Hello everyone, and welcome to the 2026 Annual General Meeting for TELUS Corporation.
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Welcome to our 26th Annual General Meeting for TELUS Corporation.
My name is John Manley, and I'm pleased to be your Chair for this meeting of the TELUS shareholders. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that I am speaking to you today from the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. We recognize that TELUS work spans many territories and treaty areas across the country. For everyone joining us virtually today, I also want to acknowledge the lands on which you are living and working. As a corporate leader in advancing reconciliation, TELUS was the first technology company in Canada to launch an Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan. This plan reflects insights from Indigenous peoples, including our TELUS Indigenous Advisory Council, the communities we serve, and the partners that we collaborate with.
Access to connectivity is the foundation of our plan, and we are proud to have connected 90% of premises in Indigenous communities to TELUS networks in our serving areas. Once again, this year we are using technology to enable shareholders to attend virtually via a live webcast. This ensures that everyone can participate equally, regardless of geographic location, while eliminating the environmental impact of travel. Please note that this meeting is available in French and portions of my speech will be in French. If you're listening in English, you will hear the translation. To listen in French, please click the stream language button in the bottom right corner of the screen. Lastly, closed captioning is available for our meeting by selecting the icon in the upper right-hand corner. This year marks a historic transition for this organization.
As we recently announced, after 26 years of exceptional leadership, Darren Entwistle is retiring at the end of June. During his tenure, Darren transformed TELUS from a regional carrier operating in just two provinces into a global technology powerhouse spanning 45 countries. Under his leadership, TELUS built world-leading broadband and AI infrastructure, expanded our business portfolio, and fostered a culture of excellence at TELUS that will stand the test of time. Most importantly, Darren proved over his tenure that commercial success and social impact are not mutually exclusive. He firmly established social capitalism as our core operating principle. Since 2000, TELUS and its team members have generously devoted CAD 1.85 billion in value, including 2.5 million days of volunteerism in local communities.
Darren's leadership, his commitment to innovation, and his passion for our business, our people, and our customers have established a strong foundation for growth at TELUS. He will be remembered as one of the greatest business builders in our industry globally. Darren, you're here with us in the room today. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I want to extend our deepest appreciation for your immeasurable contribution to TELUS over the last quarter-century. In recognition of his contribution over so many years, Darren will hold the title of CEO Emeritus. Following a comprehensive succession process, Victor Dodig will assume the role of CEO on July 1st. We're thrilled to welcome Victor to the role of CEO at TELUS. He served on our Board since 2022 and brings a deep understanding of our industry, our strategy, and our culture.
Victor's an exceptional leader and brings an unparalleled track record of positive transformation and value creation to the role. Over three decades at CIBC, he transformed the bank into a modern, customer-oriented, and digitally focused institution. To ensure a seamless handover, Darren will serve as an advisor to Victor until April of 2027. Importantly, Victor inherits a company operating from a position of strength. While we recognize our 2025 share price did not reflect our fundamental health, our team delivered industry-leading results in a highly competitive market. We consistently outperformed our peers by achieving the highest customer net addition, lowest postpaid churn, and unmatched free cash flow growth alongside record low capital intensity. As we navigate this leadership transition, please be assured that the board and Victor are building on the strong foundation here at TELUS and focused on creating value for you, our shareholders.
Victor joined the TELUS executive team on May 1st. He will take the next several months to dig deeper into the business and begin developing more specific views on key issues of our strategy and growth plans. You can expect that Victor will offer his initial impressions on this during our Q2 earnings call in late July.
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As a global technology leader, we remain committed to delivering measurable environmental, social, and economic results. Whether it be revolutionizing health care to support more than 161 million people worldwide or bridging the digital divide
Becoming the most sustainable telecommunications company according to Time Magazine, we rely on innovation to drive positive change at scale. Driven by our unwavering commitment to our social mission, we leverage our technologies to fundamentally improve the quality of life for the communities that we serve.
I'd like to formally introduce the people joining me here today to help conduct this meeting. Darren Entwistle, our President and Chief Executive Officer. We also have Andrea Wood, our Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Governance Officer. Andrea will be acting as the secretary of this meeting. Assisting us today is Chris Main, our Associate General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary. Chris will act as our moderator for any questions during the formal portion of the meeting. Finally, Jill Schnarr, our Chief Communications and Brand Officer, who will moderate the question and answer session following the meeting. Before we begin the formal business, please read the cautionary statement on your screen. Today's meeting will contain forward-looking statements.
These are based on assumptions and subject to risks, including those described in our public filings, and actual results may differ materially. We may also use non-GAAP measures to discuss our performance. Details can be found in our annual report and our Q1 financial disclosure. Now, before we call the meeting to order, I'd like to invite Darren to share some remarks. Darren, the floor is yours.
Thank you, John, and hello, everyone.
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Welcome to our annual general meeting, and thank you.
Before I begin my remarks, I'd like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere gratitude to Doug French, TELUS's Chief Financial Officer, who, as we announced earlier today, is retiring at the end of June. Doug has had a truly extraordinary career, and I feel exceedingly fortunate to have worked alongside him for 26 of his 30 years at TELUS. Throughout his storied tenure, Doug has demonstrated an outstanding ability to support TELUS in generating leading results, balance sheet and cash management, alongside world-best shareholder value creation. As one of North America's most respected and experienced CFOs, Doug leaves behind him an extremely impressive legacy of success. He is truly one of a kind, and we will miss him dearly. I'd also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Gopi Chande on being named TELUS' new CFO, effective on the 1st of July.
Gopi has considerable CFO experience with TELUS Digital, as well as nearly three decades of strategic financial leadership, and she'll fit in well in this role. TELUS and our shareholders are in very good hands with Gopi. Let me now return to my formal remarks. As I look back on what we've built together over the past 26 years, I feel tremendously grateful to have been part of the TELUS team. During my remarks, I'll reflect not only on our 2025 results and in terms of what we delivered in Q1, but also take the opportunity to reflect on our extraordinary journey that we commenced back in 2000.
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Here's an overview of the past 26 years.
TELUS has consistently led our peer group across key growth parameters.
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TELUS has constantly dominated in its sector.
Notably, since 2000, TELUS' revenue growth has increased by 242%. EBITDA, the growth has more than doubled to CAD 4 billion-CAD 7.4 billion. Free cash flow has increased by 1,666% to CAD 2.2 billion through 2025. Customer connections have grown by 383% from 4.3 million to over 21 million today. Total shareholder return has grown by 661%, leading all telcos globally. TELUS' enterprise value has increased by 428% since 2000 to CAD 55 billion. These achievements illustrate TELUS' unparalleled track record of execution excellence while reinforcing our consistent leadership when compared to our global peer group.
Our TELUS team has evolved from a regional telecommunications provider with 25,000 employees in 2 provinces in 2000 into a world-leading data technology organization operating in 45 countries with over 133,000 team members today.
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What remarkable transformation.
In 2025, our team once again led our industry and global peers in respect of key financial and operational metrics almost on an exhaustive basis. These achievements, outlined on the accompanying slide illustrate your company's unparalleled track record of execution excellence demonstrated by TELUS' leadership across nearly every financial and operational performance parameter. By way of example, in 2025, we added an industry-leading 1,081,000 new customer connections, surpassing the 1 million mark for the fourth consecutive year. Owing to our team's long-standing commitment to customer service excellence, TELUS consistently realizes world-leading client loyalty.
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Customer loyalty is unparalleled in the world.
This includes a full year 2025 postpaid churn rate of 0.97%. This represents our twelfth consecutive year of churn being under 1%, which is truly an unparalleled accomplishment within the global telecoms landscape. We also achieved our full-year public guidance with TTech adjusted EBITDA delivering industry-leading growth of 3.1%. In addition, we delivered almost CAD 5 million in cash from operations and notably delivered record consolidated free cash flow of CAD 2.2 billion, which represents an increase of 11% over the prior year, exceeding our annual target. This builds upon the 12% and the 38% free cash flow growth we delivered in 2024 and 2023 respectively. These are but a few of the highlights from 2025. Now let's turn and have a look at our first quarter results.
In Q1, your company realized industry-leading customer net additions of 262,000. Consolidated operating service revenue growth of 1%, also industry-leading. Industry-leading postpaid mobile churn of 1.06%. Industry-leading blended mobile churn of 1.35%. Industry-leading mobile phone lifetime revenue, 13% better than our closest competitor, driven by our churn leadership. Finally, industry-leading strong free cash flow growth of 19%. This growth is powered by our world-leading 5G+ and PureFibre networks, which continue to differentiate TELUS meaningfully from the competition and drive long-term shareholder value creation. Our company's ongoing and future success is also supported by the innovative and differentiated growth areas of our business.
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Our activities are unique in our sector.
By way of example, TELUS Digital's world-leading capabilities in digital customer experience solutions and AI innovations are highly complementary to our strategy at TELUS, helping to drive our customer experience leadership and industry-best loyalty results for over two decades on a highly cost-efficient basis. In 2025, we completed the privatization of TELUS Digital, including access to TELUS Digital's strong cash flow generation of CAD 170 million per annum. Notably, this transaction will generate approximately CAD 150 million-CAD 200 million in annualized cash synergies through operational efficiencies. Through the first quarter of 2026, we have realized annualized free cash flow synergies of approximately CAD 115 million thus far. These include accelerated AI-driven automation. These include business simplification, and these include strategic cross-promotion of services with TTech and TELUS Health.
The organic cash flow of TELUS Digital, plus the aforementioned cash synergies, means that we will have a short payback period on the privatization and a strong financial return prospectively. TELUS Digital is uniquely positioned to provide TELUS and our clients complete end-to-end AI solutions, from AI transformations through to compute needs, with a special differentiating emphasis on world-leading CX AI. With these unique capabilities across the entire value chain of AI, we have created prescient and meaningful new revenue streams for TELUS. TELUS Digital is also leveraging TELUS as an innovation lab to commercialize cutting-edge AI-enabling capabilities for our external clients. These initiatives further strengthen our financial performance, and they support high-impact opportunities to create significant shareholder value in the years to come.
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Our shareholders will benefit from this value creation for a long time.
The monetization of our refurbished legacy data centers into Sovereign AI Factories is also creating new revenue streams, whilst positioning TELUS and TELUS Digital as the trusted partner for businesses seeking secure, sovereign AI computing infrastructure and capabilities. Notably, our Sovereign AI Factory in Rimouski launched in September 2025 as Canada's first fully sovereign AI factory. The facility, which was named the fastest and most powerful supercomputer in Canada and 78th globally by TOP500, is now sold out. This clearly validates the strong market demand for sovereign AI infrastructure and compute capability. Accordingly, we are expanding our compute inventory in Rimouski, whilst our second facility in Kamloops will be coming online shortly to serve the expanding ecosystem of Canadian and American businesses, researchers, entrepreneurs, and government organizations seeking sovereign AI capabilities and compute power.
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Speaking of emerging growth.
TELUS Health has experienced significant expansion.
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TELUS Health growth is exceptional.
This is reflected in our strong financial performance, with increases in revenue and adjusted EBITDA of 15% and 22% respectively for the 2025 financial year. This builds upon TELUS Health's EBITDA growth of 18% in 2024 and 36% in 2023. Indeed, TELUS Health's data-centric services now enhance circa 170 million lives across 200 countries and territories. Moreover, TELUS Health has increased revenue from CAD 245 million back in 2008 to CAD 2 billion in 2025, and is targeting EBITDA of over CAD 400 million in 2026. Furthermore, when combined with TELUS Health's lower capital intensity, this business drives strong cash flow generation and serves as a strategic capital contributor to TELUS's overall capital allocation priorities.
By way of illustration, we are targeting more than CAD 200 million of simple cash flow in 2026 coming from TELUS Health. Thanks to our consistently strong results, TELUS has delivered significant value for our investors over the past quarter-century.
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TELUS creates value for investors
Since 2000, TELUS led all telcos globally with a total shareholder return of 661%. This is 228 percentage points ahead of the second-place global telco and outpaces the MSCI World Telecom Services Index and S&P/TSX by 601 and 111 percentage points respectively. Since 2000, TELUS has returned approximately CAD 31 billion to shareholders.
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TELUS has generated returns of CAD 31 billion.
This includes circa CAD 26 billion in dividends and more than CAD 5 billion in share repurchases, representing some CAD 20 per share. These consistent returns are one of the ways we enable better outcomes for the families, pensioners, businesses, and individuals who invest in TELUS.
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TELUS team members are the third-largest shareholder group.
Our TELUS team is also strengthening our balance sheet through our deleveraging program, a deleveraging program that is ahead of plan. Notably, in 2025, we completed CAD 7.3 billion in junior subordinated debt issuances, providing 50% equity recognition to support balance sheet flexibility. Additionally, we partnered with La Caisse to create Terrion, a dedicated wireless tower infrastructure operator led by the excellent Eros Spadotto, reducing TELUS's net debt by CAD 1.26 billion and giving us a strategic asset for the future expansion of wireless infrastructure in Canada. These efforts reinforce our progress in respect of deleveraging with our leverage ratio improving to 3.4x as of the end of 2025 and expected to reach circa 3.3x or lower by the end of 2026 and 3x or better by the end of 2027.
Throughout the remainder of 2026, our team will pursue additional opportunities.
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More business opportunities await
This includes accelerated monetization of real estate and copper assets as a positive byproduct of our extensive fiber build and as well exploring strategic investors for TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods alongside TELUS Health. Throughout 2025, we continued to expand TELUS's world-leading broadband networks, which are the backbone of our digital economy and societies.
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He says, "Our networks are essential for our society and digital networks."
The connectivity we provide improves the lives of Canadians by enabling teleworking, online healthcare, and education flexibility. It drives heightened productivity, innovation, and competitiveness for our country, and it supports transformational change in remediating our environment, advancing agriculture efficiency, and bridging socioeconomic and geographic divides. Today, we are announcing plans to invest an additional CAD 66 billion in new technology, infrastructure, and operations across Canada through 2030 that creates new, high-quality jobs in Canada. This critical infrastructure is the 21st century equivalent to building railroads and highways that connect our country, and it underscores TELUS' commitment to always be building Canada. At TELUS, we're building the future of a country. Impressively, TELUS has put to work almost CAD 300 billion nationally since 2000.
To put this into perspective, these investments represent the financial equivalent of constructing 84 Canadian Pacific Railway, 58 St. Lawrence Seaways, 27 Trans-Canada Highway systems from coast to coast, or eight Trans Mountain expansion pipelines. As a result of these sustained investments over the past 26 years, TELUS has transformed our regional wireless network in B.C. and Alberta from basic first-generation voice services into one of the most advanced, high-quality 5G networks in the world.
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TELUS has the best 5G network in the world.
TELUS' world-leading 5G network now reaches more than 90% of Canada's population. Moreover, it was recognized by U.K.-based Opensignal as Canada's most awarded network in 2026 and the most awarded network ever. Since 2000, our wireless customer base has grown by over 1,200% from 1 million clients in B.C. and Alberta to nearly 15 million across Canada today.
Turning to wireline, in 2013, we undertook a unique transformational program to build a best-in-class fiber network that would replace aging copper in British Columbia, Alberta, and Eastern Quebec. Today, thanks to the hard work and the engineering skill of our team, over 99% of our eligible legacy internet and TV customers have migrated to TELUS PureFibre, the fastest, most robust communications technology in the world.
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PureFibre is the fastest internet technology in the world.
TELUS, your company, is the best-performing fiber operator globally, as evidenced by our leadership in respect of market penetration and product intensity, customer loyalty, cost to serve, and lifetime revenue per account. Indeed, our TELUS PureFibre business is a significant strategic asset valued at approximately CAD 20 billion based on comparable fiber infrastructure asset valuations in the U.S.
This valuation reflects the substantial capital invested in building Canada's most extensive fiber to the home, fiber to the business network, and it underscores the competitive moat and long-term value creation potential of TELUS' broadband infrastructure without even taking into account TELUS' best-in-class performance metrics in this regard. In 2025, we advanced our national broadband wireline strategy with the expansion of TELUS PureFibre in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In doing so, we will leverage fiber wholesale access while making smart targeted investments to build our fiber network in select significantly sized markets that are currently not served with fiber infrastructure. Backed by a CAD 2 billion investment over the next few years, TELUS is entering these markets with a markedly different approach.
Customers in these markets will benefit from TELUS' attractive bundles of home internet, entertainment, and wireless packages, as well as new unique services such as AI-driven smart home energy management, next-generation home and mobile healthcare, affordable AI-driven home security, and powerful home automation capabilities. Impressively, TELUS has earned its way to becoming the market share leader in wireline services in Western Canada. Our internet market share has expanded from 8% back in 2000 when Shaw had 80% market share overall to a leading 51% market share today realized, delivered, and exemplified by TELUS. Similarly, both TV and security had 0% market share in 2 000 for TELUS. 26 years later, TELUS is the market leader in both of these product lines, with TV having 48% market share and security earning 60% market share. TELUS, a leader the market-
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TELUS is a market leader in web, television, and security services.
Our wireline customer base has grown by 96% to more than 6.3 million clients today. As our company's customer base has expanded exponentially, so has our brand resonance with consumers. Notably, our beloved TELUS brand has increased in value from a few CAD 100 million in 2000 to nearly CAD 12 billion today. This has earned TELUS recognition as Canada's most valuable and reputable telco brand by Brand Finance. Perhaps the most important accomplishment of all over the past quarter century is what our TELUS team is achieving on the social purpose front. Together, we have set the model and standards for other businesses and their employees to emulate and join us in making the world a better place. Since 2000, TELUS has generously devoted CAD 1.85 billion, including 2.5 million days of volunteerism, which is more than any other company in the world. TELUS.
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TELUS is the most generous company in the world.
This month, we are celebrating our 21st Annual TELUS Days of Giving. What began in 2005 with 5,000 volunteers in Canada has grown to 90,000 volunteers now across 35 countries. Another important part of our legacy is the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation.
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The foundation is a significant part of our heritage.
TELUS made history when we established the foundation with a CAD 120 million endowment from TELUS. This gift was funded by the profit TELUS made in developing and monetizing our TELUS Garden headquarters in Vancouver. The foundation makes a meaningful difference in the lives of young people across the globe.
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The Foundation helps youth from around the world.
This is exemplified by the creation of the TELUS Student Bursary Program in 2023, the largest bursary fund in Canada.
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It's the biggest scholarship program in Canada.
To date, the foundation has dispersed CAD 6 million in bursaries to 2,000 post-secondary students in need of financial assistance who are volunteering in their communities and making a difference with much more to come. This is a potent illustration of TELUS' world leadership in social capitalism and our belief that doing well in business and doing good in our communities are mutually inclusive.
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Succeeding in business and doing some good in and for our communities, these things go hand in hand.
This is but a sampling of our TELUS team's outstanding achievements throughout 2025 and over the past 26 years. On behalf of our team members and retirees worldwide, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our shareholders, customers, and community partners for your continued support and patronage.
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Thank you for your support.
As my tenure as CEO draws to a close, I would like to once again extend a warm welcome to Victor Dodig, who will assume the role of TELUS' next President and CEO on the 1st of July. I would also like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to our amazing TELUS team across the globe for embracing our values and making the world a better place and TELUS a better company. Thank you as well for what our employees have done for creating value for customers and investors alike. The success our company has realized belongs to each of our TELUS team members, the extraordinary individuals who have created so passionately the exceptional culture that truly sets TELUS apart.
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It's our teams that set us apart from rest.
To be a part of this team and to support them has been an honor of a lifetime, and I remain extremely excited for what the future holds for TELUS and our team members.
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It's been an honor to be part of the TELUS team.
Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Andrea to review today's agenda and outline some procedural matters. Andy, over to you.
Thank you, Darren, and thank you for your remarkable 26-year commitment to TELUS and to Canada. Good morning, everyone. As outlined on the agenda, we have a few business items to cover today. In addition to tabling our financial statements, there are four motions that we will be voting on. Once all of the motions have been voted on, we will announce our preliminary voting results. The legal business of the meeting will come to a close. If you have any comments not related to the business of the meeting, please save them until our question and answer session after the meeting. Let us now turn to the meeting procedures. I'm pleased to advise that we have the necessary quorum. The preliminary scrutineers report indicates that approximately 39.47% of the shares are represented here today at this meeting.
I will add the final scrutineers report to the minutes of the meeting when available. We have also received a declaration of mailing from Computershare confirming that it sent notice of today's meeting to all registered holders of TELUS shares, as well as a notice advising them that the information circular was available online for viewing or downloading. I am tabling the declaration and will add it to the minutes of this meeting. Back to you, John.
Thank you, Andrea, I declare this meeting to be properly constituted. I'd like to appoint Stephanie Tuss and Stephen Bandola, representatives of Computershare, as scrutineers for this meeting. Let me now introduce the 14 board members standing for re-election. Biographical information for each nominee can be found in our information circular. I am honored to serve as the chair of the TELUS Board. I've already introduced Darren Entwistle, our CEO. Darren will continue to serve as a director until his retirement on June 30th, 2026. Our other nominees include Ray Chan, Hazel Claxton, Lisa de Wilde, Victor Dodig, Tom Flynn, Mary Jo Haddad, Martha Hall Findlay, Christine Magee, David Mowat, Marc Parent, Denise Pickett, and Sean Willy. Let's now proceed with those matters that require a vote at this meeting. Andrea, would you please explain the voting procedure?
Yes, thanks, John. Voting on the four resolutions will be conducted by an online poll, which I will explain shortly. First, I would like to table TELUS's audited annual financial statements for the year ended December 31. These are included in our 2025 annual report. Our annual report was made available to shareholders on April 2nd and can be accessed online at telus.com/agm. Let me explain some of the basic features of our virtual meeting platform and how you can vote at our meeting. When you're logged in today, you should see the information screen displayed on the left and the Broadcast window on the right. Here, you can view information about TELUS and ask questions. To see our slide presentation while you're listening to the webcast, simply click the Broadcast window on the right.
Registered shareholders or validly appointed proxy holders may vote on the four items of business. We have asked John Poirier, a shareholder, to make motions today. This is intended to make the meeting flow more smoothly. When the chair declares the poll is open, you will see a voting icon on the left of your screen. Within the window, you will first see the list of nominated directors, followed by the other three items of business at today's meeting. To vote, select one of the voting options. Your response will be highlighted, and it will be cast once the voting period is over. To change your vote, simply select the other voting option. If you'd like to cancel your vote, press the Cancel button below. In order for your vote to be properly recorded, it is important that you remain connected to the internet at all times.
John will open the poll on all four items of business at the same time. This will give you ample time to vote while he introduces each resolution. Let me explain the procedure for asking questions. Note that only registered shareholders or validly appointed proxy holders are able to ask questions. When you wish to ask a question, please select the messaging icon on the left of your screen and type your question in the chat box to the right of it. Click the Send button, you should receive a confirmation that your message has been received. We ask that you please be concise and address only one topic per question. If you have a question related to the resolution that's being moved, please submit it at that time.
Once shareholders and proxy holders have had a reasonable opportunity to express their views both for and against the matter, in the interest of keeping to our schedule, John may end the discussion. If you have a general question that's not related to the resolutions, please wait until after the formal business of the meeting to submit it. We will be monitoring all questions submitted, and we will relay them to John. If there are many similar ones on the same topic, we may pick one, or we may summarize the nature of the questions. All shareholder questions are welcome. We will not address those that are irrelevant to the business of the meeting or to TELUS's operations that are related to non-public information about TELUS or that are derogatory to individuals or otherwise offensive to third parties.
Any questions that are personal in nature or related to customer service will be directed to a representative who will be in touch with you by email after the meeting. We also invited shareholders to submit questions prior to today's meeting while they voted their shares electronically through the investorvote.com website. Any questions that cannot be answered today due to time constraints will be answered and posted on telus.com/agm. The questions and answers will be available within one business day of today's meeting, and they will remain online for one week. We will now turn to the first item of business to be voted upon. John, over to you.
Thank you, Andrea. I will now open the polls for all four items of business. Please feel free to vote while I am speaking on each of the items. The first voting item is the election of directors for the upcoming year. The board has set the number of directors at 14. In addition to the senior executive and strategic leadership experience the board requires of each director, the 14 nominees I listed earlier in the meeting represent a diverse cross-section of experience and background. They've all agreed, if elected at today's meeting, to help direct the future of TELUS for the next year. Darren will continue to serve as a director until his retirement on June 30, 2026. Further to our advance notice requirements for director nominations, Andrea has advised me that no additional nominations were received.
May we please have a motion for the nomination of these 14 individuals?
I move that the 14 individuals nominated in the information circular be elected as directors of the company to hold office for the ensuing year.
Thank you, John. Chris, are there any questions on the election of directors?
There are no questions, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Chris. For the election of the directors, you will see the names of all 14 nominees. Please scroll down to ensure you have voted on all 14 nominees. To cast your vote for a nominee, please select "for." To withhold your vote from a nominee, please select "withhold." The next item of business is the appointment of our auditors for the ensuing year. The recommendation to appoint Deloitte LLP was made by the audit committee of your board and supported by the board. May I please have a motion for the appointment of the auditors?
I move that Deloitte LLP be appointed as the auditors of the company for the ensuing year at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors.
Thank you, John. Chris, are there any questions on the appointment of the auditors?
There are no questions, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Chris. To cast your vote for the auditor's appointment, please select "for." To withhold your vote, please select "withhold." The next item of business is a motion to accept on an advisory basis our approach to executive compensation. Our compensation program strongly links executive pay to actual performance and aligns compensation with corporate success and shareholder value. Additional details of our executive compensation program can be found in our information circular. We value your feedback, your direct feedback on the company's executive compensation approach. The Board will consider the results of this vote when evaluating future compensation policies, procedures, and decisions. May I please have a motion to approve our approach to executive compensation?
I move that the shareholders approve on an advisory basis the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the company's information circular.
Thank you, John. Chris, are there any questions on the vote on executive compensation?
There are no questions, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Chris. To cast your vote for the say on pay resolution, please select "for." To vote against this resolution, please select "against." The next item of business is a motion to increase the share reserve under our restricted share unit plan. The RSU plan helps align the interests of management with those of shareholders by providing incentive compensation based on the value of TELUS shares. The increase in the maximum number of shares reserved for issuance under this plan is required as a result of the TELUS Digital privatization and the resulting increase in the number of team members who may participate. This resolution must be passed by a simple majority of the votes cast by holders of shares. May I please have a motion to increase the share reserve under the RSU plan?
I move that the resolution set out in the information circular regarding the increase to the share reserve under the company's restricted share unit plan be approved.
Thank you, John. Chris, are there any questions on the RSU plan resolution?
There are no questions, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Chris. To cast your vote for the RSU plan amendment, please select "for." To vote against this resolution, please select "against." We'll now continue with the voting. If you've not already done so, please vote on all four items of business. I'll give you some additional time to finalize your votes. Thank you. I declare the poll closed on all four items of business.
Thank you for participating. The scrutineers will now tabulate the results, and we will disclose the official voting results shortly after this meeting. However, based on the proxies that we have received to date, we can confirm the results of the votes today. On the first motion, the election of directors, the 14 nominees listed in the information circular are elected. On the second motion, the appointment of auditors, Deloitte LLP has been appointed as the company's auditors. On the third motion regarding the company's approach to executive compensation, the company's approach has been approved. On the fourth motion, the amendment to the RSU plan, the resolution has been approved. The official results of the meeting will be available on SEDAR+ and on telus.com following today's meeting.
Now that we've completed the formal items of business for this meeting, I declare the meeting terminated, and we will move on to the question- and- answer session. If not done already, I invite shareholders and proxy holders to submit their questions online. As Andrea noted earlier, you can select the messaging icon on the left of your screen and type your question or comment in the chat box to the right of it. Please remember to press send, and you should receive a confirmation that your question has been received. We'd like to remind you that shareholders are always welcome to ask questions throughout the year, not just at this time of the year, by emailing us at board@telus.com or by emailing our investor relations team at ir@telus.com.
We try to respond to every inquiry, whether directly by email or by making sure the appropriate TELUS team member gets back to you. Let's have the first question, Jill.
Thank you, John. We have time for one question only. We have a question from Francis who asks, "Could you detail the measures that TELUS intends to take to achieve the target of reducing the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to 3.0x by 2027?
Thank you, Francis, for the question. Much appreciated. You know, strengthening our balance sheet and delivering on our deleveraging commitments are truly top priorities for our TELUS leadership team, and it's also a priority for our Board of Directors, and we've been gainfully focused on delivering just that. You know, as I had the opportunity to share during my presentation, during the 2025 financial year, we completed CAD 7.3 billion in junior subordinated debt refinancings, providing 50% equity recognition to support balance sheet flexibility on our path to deleveraging. The team also worked very hard to strike a partnership that was successfully realized with La Caisse in Terrion, which of course is our dedicated wireless tower infrastructure operator.
That particular creation of the Terrion asset reduces TELUS's net debt by CAD 1.26 billion or approximately 0.17x . These efforts reinforce our progress in respect of lowering our debt levels, moving ahead of plan on that front with our net debt to EBITDA leverage ratio improving now to 3.4x at the end of 2025. That is the lowest net debt to EBITDA ratio amongst our national peers. We do have a position as it relates to leverage that's really the best within the Canadian telecom industry. To your question, we are looking to reach approximately 3.3x net debt to EBITDA or lower by the end of this year, the 2026 financial year.
When we look ahead to 2027, we're looking to get to 3x net debt to EBITDA or even lower by the end of the 2027 financial year. 3.4x at the end of 2025, 3.3x at the end of 2026, and 3.0x or lower by the end of 2027. That's the cadence that we're working towards. As I said, we're ahead of our plan in that regard, thanks to the hard work and skill of the team. Throughout the remainder of 2026, we are also pursuing key programs that support and in some cases augment our debt reduction goals. Overall, we're targeting some CAD 7 billion in monetization opportunities inclusive of the Terrion deal that we struck with La Caisse.
These also include the accelerated monetization of real estate and copper assets that are the byproduct of our fiber build, and we're progressing strategic investors for our TELUS Health operations. Importantly, with the successful execution of our monetization program, TELUS does not need to issue debt in the public markets until 2029. Our balance sheet and our cash position and our liquidity position are extremely strong, and we've got that position in carrying forward for the foreseeable future. These efforts are buttressed by leading operational and financial performance, and this is important. Your company has the best operational and financial results in the Canadian telecom industry, Francis, including our free cash flow growth that we just posted of 19% in Q1. The 11% free cash flow that we delivered in 2025 at some CAD 2.2 billion, which exceeds the expectations of the street.
These results build upon the 12% cash flow growth that we delivered in 2024, and the 38% growth in 2023. The combination there is reflective of excellence in our business performance and the financial results that we're generating, and the strong free cash flow that's being used to retire debt. Our Q1 free cash flow growth of 19% is, interestingly enough, consistent and above actually our public target of achieving a minimum 10% compounded annual growth rate in free cash flow through 2028. This reflects our strong operating and financial momentum. That free cash flow, as I said, will be put to work in lowering the leverage levels of this organization, i.e., retiring debt. We're also pausing our dividend at its current level so that we can continue to have a biased focus to directing resources towards the strengthening of our balance sheet.
Finally, Francis, we're continuing to assess both an accelerated deleveraging plan and an expedited discount dividend reinvestment plan step-down in conjunction with the execution of our overall monetization program. Your organization, Francis, remains deeply committed to creating long-term value for all of TELUS' investors, both on the debt and on the equity side, and I thank you for your question.
Thank you, Darren. We have run out of time for additional questions. Back to you, John.
Thank you, Jill. I'd like to remind everyone that responses to any questions we were not able to answer today during the meeting will be posted on telus.com/agm. I'd like to extend my personal thanks and that of the Board of Directors to all TELUS team members for leading with purpose and innovating with passion to put our customers first and to drive our ongoing success. Through your efforts, you continue to demonstrate our heartfelt social purpose by creating remarkable outcomes for our customers and our communities. Also, thank you to all who participated in our virtual meeting. Please take a moment to provide your feedback by clicking the link to the online survey that will appear on your screen. Lastly, thank you to our shareholders for your continued support and confidence.
Inspired by our leadership in social capitalism, TELUS remains well-positioned for the future and committed to making a meaningful difference around the world, thanks to our people, purpose, and passion. Finally, thanks to you, Darren, our inspiring and inspired leader over a quarter of a century.