they've been at the heart of our customer relief efforts over the past 6 weeks. In this environment, we're committed to maintaining jobs for our people and to prepare them for the evolving future of work, driven by technology, automation, and to a certain extent, by the pandemic. The need for this has perhaps never been more evident than now. We'll increase the speed of our efforts to reskill and upskill employees and to adapt quickly to changing customer needs and business opportunities.
So we're committed to supporting employees, develop skills, expand their knowledge, and evolve with our business. In return, we ask our employees to be customer-driven, open to change, and be willing to invest in themselves and their career. Let me close on social impact. Intact was founded on a universal set of values and a clear purpose to help people. This informs our approach as we help our employees, customers, and communities manage through and recover from the severe impacts of this global pandemic. Communities, as I've mentioned before, have been heavily impacted, and so beyond the relief measures we've put in place for customers, we're providing more than CAD 3.5 million to target the immediate needs of individuals and families who are more vulnerable to the effects of this pandemic, and that throughout North America.
Partners include the Breakfast Club of Canada, Meals on Wheels, Feeding America, and United Way. At the same time, we can't slow down our efforts around climate adaptation. Climate change is an existential threat to our industry and a defining trend to the twenty-first century. The effects are irreversible. We need to mitigate the impact of human influence, but also, and equally important, as a society, we need to protect our communities and our businesses against the changes we continue to face. Four years ago, we committed to take a leading position on climate adaptation with a substantial investment in the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo. The Intact Centre works with homeowners, communities, governments, and businesses to identify and reduce the impact of extreme weather and climate change.
We're renewing that commitment this year and excited to embark on the next chapter of this partnership. The challenges are important, but we remain optimistic. We see governments, businesses, and people working together, focusing on solutions. That's good, because we need all hands on deck. So in closing, I'm confident in the resilience of our business during these times, and our ability to help customers, communities, employees, and other stakeholders work through this. This difficult time will pass, and I believe we'll come out on the other side stronger. I'm optimistic about the future and the new opportunities and ways of doing business that this will bring. Our values and strategic objectives will get us through this period and sustain our growth as a North American leader. Thanks to our board of directors, shareholders, employees, brokers and more importantly, customers. 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 typing it to the text box located in the bottom left area of the webcast page. Once you have finished typing out your question, click the Submit button. Please include your name as part of your question. 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 which we are not able to answer today, we will reach out to you personally after the meeting to ensure that we can answer your question. Frédéric, can you confirm if we have received any questions?
Yes, Claude, we have received a number of questions, including a few relating to the pandemic that I believe were largely answered by Charles. But grouping them together, the question would be the following: How have we been dealing with the pandemic? And has the company suffered any major losses related to the pandemic?
So Charles, if you could, comment on this.
Yeah, thank you very much for the question. It is a big question. So how we've been dealing with the pandemic? The first thing we did, before the virus became a pandemic, is we have put in place our crisis management committee in place, starting in January, so that we could prepare our tools to deal with a crisis of that nature, monitor the progress and, and evolution, and just put the organization at the ready to face adverse development from this crisis. As it became a pandemic and translated into meaningful government actions and lockdowns, we first moved very quickly to bring about 99% of our 16,000 employees working from home. We've also, at the same time, elevated our infrastructure, technology infrastructure support, as well as cyber defense.
I'm happy to report that sitting here today, our infrastructure has performed very well, supporting employees. Employees have done a tremendous job to step up, despite the fact that they're, you know, not, not at, in a normal, environment and, and potentially unsettled. But overall, service is very strong, across the board, and I feel like from an operational point of view, we can operate, on that basis for an extended period of time without losing a beat. I'd like to add that, the brokers also have shown tremendous resilience, across North America to respond to this, context.
Would like to add that our supply chain and claims also is doing well, and as such, we've been able to operate the business, help people and businesses get back on track when they have a claim, despite the fact that we're into a severe lockdown. We then introduced very quickly relief measures in both personal and commercial lines across North America, which were centered on providing financing relief and providing premium relief in both personal and in commercial lines. This has translated to this day in more than CAD 130 million dollars of relief to close to 400,000 people and businesses. Quite frankly, this is not just good wishes for good health and safe return, it's actual relief, dollars and cents in large numbers.
While we managed the relief efforts and protected our employees, we also had to raise our defense on the capital side of things, because as shareholders know well... There’s been a tremendous turbulence on this front, and we’ve reported this morning that with the defenses in place, our capital position is very strong, and we’re in a position to absorb way more pressure and potentially take advantage of opportunities in capital deployment that would present themselves in this environment. Then the second part of the question was: Have you incurred big losses as a result of COVID? And now I’ll touch on two things.
One is the fact that, we have reported this morning a CAD 96 million investment impairment for the quarter, which is primarily driven by the capital market turbulence that was observed in the last two weeks of March. The other key element of what we've reported this morning is CAD 83 million of incurred loss or liability directly related to the effects of COVID. Fifty million of which in Canada, thirty-three million of which in the U.S. And, we've done a thorough bottom-up exercise to figure out what would be the direct impact of COVID, not just in Q1, but in aggregate. And, reported this morning to our investor base, CAD 83 million, which we will fine-tune, obviously, as the environment evolves, because we're a little bit in uncharted territory, but we feel like we took a cautious step by doing that.
Thank you. Thank you, Charles. Maybe I will add from perspective of the board of directors, that the board has been kept in the loop and involved throughout the whole process. We first started to meet on the phone mid-March, and since then, on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, we've had phone calls or video conference, as well as weekly updates. We certainly, as a board and as a chair, have been able to observe closely the agility and the speed of response of the management team and the whole team, the whole organization. This is unprecedented.
It was happening on multiple fronts, as Charles just described, and the ability to manage in this new environment has been very impressive. So I just want to tell you that we were there, we were overseeing what was happening, and we agreed as a board that it was very well handled. And continues to be well handled. Any other question, Frédéric?
Yes, Claude. One question relating to our compensation program for directors. Do you believe we have a fair program?
Thank you for the question. Yes, I believe the program is fair. Just to describe how we how it's being handled, there is an annual review that is led by the Corporate Governance Committee with the help, advice of a compensation advisor. And the Corporate Governance Committee make recommendations to the board. To make the assessment, we use a comparator group of similar public companies, similar in size and profile in Canada. And the target is to position ourselves to the median of the comparator group.
As you can see in the circular, we have a mix of shares and cash, and we have a minimum shareholding that the directors have to have, and to make sure that we are well aligned with the shareholders through this program. Our objective basically is to have a compensation program that is fair, as you ask, and that is sufficient to keep attracting highly talented directors to this board. So yes, my answer is, I think it's fair, and it's being reviewed regularly. Other questions, Frédéric?
No, Claude, there are no further questions at this time.
Okay. So thank you. We have now completed our agenda for this meeting, and I declare the meeting terminated, and thank all of you for attending.