I would like to welcome you to this annual general meeting of shareholders of The North West Company Inc. My name is Brock Bulbuck, and I am a director of The North West Company Inc and chair of the board. We are pleased to host today's meeting through a virtual meeting platform accessible to all our shareholders, regardless of physical location, to participate, submit questions, and vote. I will act as chair of today's meeting. I will now call this meeting to order. Good morning and welcome. I would like to acknowledge that The North West Company head office is located on indigenous ancestral lands on Treaty One territory. The Red River Valley is also the birthplace of the Métis. We acknowledge that the water in The North West Company comes from Shoal Lake. I am honored to chair my first annual general meeting of The North West Company.
As previously announced, Sandy Riley retired as chair of the board of directors following last year's annual general meeting. Sandy was first elected as a director in 2003, and served in the role of chair from 2008 until his retirement last year. On behalf of the board, I want to once again thank Sandy for his leadership and for the many contributions he made during his 19 years on the board and in his role as chair. The post-pandemic environment of 2022 brought the challenges of lower government income support, higher out-of-market travel, inflationary cost increases, continuing supply chain disruption, and labor shortages. Despite these challenges, the dedicated and passionate team of North Westers worked hard to continue to deliver on the company's main purpose, making people's lives better in the communities we serve.
In doing so, was also able to continue to deliver impressive sales and earnings growth over pre-pandemic levels. Before I go on, I want to once again acknowledge the great work that North Westers did once again in 2022, and thank them for their continued efforts and dedication to North West's vision and purpose. In remote market retailing, serving the customer also means serving the community. North West continues to support events and programs, organizations, schools, and sports teams in the communities we serve.
Although there are a number of initiatives that made a positive impact on the communities we serve in 2022, one of the highlights of the year was the launch of our Promise to Indigenous Peoples, which is a reaffirmed commitment to building more collaborative relationships that will enhance the inclusion and social wellbeing of Indigenous people of Canada. 2022 was our first full year with Dan McConnell as our CEO leading the company. As we mentioned last year, Dan hit the ground running after his appointment in mid-2021, and that pace continued throughout 2022. The board is excited to continue to work with Dan and his high-energy leadership team to drive the company forward, to continue to deliver value to the communities we serve and to our shareholders and stakeholders.
I would now like to introduce the people joining me at the head table. To my left is Dan McConnell, President and Chief Executive Officer and Director. Also at the head table is Amanda Sutton, Vice President, Legal and Corporate Secretary. I appoint Amanda Sutton to act as secretary for this meeting. Christine Colesso of TSX Trust Company will act as scrutineer for the meeting. I will now ask Amanda Sutton to read a notice regarding forward-looking statements.
Thank you. Certain information presented today may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect North West's current expectations, estimates, projections, and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks which could cause actual performance and financial results in the future to vary materially from those contemplated in the forward-looking statements. For additional information on these risks, please see North West's annual information forum under the heading Risk Factors. This presentation will also refer to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net earnings, which are not recognized financial measures under International Financial Reporting Standards. North West's method of calculating these measures may differ from other companies and may not be comparable to measures used by other companies. For further information, please see North West's annual report under the heading Non-GAAP Financial Measures.
I would now ask the secretary to report on attendance.
Mr. Chair, I have been advised by the scrutineers that they are present by proxy, a sufficient number of persons holding a sufficient number of shares entitled to vote at the meeting to constitute a quorum. As there is a quorum present, this meeting is regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business.
A notice calling the meeting together with a form of proxy, management information circular, and proxy statement, and annual report containing the financial statements of The North West Company Inc for the year ended January 31, 2023 , and the related auditor's report were provided to each intermediary and registered shareholder of record on the record date for the meeting. We have received an affidavit of mailing from TSX Trust Company, North West's transfer agent, confirming the mailing of notice. Voting on the items of business to come before today's meeting is being conducted by poll via a single electronic ballot that is now available on the web portal. Only registered shareholders and duly appointed proxyholders are able to vote or ask questions. Voting can only be done through the virtual voting platform on the webcast.
If you are a registered shareholder or proxyholder and wish to vote, click the Voting icon at the top of the webcast page. Voting can be completed at any time from now until the polls are closed at the end of the formal business of the meeting. If you have already voted in advance of the meeting and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to vote again during the meeting. The polls are now open. Questions can only be submitted through the webcast platform. If you are a registered shareholder or proxyholder and wish to ask a question, click the Question icon at the top of the webcast page. Type in your question in the text box at the bottom of the messaging screen, and then click the Send button.
If your question relates to a specific motion, please start your question by identifying the motion. We will respond to questions relating to specific motions before the closing of the polls, we'll save all other questions for the general question-and-answer session at the end of the presentations, following the formal portion of the meeting. We will receive the questions and read them out in order for everyone to be aware of the question being addressed. If we have a number of questions that are the same or very similar, we will consolidate the questions. We will endeavor to address all general questions. Please note that due to time constraints, we may not be able to do so. If you have questions, we encourage you to submit them now. Questions can be submitted throughout the meeting. A bit about the format of today's meeting.
We will deal with the formal requirements of the meeting. Thereafter, Dan will provide his insights on all of the important facets of our business performance and potential, including our people and the communities we serve. I would now like to introduce all of the members of the board of directors who will be standing for election this year. Deepak Chopra is from Toronto and is the Past President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Post. Frank Coleman is from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, and is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Coleman Group of Companies. Stewart Glendinning is from Ocean Ridge, Florida, and is the Group President, Prepared Foods of Tyson Foods. Stewart is the Chair of our Governance and Nominating Committee. Rachel Huckle is from Toronto and is the President and Chief Operating Officer for Staples Canada.
Annalisa King is from Vancouver and is the past Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Best Buy Canada. Annalisa is the Chair of our Audit Committee. Vi Konkle is from Fenwick, Ontario, and is the past President and Chief Executive Officer of The Brick. Vi is the Chair of our Human Resources, Compensation, and Pension Committee. Stephen Kroft is from Winnipeg and is the past Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chair of the CEL Group of Companies. Jennefer Nepinak is from Winnipeg and is the Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Reconciliation at TIPI Group of Companies. Victor Tootoo is from Iqaluit, Nunavut, and is the president of NVision Insight Group. Of course, there is our Chief Executive Officer, Dan McConnell, and myself, Brock Bulbuck. We are recommending you reelect the aforementioned directors to our board.
With those comments, I would now like to move to the formal part of the meeting. The first item of business is the presentation of the consolidated financial statements of The North West Company Inc for the year ended January 31, 2023, and the related auditor's report. A copy of the financial statements was made available to all shareholders with the notice of meeting. Shareholders are not asked to take any action regarding the financial statements, but if any shareholder has questions relating to the financial statements, I would request that they be asked later in the meeting after Dan completes his presentation. The next item of business is the election of directors of The North West Company for the ensuing year. Apart from the directors listed in the management information circular and proxy statement for this meeting, no additional individuals have been nominated for election.
I will now entertain a motion with respect to the election of directors. Kevin Wasiluk, Canadian operations controller, has been asked to place before the meeting the names of those persons proposed to be nominated for election as directors, and Pam Pronic, international operations controller, has been asked to second the motion.
I move that each of the persons whose names are listed under the heading Election of Directors in the Management Information Circular, who are Brock Bulbuck, Deepak Chopra, Frank Coleman, Stewart Glendinning, Rachel Huckle, Annalisa King, Violet Konkle, Steven Kroft, Dan McConnell, Jennefer Nepinak, and Victor Tootoo be elected as directors of The North West Company Inc for the ensuing year or until their successors are appointed.
Thank you, Kevin.
I second the motion.
Thank you, Pam. Please cast your votes before we move on to the next item. We will now proceed with the appointment of auditors and the authorization of the board of directors to fix their remuneration. Kevin, may I have a motion to appoint the auditors of The North West Company? Pam, please second the motion.
I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed as the auditors of The North West Company Inc. to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders, or until their successor is duly appointed, and that the board of directors be authorized to fix their remuneration.
Thank you, Kevin.
I second the motion.
Thank you, Pam. Please cast your votes before we move on to the next item. We will now consider a non-binding advisory vote on the approach to executive compensation, which was outlined in the 2023 Management Information Circular that was previously sent to all shareholders. Kevin, may I have a motion regarding the compensation of North West executives, please? Pam, please second the motion.
I move that on an advisory basis and not to diminish the roles and responsibilities of the board, that the shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in The North West Company's 2023 Management Information Circular delivered in advance of this 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders.
Thank you, Kevin.
I second the motion.
Thank you, Pam. Please cast your votes. We will now take a short pause to answer any motion-specific questions that have been submitted and to permit any registered shareholder or proxy holder who has not already done so to record their votes on the motions before the meeting.
Mr. Chairman, we've received no questions.
Thank you, Amanda. Having received no questions, I will close the polls in 30 seconds. The polls are now closed. Thank you, Amanda. I have now received the preliminary scrutineers report. With respect to the election of directors, I am advised by the scrutineers that each of the proposed nominees has been duly elected. With respect to the resolutions to appoint the auditors and the non-binding executive compensation, I am advised by the scrutineers that these resolutions have been duly carried. The detailed results of this meeting will be announced in a press release and also included in a voting report to be filed on SEDAR as soon as practical after this meeting. We have now completed the formal part of the meeting. On behalf of management and the board of directors, I would like to thank you for attending today. We will now pause to watch a short video.
Each of us at The North West Company pride ourselves on having a positive impact on the communities and customers we serve every day. In 2022, as macroeconomic factors caused global inflationary pressures not seen in over 40 years, it was even more important as North Westerners we banded together to make a difference. In Northern Canada, we invested in our Price Drop program. By changing it from a weekly flyer program to a month-long locked-in promotional program and adding hundreds of additional essential items at lower prices we know are important for families. We also maximized our Sealift and winter road capacity in the many remote communities we serve, shipping more items into community at a lower freight cost.
Lower shipping costs mean more affordable prices for the customers we so proudly serve. It is an important way for us to help community members when food security is challenged. We made great strides last year to improve our storage capacity. We'll continue investing in expanding this capacity even more over the next few years.
At North West, we have a rich history of investing in our people. We sought to improve our talent acquisition capabilities, closing gaps in critical store roles faster. Leveraging technology and tools and building our partnerships helped us close vacancies in our Canadian operations by 30%. Focusing on recruiting sets us up for long-term success. Diversity and Inclusion continues to be something we work hard at each day. Through employee surveys, we discovered ways to ensure we embrace a culture of inclusivity at every level of the organization. These surveys have allowed us to create a baseline and assisted with setting targets for women in leadership and Indigenous representation. As we look forward, what remains important is knowing that conversations have begun with the right KPIs to track our continued progress. Our people are the reason for our success.
Making impact in the communities we serve is so important, both today and as we build for the future.
2022 was a banner year for the Alaska business, with a focus on new stores and new channels. We opened three new stores, one in Metlakatla, a community of 1,600 in southeastern Alaska, one in Toksook Bay, a community of 600 in western Alaska, and one in Point Hope, a community of 900 in northern Alaska. All three new stores are performing very well, and we have more new stores on the way. We also had top performance in e-commerce throughout 2022. First, in our Span Elite e-commerce business, which has low prices, fast shipping, and orders placed from over 100 villages. Second, in our brand new AC e-commerce app, where customers in remote villages order from the nearest AC store and have groceries flown into their community.
Overall, e-commerce is achieving 20% annual growth. We expect continued growth in this segment.
In 2022, the international business underwent some really positive transformation, aimed at sharpening our customer value proposition and ensuring that we're well set up to serve the needs of communities we operate in. We kicked this off in the Cost-U-Less business with a refresh of our brand. Having listened carefully to our customers, it was clear that they value us most for our club pack value, the ability to buy their favorite products and get great savings through buying more for what we now call, "Buy More and Save." We refreshed the logo and interior of our stores with a more modern feel, reinforcing our awareness of value. We tested the new concept in Hilo, Hawaii in August to celebrate the store's 30th anniversary. The results have been amazing, and customer feedback has been really positive.
Across the Caribbean, both in Cost-U-Less and RiteWay, we doubled down on servicing our business customers and our provisioning customers. As tourists returned to the islands, we helped our local partners, which include bars, restaurants, and hotels, to operate their businesses by offering them great product at great prices. In RiteWay, our provisioning business went from strength to strength, helped by our new online platform that was launched in 2021. We're really happy with the progress we made as a business in 2022 in modernizing our business, and we're committed to continuing to invest in our customers.
2022 marked an important milestone for Northwest in Canada with the launch of our Promise to Indigenous Peoples, a formal acknowledgment of the history Northwest shares with Indigenous peoples, along with bold commitments under three strategic pillars to advance reconciliation. Under the first pillar, wellbeing security, we've made advancements with the Healthy Horizons Foundation in support of programming that promotes the health and wellbeing of children and youth. The second pillar is stronger community bonds. From improvements to our employee cultural awareness training offerings to our participation in promoting important events such as Orange Shirt Day and Red Dress Day, we move beyond words to taking tangible action to deepen the bonds that we hold with communities we are proud to serve. We've also committed to promoting inclusion and economic success.
We've established strategic partnerships with Indigenous vendors such as Dreamcatcher Promotions, an Indigenous-owned and operated apparel company, which has enabled us to expand our assortment of products that are meaningful to the communities we serve.
The strategic partnership that we have established with The North West Company is truly a game changer in how we do business. We are, as a company, thankful and grateful for the opportunity that we've been given to work with The North West Company and to help them provide a service and apparel line to the northern communities that they serve.
The Promise is our reaffirmed commitment to building more collaborative relationships with Indigenous peoples. We're proud of the work we've accomplished so far. We're excited for the important journey ahead.
I will now invite Dan to say a few words about the past year. We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have after Dan's presentation has concluded. You are welcome to submit any questions any time during the presentation by typing in the question in the box displayed on the screen and clicking the button Submit.
Thanks, Brock. Good morning. I'm excited to discuss Northwest's position in the market today and our vision for the future of Northwest. As you know, The North West Company has roots that go back as far as 1668 in the fur trade. Since the reformation of The North West Company in 1987, Northwest has significantly grown, purchasing Alaska Commercial Company to expand into similar target demographics in Alaska, acquiring Cost-U-Less to expand into new geographies and formats, and acquiring RiteWay to expand our Caribbean presence, and acquiring North Star Air to gain efficiencies in our logistics network. This history makes us one of the longest continuous retail enterprises in the world and a part of the fabric of the communities that we serve.
Today, we are a diversified multi-billion-dollar business with historic and well-known banners like Northern, Cost-U-Less, Alaska Commercial Company, and RiteWay Food Markets across rural and remote locations in Canada, Alaska, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean. Our customers who live in rural and developing small population communities rely on us to live up to our promise of being the best local shopping choice for every household items and lifestyle needs. If there's one thing an organization as old as ours has had to do time and time again, it is adapt and evolve. As external market factors such as inflation persist, we at The North West Company need to be more proactive, not reactive, to ensure we grow our position in the market.
That is why we are embarking on a journey to build on our strong foundation, drive profitable growth, and increase the value for our customers, employees, the communities we serve, and our shareholders. To do this, we need to understand our strong starting point as a business today, where we are going in the future, and how change will help us get there. First, let's dive into where we are today. Over the last five years, we have grown our top line in EBITDA, as well as grown our dividend payment, making us a strong performer on return on equity. What enables us to do this is a flywheel effect. The flywheel effect is the relationship between our enterprise, our stores, our customers, and the communities we serve, each of which are central to our success and build on one another to give us our unique value proposition.
This includes, but isn't limited to, at the enterprise level, our good capital stewardship. Capital allocation is critical to initiating the flywheel effect. It's by investing in our business to better serve our customers. Additionally, our difficult-to-replicate supply chain across the land, air, and sea, which just allows us to deliver critical goods faster and more reliably. At the store level, our deep understanding of our customers, enabled by our strong teams, allows us to tailor offerings at the community level, and our expansive store footprint in relatively remote geographies allows us to create easy access for our customers. At the customer and community level, the trusting relationship we continue to build with the employees, customers, and communities who we serve. We are not just critical supply partners and employers, but we engage to make the communities we serve a better place.
For example, in 2022, we launched our Promise to Indigenous Peoples, a reaffirmed commitment to building more collaborative relationships that will enhance the inclusion and social well-being of Indigenous peoples of Canada. More on our Promise to Indigenous Peoples later. This for strong and reliable operation at the enterprise and store level creates trust at the customer and community level. This is to drive business. It allows us to make the investments in our stores and communities required to continue this loop. Through this flywheel, we create a strong and attractive shareholder proposition. As I mentioned at last year's AGM, the COVID-19 pandemic presented the business with several challenges but also opportunities. We leveraged our unique logistics capability to continue to provide essential goods and services, including PPE, to hard-to-reach communities across Canada, Alaska, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean.
The travel restrictions and government income support payments drove customers toward in-community purchasing, leading a significant positive gain in sales in 2020. We celebrate our fantastic frontline associates and managers for continuing to serve communities through the pandemic. We did this through wage premiums and bonuses. While the retail industry grappled with inflation, we opted not to fully pass those cost increases to our customers in the short term. This was particularly important for our customers, many of whom are highly impacted by merchandise and freight cost inflation. We emerged from it nimbler and more resilient as a business. During this time, we focused on managing the crisis to ensure customers had affordable access to the goods and services they need to weather those challenging times.
As we transition away from the impact of COVID-19, we continue to face a challenging macroeconomic environment and the impact of this inflation. These factors were reflected in the first quarter results that were released earlier. While sales in the first quarter increased 7.5% compared to last year, we continued to experience inflation-related pressures on our gross margin rates and expenses, which resulted in lower earnings in the quarter compared to the impact of COVID-19-related earnings gains just last year. I'll provide more detail on the Q1 earnings in the call later this afternoon. The key point is we look to the future. As we look to the future, we need to focus on improving affordability for our customers while providing returns to the shareholders.
As we look to the future of North West, we need to be proactive, not reactive, to the various market shifts and focus on improving affordability and availability for our customers. Our journey ahead demands that we position ourselves for success, to build upon our capabilities and continue to live up to our purpose. That is why we are guiding our actions and focus towards building for the future. Our goal is to drive meaningful productivity and efficiency gains for cost savings, to reinvest for faster and more sustainable growth, and to optimize margins while delivering meaningful ESG outcomes. We understand the essential role we play for the communities we operate in. We can often be the primary retailer of essential goods and services, one of the largest employers in the community, and a key supporter to locally based organizations.
Our focus and initiatives will ensure that our customers continue to have access to affordable goods and services, and we continue to make a positive impact on the communities we serve. This means reducing costs and finding operational efficiencies to bring margins where they should be and cushion the impact of price inflation for our customers. This also means institutionalizing and actualizing commitments to communities that we serve from Indigenous employment, promotion and retention, health and well-being, economic inclusion and more. We finance the improvements to our business and tackle the high-value revenue growth opportunities we need to grow our position in the market. We continue to strive to provide top-in-class total returns to shareholders through earnings growth, dividends and disciplined capital allocation.
To deliver on our ambition of being the best local shopping choice for everyday household and lifestyle needs for our customers, our strategy rests on 5 pillars: operational excellence, investing in stores, products and services, building superior logistics and supply chain capabilities, optimizing IT infrastructure, and ESG. What we are doing is feeding the flywheel effect I mentioned earlier. We are embarking on a journey starting with the cost and capital efficiencies to reinvest in the business and the community. These investments at the enterprise, store, and community level will drive a better customer experience, whether it's improving availability of your favorite local product, ensuring you have access to fresh vegetables for your family, or ensuring you can buy diapers affordably. These investments will build trust in the communities we serve, drive loyalty, and ultimately increase tonnage and market share, re-energizing the flywheel.
As we begin the first stage of our journey, I want to give you a clear picture of what this entails. Tackling margin through operational efficiencies like reducing shrink and optimizing how we transport goods across our land, sea, and air network. This will allow us to grow our margin by tackling the bottom line while keeping prices affordable for our customers. Improving our customer offering by providing more value, ensuring we are carrying the assortment they desire, and merchandising it more effectively. For example, refreshing our assortment across banners and exploring our private label strategy. This will provide our customers with affordable, an affordable variety while providing the business with better margin control. Developing our analytical capabilities across the business to drive data-based decision-making.
During the pandemic, we saw how powerful data and digital will be for any analytical problem-solving, and we continue to invest in these capabilities to remain as agile as a business as we can. For example, revamping our markdown engine will allow us to better leverage store-level data to make centralized decisions on when and where to place markdowns. This is intended just to give you an overview of what we will be targeting, but it is only a portion of a more comprehensive portfolio of work streams that we'll be focusing on. Our success in delivering desired outcomes will require building our capabilities and focused execution. This means making prudent investment in technology to fully realize the value of store-level data in our operations and make better informed decisions.
This also means equipping our people with the tools, skills, and motivation to execute. I want to highlight that our ESG strategy continues to underline any and all work done at Northwest. Why is ESG so important to us at Northwest? Well, to give you an idea of the magnitude of impact we have, we serve hundreds of thousands of Indigenous and remote region customers in Canada, Alaska, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean, and we are one of the largest employers of Indigenous peoples in Canada outside of the Canadian government. We continuously think about how our operations and ESG initiatives can create better impact for our customers, employees, and the communities we serve. As I mentioned earlier, one way we have done that is through the launch of our Promise to Indigenous Peoples in 2022.
This is a reaffirmation of our commitments to improve the lives of the Indigenous communities we serve and a commitment to the spirit of reconciliation reflected in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action and final report. There is a phrase in Indigenous Canada, "Nothing for us without us," and we at The North West respect and abide by that. The Promise and its initiatives were developed through respectful consultations with the diverse Indigenous peoples we serve to truly understand what will move the needle for Indigenous inclusion and social wellbeing. The Promise spans into three focus areas. Wellbeing and Security. It's a commitment to working collaboratively with Indigenous peoples to advance health and wellbeing in the communities we serve. Stronger Community Bonds. A commitment to developing stronger community bonds by recognizing the past and committing to a better future. Lastly, Inclusion and Economic Success.
A commitment to improving Indigenous inclusion in store and head office management while encouraging Indigenous economic development. With over 50% of our workforce being Indigenous, training and developing, excuse me, our talent to improve economic wellbeing and mobility is a critical part of our success. Five work streams were developed to advance each of the three focus areas within The Promise. These work streams were the Healthy Horizons Foundation, Advocacy in Action, Annual Community Meetings, Awareness Training and DEI, and Indigenous Procurement. As part of the work stream to expand Indigenous Procurement in Canadian operations, we have partnered with many Indigenous businesses across Canada. One of these partnerships I'd like to highlight is Dreamcatcher Promotions, Canada's largest Indigenous-owned promotional company operated by Michelle Cameron. Michelle is a strong business leader who has been celebrated repeatedly.
For example, recently, she was awarded with the National Indigenous Business of the Year Award from the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association. We have expanded our pro-procurement with Dreamcatcher Promotions significantly through the work of the Promise. In 2022, we sold 15,500 units of product from Dreamcatcher. In 2023, we are on track to sell over 40,000 units. That's more than double the units from last year. This growth comes from the poll from our customers. We have received a lot of positive feedback from customers who appreciate being able to buy items that reflect their culture, their values, while supporting an Indigenous-owned business.
In 2022, we partnered with Dreamcatcher Promotions to make orange shirts available for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and red shirts for the National Day of Awareness for MMIWG2S. Profits of almost CAD 70,000 were donated to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and to the Native Women's Association of Canada. This is an example of the power of working together with indigenous-owned businesses to provide goods and services that resonate with our customers, recirculate income back into indigenous economies, and support indigenous-owned businesses' success. We will continue to make progress on our Promise to Indigenous Peoples to build better relationships with customers and communities. Our work will include a specific set of ESG initiatives that will tie into our broader strategy. In future quarters, we'll provide you with more updates on our strategy work.
Our customers rely on us for access to essential and affordable goods and services. As supply chain shortages and labor shortages drive inflation, we know that our customers need us to manage price increases and continue to uplift the communities we operate in. At the same time, we will continue to deliver strong returns for our investors. We will evolve our business to drive sustainable financial growth while continuing to deliver for our customers across the communities that we so proudly serve. Thank you.
Thank you, Dan. We will now entertain questions from our shareholders.
Mr. Chair, we received no questions.
Thank you, Amanda. Having received no questions, we will conclude our meeting. Thank you all for attending this year's AGM.