Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Siim Vanaselja, and I'm the Chairman of the Board of TransCanada Corporation. It's a great pleasure of mine to welcome you all here today to the annual general and special meeting. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our shareholders who are joining us by webcast. In addition, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional territories and oral practices of the Blackfoot Nations, which include the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai. We also acknowledge the Tsuut'ina and Stoney Nakoda First Nations, the Métis Nation, and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. Before we begin, a couple of housekeeping matters. I'd first ask that you please ensure that your cellphone is turned off for the duration of the meeting.
I'd also ask that you refrain from taking photos. Please note that recording devices may not be used during the meeting. Secondly, we're conscious of safety. If an alarm should sound during the meeting, please follow the direction of the COP staff who will be standing by to assist you. I'll call the meeting to order. I'll introduce those here on stage with me. Seated to my immediate left is Russ Girling, President and Chief Executive Officer. To his left, Christine Johnston, Vice President, Law and Corporate Secretary. I'd also like to introduce the members of TransCanada's executive leadership team. I'll ask each of them to stand and remain standing until I've introduced the entire group. Stan Chapman, Executive Vice President and President, US Natural Gas Pipelines. Wendy Hanrahan, Executive Vice President, Corporate Services. Patrick Keys, Executive Vice President, Stakeholder Relations and General Counsel.
Don Marchand, Executive Vice President and our Chief Financial Officer. Paul Miller, Executive Vice President, Technical Centre and President, Liquids Pipelines. François Poirier, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy, and President, Power and Storage and Mexico. That's a lot. Tracy Robinson, Executive Vice President and President, Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines. Thank you. I think we have an exceptional management team. They're going to be available after the meeting to answer your questions. Also joining us today from our executive leadership team is Kristine Delkus, who has just retired from the position of General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Stakeholder Relations. At our directors' meeting yesterday, we recognized her very significant contributions to the functioning and success of the company.
Christine, if you wouldn't mind standing in the presence of all the shareholders, I would just like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude for your 24 years of outstanding service to the company and all the counsel that you've brought to the company. Thank you very much. For our agenda today, only registered common shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have registered for the meeting are entitled to participate.
As outlined in our management information circular, dated February 28th, 2019, the purpose of this meeting is for common shareholders to first receive the 2018 consolidated financial statements and auditors' report, to elect the directors, appoint the auditors, consider and approve on an advisory basis TransCanada's approach to executive compensation, approve an amendment to the articles of incorporation to change the company's name to TC Energy Corporation, to continue and approve minor amendments to the shareholder rights plan of the company as described in the circular, and to consider a shareholder proposal as set out in Schedule A of the management information circular. To help move things along, in the meeting, we've asked certain proxy holders to make and second motions.
After the formal business of the meeting has been concluded, Russ Girling will provide an update on the company's activities and its plans for the future, that will be followed by a question and answer session that everyone can participate in. In accordance with the bylaw number 1 of the company, I now appoint Steven Bandola and Tara Israelson, representatives of Computershare Trust Company of Canada, to act as scrutineers for the meeting. The preliminary report of the scrutineers indicates that a quorum is present, I would ask that they submit their final report on attendance when that is ready. Christine Johnston will now report on the mailing of the notice calling this meeting and advise us about the process the meeting will follow. Christine?
Thank you, Siim. The mailing of the notice of availability of proxy materials and the form of proxy was completed on March 18th, 2019 to common shareholders of record in accordance with applicable law. An affidavit attesting to the mailing of the notice and form of proxy is hereby placed before the meeting. Where required or requested, the management information circular and the annual report were mailed to shareholders. These documents have also been made available on the company's website. We'll be conducting a vote by ballot for each item in business today, with the exception of the appointment of auditors.
As for the process to be followed after the formal business of the meeting has concluded, Russ Girling, our CEO, will provide a presentation on the company. After the presentation, shareholders and proxy holders in attendance will have the opportunity to ask questions, either directly from the floor or through question cards. Those listening by webcast may also submit questions electronically.
Thank you, Chris. As notice of the meeting has been given and a quorum has been confirmed, I hereby declare that this meeting is duly called and constituted for the transaction of business. As Chris said, we're going to first deal with the formal business of the meeting, after which there'll be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions. At that time, you're invited to approach one of the standing microphones available in the room. Our first item of business is the tabling of the annual report, which includes the consolidated financial statements and the related auditor's report. It has been made available for review by shareholders in accordance with applicable law. Representatives of KPMG will be available to answer questions during the question and answer period following Russ's presentation.
Our next item of business is the election of the directors, each of whom will hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are earlier elected or appointed. I'll now introduce the current directors who are present today, and that are standing for election. Please kindly stand when I call your name. Stéphan Crétier. Russ Girling. Barry Jackson. Randy Limbacher. John Lowe. Mary Pat Salomone. Indira Samarasekera. Mike Stewart. Thierry Vandal. Finally, myself, Siim Vanaselja. In addition, we have two new nominees for election this year. I would like to introduce Ms. Una Power and Mr. Steve Williams. Will you both please also stand? Ms. Power brings considerable expertise in accounting and finance and risk management, as well as strategy and leadership. Mr. Williams has extensive skills in the areas of leadership, governance, strategy, and human resources.
We're extremely pleased to have them both join us at this meeting as nominees for election to the board. Thank you very much. Sadly, Kevin Benson and Paula Reynolds are not standing for re-election this year. Both are retiring from the board effective today. Kevin, will you please stand? Where is Kevin? Kevin was first appointed a director in 2005, and during his 14-year tenure, he has made significant contributions to the board and its committees, including chairing both the Audit Committee and more recently the Governance Committee. His integrity, business acumen, and leadership has provided invaluable perspective to the company, and he will be deeply missed by his colleagues here today. Thank you, Kevin. Regrettably, Paula is unable to join us today.
Paula was first appointed a director in 2011, and during her eight-year tenure, she has made important contributions to TransCanada's continued success, including chairing the Human Resources Committee for five of those years. The company has certainly benefited from her industry experience and leadership. On behalf of my fellow directors, board members, management, and our shareholders, I thank both Kevin and Paula for their contributions they have each made to TransCanada. The board has set the number of directors to be elected today at 12. The term of office of each of the current directors expires at the end of this meeting. The term of office proposed for each nominee is a term of one year, expiring at TransCanada's 2020 annual meeting or until a successor or earlier elected or appointed person is made. Please, can I have a motion to nominate the directors of the company?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Kelly Galloway, I nominate the following individuals to serve as directors of the company, to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are earlier elected or appointed. Stéphan Crétier, Russell Girling, Barry Jackson, Randy Limbacher, John Lowe, Una Power, Mary Pat Salomone, Indira Samarasekera, Michael Stewart, Siim Vanaselja, Thierry Vandal, and Steven Williams.
Thank you, Kelly. We did not receive any additional nominations in accordance with our advance notice bylaws, I'll now declare the nomination closed. As indicated previously, the vote on election of directors will be made by ballot, Christine Johnston will give us instructions on the use of those ballots.
Thanks. Registered shareholders present in person or proxy holders representing shareholders were given a yellow ballot when they registered for the meeting this morning. Any registered shareholder or proxy holder who did not receive a yellow ballot, please raise your blue voting card the scrutineers can provide you with a ballot. Proxies held by management will be voted on the ballot as indicated in the proxies. You will note that the 12 names have been pre-printed on the ballot. You're to vote for each candidate for election by placing X in the "for" or "withhold" box beside each name. You may only vote for or withhold for the director nominees listed. You do not need to provide a vote for all director nominees. The nominees for you have not voted will be voted for in accordance with management's recommendation.
If you vote for a person who has not been nominated, the ballot will be spoiled and not counted. After completion, please hold on to your ballot form as you'll be asked to vote on the company's approach to executive compensation, the company name change, the shareholder rights plan, and the shareholder proposal on the same form.
Thank you, Chris. We will wait just a minute to give you some time to complete those ballots. Which it looks like everybody has done. I will now declare the balloting on this matter closed. We will return to the agenda of the meeting, and we will receive the report of the scrutineers on the balloting at the end of the meeting. The next item of business is the appointment of the auditors. May I have a motion in connection with the appointment of the auditors?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Sarah Vendel, and I move the resolution appointing KPMG LLP Chartered Professional Accountants as auditors of the company until the next annual meeting of shareholders and authorizing the directors to fix their remuneration.
Thank you. Is there a seconder?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Nikita Koltitsis, and I second the motion.
Thank you. All those in favor, please raise your hands. Contrary? I see no contrary. I declare the motion is passed. The next item is the approval on an advisory basis of an ordinary resolution approving TransCanada's approach to executive compensation. In order to ensure an appropriate level of director accountability to the shareholders of the company for their executive compensation decisions, the board of directors has determined that a shareholder advisory vote, commonly known as a say on pay vote, would be beneficial. The board of directors is asking the shareholders to consider, and if deemed advisable, to approve a resolution accepting TransCanada's approach to executive compensation. The text of the resolution is specifically set out in our management information circular.
While the vote on an advisory basis is not binding, the board will take the results of the vote into account when considering future compensation policies and decisions. The company will also disclose the results of the shareholder vote as part of its report on voting for this meeting. Can I please have a motion in connection with the resolution to accept the company's approach to executive compensation?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Alexander Ho. I move the resolution to accept on an advisory basis the company's approach to executive compensation as described in the management information circular of TransCanada, dated February 28th, 2019.
Thank you. Is there a seconder to the motion?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Tiffany Broadbent, I second the motion.
Good. As previously indicated, the advisory vote on the company's approach to executive compensation will be made by ballot, which can be found on the yellow ballot provided to registered shareholders and proxy holders. If you've previously signed and returned a proxy, your vote has already been recorded, you do not need to fill out the ballot. For those of you who have not yet voted, please indicate on the ballot by making an an X in the box which indicates for or against, as the case may be. We'll wait just a minute to allow that balloting to take place. I will now declare the balloting on this matter closed. We will return to the agenda of the meeting, again, we'll receive the scrutineers' report on balloting at the end of this meeting.
Please hold on to your ballot form as you will be asked to vote on the next item of business, which is relating to the company's change in name. The next item is the vote on a special resolution approving the amendment to the articles of incorporation to change our company name from TransCanada Corporation to TC Energy Corporation. As explained in our management information circular, this new name best articulates our business activities, including pipelines, power generation, and energy storage operations. It reflects our continual growth into an enterprise with critical assets and employees across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. We believe that the new name will further unify employees and better enable us to connect with our diverse stakeholders. We'll continue to trade under the stock symbol TRP on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
If approved, the effective date of the change of our name will be the date of the issuance of a certificate of amendment by the director under the Canada Business Corporations Act, we expect to receive that certification shortly after the conclusion of this annual general and special meeting. The text of the resolution is specifically set out in the circular, it is a special resolution which requires two-thirds of the votes cast to be in favor in order for it to be passed. Can I please have a motion in connection with this resolution approving an amendment to change our name from TransCanada Corporation to TC Energy Corporation?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Roy Gorrell, and I move the special resolution to approve the amendments to the articles of incorporation to change the company name from TransCanada Corporation to TC Energy Corporation, as described in the management information circular of TransCanada, dated February 28th, 2019.
Thank you. Is there a seconder?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Kamla Agual, and I second the motion.
Thank you. Once again, we're going to conduct this vote using the yellow-colored ballot. If you have previously signed and returned your proxy, again, you don't need to vote by ballot here today. For those of you who have not voted, please indicate on the ballot by making an X in the box, which indicates for or against, as the case may be, and I'll again wait a few minutes for that balloting process. Seeing that there's no ballots being filled out, I'll declare the matter closed, and we'll now return to the agenda and again receive the scrutineer's report on the balloting at the end of the meeting. Once again, please hold onto your ballot form. We'll now ask you to consider an ordinary resolution approving the continuation of and the amendments to the shareholder rights plan.
The primary objective of the shareholder rights plan is to provide the Board of Directors with sufficient time to explore and to develop alternatives for maximizing shareholder value, should there be a takeover bid made for the company, and to provide every shareholder with equal opportunity to participate in such a bid. Minor amendments to our shareholder rights plan are being proposed to comply with the requirements implemented by the Canadian securities administrators to the takeover bid regime, which essentially extends the period of time that a permitted bid must remain open. The Board does believe that maintaining a shareholder rights plan is in the best interest of the corporation and its shareholders. A summary of the key terms of the rights plan are set out in the management information circular, along with the text of the resolution itself.
The continuation of and amendments to the shareholder rights plan must be approved by a simple majority of votes cast at this meeting. If the resolution is not passed, the plan will terminate, and the rights will cease to have effect. Can I please have a motion in connection with the resolution on the shareholder rights plan?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Jenna Gates. I move the resolution to continue and approve the amended and restated shareholder rights plan as described in the management information circular of TransCanada, dated February 28th, 2019.
Thank you, Jenna. Is someone prepared to second the motion?
Mr. Chairman, my name is John Daly, and I second the motion.
Thank you. Again, we're going to conduct the vote using the yellow ballot card that you have available. Again, if you've previously signed and returned your proxy, you do not need to fill out the yellow ballot card. For those of you who have not voted, please indicate on the ballot by marking an X, either in the for or against box, as the case may be. I'll, again, give a moment for that balloting to take place. I'll declare the balloting on this matter closed as well. Again, we'll return to the agenda of the meeting, and we will receive the scrutineer's report at the end of the meeting. Again, hold onto your ballot form as you will need it for the final item of business at this meeting.
That final item of business is the consideration of the shareholder proposal requiring the company to report on how it respects indigenous people's rights and describes our related policies, practices, and performance indicators. The full text of the proposal, as well as the company's response to it, are described in the circular. I understand that Reverend Carmen Lansdowne from the Pension Plan of the United Church of Canada, the shareholder that submitted this proposal, and Ms. Delaney Greig from the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, are in attendance with us here today, and I'd like to introduce them to move and second the resolution on this matter.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm the Reverend Dr. Carmen Lansdowne. My traditional name in Heiltsuk is [Ḱágwégiławx], and my traditional name in Kwak̓wala is Ḱwisela. I am an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada, a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation, and appointed to the board of directors of the United Church of Canada Pension Plan, the filer of this proposal. In the interest of time, I won't repeat the traditional acknowledgment of the land that we are on, but I thank you for opening the meeting with that. The United Church of Canada Pension Plan, an institutional shareholder of TransCanada, filed a shareholder proposal asking the board to report to its shareholders on how the company aligns its operations with international indigenous rights standards.
The pension plan filed this proposal because we see respect for Indigenous rights as critical to the success of companies operating on traditional and ancestral Indigenous lands, which is all of Canada and the U.S. and Mexico. This proposal is consistent with The United Church of Canada's approach to reconciliation and right relations with Indigenous peoples, both in Canada and internationally through our ecumenical partners. We have also recently restructured our national church to include Indigenous presence and structures within the church to increase institutional authority and decision-making. For many years, the pension plan has been working with the Shareholder Association for Research and Education to engage TransCanada around embedding Indigenous rights in the company's policies, practices, and decision-making. We filed this proposal because we are not confident the company has done so in a tangible and meaningful way.
We remain concerned with the company's approach for a number of reasons. TransCanada's new commitment to respect the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, is couched in domestic laws and regulations which have been found time and again to be inadequate. The company's board and management lacks expertise on Indigenous rights and cultures, and few employees are provided training on Indigenous rights and history. The company's board of directors also lacks inclusion of Indigenous leadership. The proportion of Indigenous employees in the company is less than half of industry average, and we know of no plan to remedy this. To our knowledge, the company does not make procurement decisions that prioritize choosing Indigenous businesses, the fastest-growing sector of the Canadian economy. Earlier this year, RCMP officers forcibly removed Indigenous peoples from their lands to facilitate project work on TransCanada's Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Indigenous peoples are reasserting our prominence and voice in politics, business, culture, and all aspects of society. We are also the fastest-growing demographic in Canada, with a birth rate four times the national average. The company of the future is the company that embraces our resilience as an opportunity for new partnerships, deepened opportunities for learning, and new ways of operating. It is the company that takes up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action 92 for the corporate sector to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources. Lastly, it is in this company's own best interest to lead on Indigenous rights.
Technically, it is the government of Canada and the territorial and provincial governments' duties to consult Indigenous peoples on projects that affect our people and our asserted and established rights. Yet in practice, it is often companies like TransCanada that organize the consultations, and often poorly, because of the previously mentioned lack of knowledge and commitment. By failing to lobby the governments to hold up their legal duty to consult, you are adversely affecting your own and our bottom line by getting tied up in litigation processes because you haven't developed the skills or understood the history and rights of our people, and you continue to let the governments rely on you to do the consultations that they are bound to do by law.
We believe that TransCanada can become a leader on these issues if it wants to, and that it will be a better and more profitable company as a result. Therefore, I move that the board of directors provide a report to shareholders within 6 months following the 2019 annual general meeting and annually thereafter, prepared at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary and confidential information, outlining how TransCanada respects internationally recognized standards for indigenous peoples' rights in its business activities. Such reports should describe the company's policies, practices, and performance indicators relating to respecting internationally recognized standards for indigenous peoples' rights in existing and proposed wholly owned projects, joint ventures, investments, and acquisitions. Internationally recognized standards for indigenous peoples' rights are the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Labour Organization Convention 169 concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries, ILO 169.
Thank you for sharing your perspectives. Is there a seconder for the motion?
Hello, my name is Delaney Greig. I work for the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, and I'm here today as a proxy holder for the Bloor Street United Church, Endowment Fund, and I second the motion.
Thank you. We will follow the same ballot procedure as described by the Corporate Secretary earlier. Please use the yellow ballot provided to registered shareholders and proxy holders at the beginning of the meeting. If you've previously signed and returned a proxy, there's no need to vote by ballot. For those shareholders who have not yet voted, please mark the ballot with an X in the box, either for or against. Please also sign and print your name on the lines provided. When you've completed and signed the ballot, please raise your hand so the scrutineers can collect and count the ballots, and we'll wait while ballots are completed and collected now. Does anyone still need more time with the balloting process?
Doesn't appear to be the case, so I now declare the balloting on this matter closed, and I ask the scrutineers to advise the corporate secretary when they have completed the counting of the ballots and are ready to report. While we wait, we have a short video to show you, which provides one example of the long-term value we bring to the communities where we operate through our Build Strong community investment program. This year, we are offering more than 1,000 scholarships to support post-secondary students across North America, and this is the story of a student from Nebraska who is realizing his academic goals and supporting his family with the help of our Indigenous Legacy Scholarship.
The life of Marcel is awesome. I wake up early, get my kids ready at 6:45 A.M., get them off to school at 7:30 A.M. I drop them off. I go to school. I'm studying network administration and security. Work with routers and switches and server management. Only computer experience that I had prior to going back to school was surfing the web. Now, I can set up a whole network and configure servers and routers. What made me decide to go back to school was job security and then career longevity. I want to own my own home. I want to be able to take care of my kids and take them on vacation.
With any family, you worry about your financial situation and how are you going to provide for your family on a day-to-day basis. I was in school at the time, and he was still working construction. He got laid off and I told him, I said, "You're so smart, and I know that you will do good because you're determined. I think it would be awesome if you went in for IT.
That was real encouraging. She always made me believe in myself that I could do it, because I always had doubt. It's been 15 years since I've been in school, and to take that first step, it's like, man, it's a leap of faith. Receiving the scholarship enables me to have peace of mind, concentrate on my schoolwork, get the free time that I need to spend with my kids and make my time manageable. I want to help be a positive influence, and I want to help other people do that. I'm not trying to be better than anybody, but I'm trying to be the best me that I can be for my children. I think that if you live the way that you're supposed to, good things will come to you.
I believe the corporate secretary has received the final report of the scrutineers on attendance and the results of the votes taken by ballot. Chris, would you please share those results with us?
Yes. Thank you, Siim. The scrutineers' report on attendance at the meeting has now been received. It shows that there are 2,139 holders of common shares present in person entitled to vote in their own right or by proxy, being 66.8% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company. I've also received the reports of the scrutineers on the election of directors, the company's approach to executive compensation, the proposal to amend the articles of incorporation to change our name from TransCanada Corporation to TC Energy Corporation, and the continuation of and approval of amendments to the shareholder rights plan and the shareholder proposal on Indigenous relations. The scrutineers' report indicates that with the exception of the shareholder proposal on Indigenous relations, each other item of business has received the requisite majority of votes cast in favor.
We expect that the detailed results for each item of business will be filed on SEDAR on Monday, May 6, 2019.
Thank you, Chris. Based on the results, I declare the 12 nominees are duly elected directors of the company until the next annual general meeting or until their successors are earlier elected or appointed. I also declare that the advisory resolution with respect to the acceptance of TransCanada's approach to executive compensation has been passed. I further declare that the resolution to amend the articles of incorporation to change our company's name from TransCanada Corporation to TC Energy Corporation has been passed. In addition, I declare that the resolution to continue and approve amendments to the shareholders' rights plan have been passed as well. Finally, I declare that the shareholder proposal on Indigenous relations has not been passed. I'll now direct that the scrutineers' report on the ballots be annexed to the minutes of this meeting.
At this time, I'll ask if there's any further business to be brought forward at this meeting. If not, can I have a motion to conclude the meeting?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Lavender Early, and I move that the meeting be concluded.
Will someone second that motion?
Mr. Chairman, my name is Megan Lindsay, and I second the motion.
All shareholders in favor, please raise your hands. Contrary? The motion is carried. The meeting is now closed. Before I turn the podium over to Russ, I would like to first personally acknowledge the very significant effort by all of TransCanada's employees and contractors who work hard every day to contribute to the results of our company. Thank you sincerely for your contributions to TransCanada. I would also like to thank my fellow directors for their ongoing guidance and stewardship. As a board, we remain focused on the company's strategy and objectives to sustain long-term growth and performance in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner. I want to thank you, our shareholders, for your ongoing support as well. We look forward to continuing to serve you throughout 2019. With that, I will now hand the meeting over to our CEO, Russ Girling.
Thank you, Siim, good morning, everybody, and thank you all for joining us here today at Winsport and those of you that are joining us on the webcast. It has been a very eventful year since we last met here 12 months ago. Again, the focus of our 7,000 or so employees and contractors over the past 12 months is to safely deliver the energy millions of people across this continent rely upon every day. Again, I am very proud to say our team did an excellent job over the last 12 months. As you saw in this video during our break, not only do we provide the energy people need to go about their daily activities, our community investment programs also bring many benefits to the communities across North America in which we operate, making them stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable places to live.
Before I get into the achievements and the record-setting results of the past year, I wanted to thank our shareholders for supporting the name change here this morning. Today is an exciting and historic day for our company, which is now called TC Energy. I would like to take a moment to explain what this means, and just as importantly, what is not changing as we move forward. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I wanted to begin today with a short video that will show you what TC Energy is all about. Let's queue up the video.
It is more than natural gas, oil, or electricity. It is a commitment, a dedication. Reliable and affordable energy is everything. It warms and cools our homes, cooks our food, gives us light, and gets us where we need to go. It can be easy to take for granted, but never for us. Our purpose is to deliver the energy people across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico need every day, safely, responsibly, collaboratively, with integrity. When we do our job, countless others can do theirs. Our commitment to delivering energy sustainably, with respect to the environment and the communities where our employees live and work is what sets us apart. It is our history, and it is our future. It is who we are, and we are proud of what we do. We are TC Energy.
As we explained, when we announced the name change in January, and as Siim outlined this morning, TC Energy reflects our transition to becoming a North American energy infrastructure company. TC Energy better describes our complete business, which as you can see from this chart or this map, our company has grown steadily to become a CAD 100 billion enterprise with critical assets and dedicated employees across three countries, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The name TC Energy acknowledges our origin as Trans Canada Pipelines, while adding the word energy speaks to the breadth of our business, which includes pipelines, power generation, and energy storage. To give you some context, we own and operate one of the largest natural gas transmission systems in North America, which transports 25% or one in four molecules of the continent's clean-burning natural gas supply every day.
We're also the continent's largest provider of natural gas storage. Our liquids business transports approximately 20% of Western Canada's crude oil exports to key refining markets in the Midwest U.S. and the Gulf Coast. Our power business includes an interest in 11 generation facilities with a capacity of about 6,600 megawatts, which is enough power to supply six million homes. As I said, the name TC Energy better reflects who we are today and where we're going in the future. To be clear, as I mentioned at the beginning, this is a name change, not a brand change. We're very proud of who we are and what we do. What we'll not be changing going forward is our strategy, our priorities, and the commitments we make to our neighbors, our stakeholders, and to our shareholders.
We're well-positioned to continue being a company of choice when it comes to building and operating the facilities that are needed to meet the world's growing demand for reliable and affordable energy. Doing that safely and acting in accordance with our core values is the foundation of our success and will remain the guiding principles for every decision that we make. I'd like to take the next 20 minutes or so to talk about our achievements over the last year and outline the promising future we see for your company, TransCanada Corporation or TC Energy. After 25 years, it'll take me a little while to change myself. As we outlined, in our annual report, 2018 was another successful year for your company.
Our CAD 100 billion portfolio of high-quality, long-life energy infrastructure assets operated safely and continued to profit from strong supply and demand fundamentals in the core geographies which our assets serve. In a nutshell, the demand for our infrastructure remains strong, driving historically high utilization rates across our systems, and record-high financial performance. In addition to the strong performance from our legacy assets, we continue to realize the growth expected from our industry-leading capital expansion programs as new long-term contracted and rate-regulated projects entered service. In 2018, we placed about CAD 4 billion of new assets into service with an additional CAD 5 billion of assets entering service in the first quarter of this year. At the same time, we replenished our near-term secured growth portfolio by adding about CAD 12 billion of new projects to our backlog.
They included the Coastal GasLink project, NGTL's 2021 and 2022 expansion programs, and the Bruce Power refurbishment of Unit 6, which is expected to commence here early in 2020. As a result, today we are advancing approximately CAD 30 billion of secured projects with approximately CAD 7 billion of those projects expected to be completed by the end of this year. One of those projects is our Sur de Texas pipeline, which is a picture that we've got on the chart here. It's our first offshore pipeline that this company's built. It runs about 700 km along the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. When it's complete in the coming weeks, it'll provide a significant new source of natural gas from Texas to industrial markets in the heart of Mexico.
We continue to methodically advance over CAD 20 billion of projects under development, including the Keystone XL project, and the refurbishment of another five reactors at Bruce Power as part of its long-term life extension program. Finally, we prudently funded our programs this year by raising approximately CAD 9.3 billion in 2018. That included CAD 6.2 billion of long-term debt, CAD 2 billion of common equity that we raised through our dividend reinvestment program and at the market equity programs, and CAD 1.1 billion that we generated from the sale of Cartier Wind and the reimbursement of some pre-FID costs associated with the Coastal GasLink project. Collectively, these initiatives, combined with our growing internally generated cash flow, allowed us to fund a CAD 10.9 billion capital program in 2018.
As a result, our overall financial position remains solid, and we are well-positioned to prudently fund our capital programs in a manner that's consistent with achieving our targeted leverage metrics and delivering on growing earnings, cash flow, and dividends on a per-share basis in 2019 and well beyond. This slide highlights our strong financial performance in 2018. Comparable earnings per common share were CAD 3.86 in 2018, an increase of CAD 0.77 or about 25% compared to 2017. Comparable EBITDA increased approximately CAD 1.2 billion. During the year, a 16% increase to CAD 8.6 billion. Comparable funds generated from operations of CAD 6.5 billion were CAD 881 million, or 16% higher than 2017.
As you've heard me say before, each of those amounts represents record results for our company and reflect the strong performance of our legacy assets and contributions from CAD 4 billion of growth projects that were completed and placed into service in 2018 and the positive impact of U.S. tax reform. Based on the strength of our financial performance and growth outlook, in February, the board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.75 per common share, which is equivalent to CAD 3 per share on an annualized basis. That represents an 8.7% increase over last year, and it is the 19th consecutive year that the board of directors has raised the dividend. At the same time, we've maintained strong coverage ratios, with our dividend representing a payout of approximately 75% of comparable earnings and 40% of internally generated cash flow.
This leaves us with substantial internally generated funds to fund our ongoing capital programs. Our strong financial performance and growing dividend, in turn, has resulted in a significant increase in our share price from approximately CAD 10 per share in 2000 to approximately CAD 62 or CAD 63 today. The combination of a stable and growing dividend and share price appreciation has resulted in a 13% average annual total shareholder return since 2000. As you can see on this slide, our strong financial performance continued into the first quarter of this year, again with record results. Comparable earnings for the first quarter of 2019 were CAD 1.7 per share, compared to CAD 0.98 last year, about a 9% increase. Comparable EBITDA increased CAD 320 million to approximately CAD 2.4 billion, and comparable funds generated from operations increased CAD 180 million or 11% to CAD 1.8 billion.
Obviously, there's good reason to be proud of the many achievements we've had over the last year. But as I said at the beginning, we take our job of delivering the energy our society needs very seriously. It's not just what we do that's important, just as important is how we do it. The continued success of our company depends on our ability to operate economically, socially, and environmentally in a manner that's consistent with our communities. A big part of what we do is listen to the diverse stakeholder groups, the landowners, the Indigenous groups we work with every day to understand their priorities and build relationships founded on mutual trust and respect.
Following a resolution that was supported by our board at last year's annual meeting, I'm also pleased to be able to share TC Energy's inaugural report on sustainability and climate change, which we'll be releasing today. As you recall, we committed to enhancing our disclosure around how we assess and manage risks and opportunities to our business in relation to climate change. The report will be available on our website, which is transitioning at the current time to our new address at tcenergy.com. I encourage you all to read it and learn more about our innovative work and what we are doing to reduce our environmental footprint and to ensure our businesses are resilient and positioned for continued growth in an ever-evolving energy landscape.
With that in mind, I'd like to spend the next few minutes discussing what lies ahead for TC Energy as the world demand for all forms of energy continues to transition and to grow. This chart, which might look familiar, I've used it for the last couple of years, is a chart from the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook that depicts energy growth in worldwide demand for all sources of energy between 2017 and 2040 under what they call their new policy scenario. As you know, the IEA is considered one of the most comprehensive and credible agencies that do this kind of work and is one of many sources that we use in our planning process. As you can see, renewables such as solar and wind are expected to continue to grow significantly.
However, they are expected to remain a relatively small piece of the overall energy mix by 2040. As you can see, even with the inactive and announced emission targets to address climate change, the IEA anticipates that demand for oil and natural gas will continue to grow, and they will continue to dominate as energy sources for decades to come as billions of people in developing countries strive to achieve a higher standard of living. This growth in demand, combined with the need to replace and upgrade existing infrastructure as society transitions to a lower carbon future, will require CAD billions of investment. As we have seen over the last 12 months, continued growth in energy demand, coupled with the difficulties in permitting and building new facilities, has made the need for our existing footprint even more critical.
Looking forward, our growth plans are aligned with long-term energy supply-demand fundamentals, and we are confident we are positioned to continue capturing a significant share of the investment opportunities that exist in North America. Today, where it is difficult to build greenfield infrastructure, our key competitive advantage is our existing footprint, which provides multiple platforms for continued growth. The NGTL system is a 24,000-kilometer or 15,000-mile pipeline network that moves about 12 billion cubic feet a day or 75% of the gas that moves in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin through its extensive and cost-competitive network. The Canadian Mainline is a 14,000-kilometer or 9,000-mile pipeline that provides a critical link between the prolific Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin gas reserves and key markets in Eastern Canada and the Midwestern and Northeastern U.S.
Total deliveries on the Mainline averaged 5.2 billion cubic feet a day last year, which was an 18% increase over 2017. Columbia Gas is an 11,000-mile pipeline network that has the best-in-class footprint on top of the Appalachian Basin, which is the continent's largest source of natural gas supply. Our broader U.S. gas pipeline network also includes Columbia Gulf, ANR, Great Lakes, Northern Border, Gas Transmission Northwest, Portland, and Iroquois pipelines. Deliveries on our U.S. systems averaged about 24.5 billion cubic feet a day last winter, the cold temperatures that gripped much of North America in late January and early February led to a peak day delivery record of 33.1 Bcf a day on January 30th, 2019. As I think about social responsibility on those cold winter days, delivering gas to those people that need it is extremely important.
In Mexico, our natural gas pipeline network is also forming the backbone of the country's natural gas infrastructure and is underpinned by long-term contracts with the state electricity company. In our liquids business, Keystone moves approximately 600,000 barrels a day or about 20% of Canadians export to the U.S. On the southern portion of the system, or what we call the U.S. Gulf Coast segment, we moved approximately 700,000 barrels a day of both Canadian and U.S. crude production between Cushing, Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. We and our shippers continue to believe the U.S. Gulf Coast is the largest and most attractive market for growing oil production, and Keystone XL is the safest and most efficient and most environmentally sound way to move that production to market. Finally, in our power and storage business, Bruce Power is one of the world's largest nuclear facilities.
It generates 6,400 MW of emissionless energy and provides 30% of the energy Ontarians need on a daily basis. Today, combined, these growth platforms provide us with line of sight to over CAD 50 billion of new organic growth opportunities and an enviable position from which to continue to grow our company. Today, we are advancing CAD 30 billion of those opportunities that will expand and extend our footprint across North America. Our growth program includes a series of projects in jurisdictions where we see relatively normal course permitting and construction. It includes CAD 26 billion of natural gas pipelines in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, and CAD 4 billion of liquids and power projects, including the Napanee Gas-Fired Power Plant in Ontario, the ongoing work under Bruce Power's life extension agreement, and our White Spruce Pipeline project, which we're just bringing to service at this time.
We've invested about CAD 10 billion into this program, and the remainder will be spent over the next five years. Notably, each of these projects is underpinned by long-term contracts or cost of service regulation, which gives us strong visibility to sustainable growth in earnings and cash flow as they enter service between now and 2023. This chart highlights the significant growth in EBITDA that is expected as we advance that secured capital program. As you can see from this chart, comparable EBITDA, which grew from about CAD 5.9 billion in 2015 to CAD 8.6 billion in 2018, is expected to reach approximately CAD 10 billion in 2021. That equates to a compound average growth rate of approximately 9% over the six-year period. And just as important as the magnitude of the growth is the quality of the growth. Today, over 95% of our EBITDA comes from regulated assets or long-term contracted assets.
Based on our confidence in our base business and our growth plans, we expect to continue to grow the dividend at an average annual rate of 8%-10% through 2021. As has always been our practice, the expected growth in dividends will be supported by sustainable growth in earnings and cash flow per share and strong distributable cash flow coverage ratios. In addition to the CAD 30 billion in secured projects currently underway, we're advancing more than CAD 20 billion of projects under development. They include Keystone XL, the Bruce Power Life Extension Program, and numerous other opportunities that are expected to emanate from our five operating platforms across North America. We're very pleased that President Trump reaffirmed his support of the Keystone XL project when he issued a new presidential permit for the pipeline at the end of March.
We remain fully committed to building Keystone XL, as our customers have fully subscribed for all of the available capacity in the pipeline, and the demand for Canadian heavy crude oil has never been greater from refiners in the U.S. Gulf Coast. We continue to carefully and methodically obtain the regulatory approvals and address the legal challenges in order to advance this project onto construction. Successfully completing Keystone XL or any of the other projects in this portfolio could further enhance our growth profile, as well as our strong competitive position across North America. So in closing, I'd offer a few comments. 19 years ago, we set out a vision to become one of North America's leading energy infrastructure companies, and I can say that we're well on our way to realizing that vision.
Our diverse portfolio of high-quality, long-life assets operated safely and reliably, generating record financial results in 2018 and for the first quarter of 2019. Looking forward, we have five strong platforms for future growth. Today, we are advancing CAD 30 billion of high-quality, secured projects that are expected to generate significant growth in cash flow and earnings. That is expected to support an annual dividend growth of 8%-10% through 2021. Success in advancing any one of more than in our CAD 20 billion portfolio projects that we're still working on, or other opportunities in the coming years could extend that growth outlook even further. Overall, our financial position remains strong, and we're well-positioned to fund our near-term capital program through resilient and growing internally generated cash flow, strong access to capital markets on compelling terms, and potential for portfolio management activities.
Finally, and I would say most importantly, we continue to be committed to the long-term sustainability of our company and the communities where we operate by always acting in accordance with our core values of safety, integrity, responsibility, and collaboration. We have excellent relationships with the vast majority of the thousands of landowners, the hundreds of Indigenous communities, and the myriad of community leaders we work with across North America every day. Without exception, their expectation is that the energy is delivered safely and with minimal impact on the environment, and that is why safety is the first of our four core values. We are truly at the forefront when it comes to building projects in sensitive environments, adopting new technology, and using the best practices to improve the safety and efficiency of our facilities.
We continue to believe that zero safety incidents across all of our businesses and all of our operating regions is possible, and we continue towards achieving that goal. I'll end the day here by saying that the future is bright for TC Energy. As you know, this kind of success can only be achieved through the efforts and expertise of our people. I'd like to extend my sincerest thanks again to our employees and our contractors for their commitment to dedication, to living our values, and being great ambassadors for our company in your communities every day. To my executive leadership team, thank you again for another year of hard work, perseverance, and for the leadership and guidance that you bring to the table every day.
I'd like to thank our board of directors for their patience, wisdom, and guidance as we navigate the constantly shifting environment in which we operate. You have kept us pointed in the right direction, and we continue to make great progress. As Siim talked about, our board renewal process has continued since our last annual shareholder meeting. In July of 2018, Mr. Randy Limbacher was appointed to the board, and as of today, Mr. Kevin Benson and Ms. Paula Reynolds retired, and Ms. Una Power and Mr. Steve Williams were elected to our shareholders. On behalf of the executive leadership team, I'd like to thank Mr. Benson, Kevin, and Ms. Reynolds for their many years of service and significant contributions they made to the company, and I can tell you have made a difference.
Mr. Limbacher, Ms. Power, and Mr. Williams, each of which I know very well, each bring a wealth of industry experience and key skills to our board. I look forward to working with all of you over the coming years. To our shareholders, thank you very much for taking the time to join us here today, both in person and over the webcast. We appreciate your interest and support for TC Energy. I look forward to answering any questions you might have. I think we might just review the rules of engagement one more time, then we'll open it up for questions and answers. Chris?
Thanks, Russ. We now invite questions from shareholders and proxy holders. Should a shareholder or proxy holder wish to address the meeting and ask a question, please approach the standing floor microphones. Before presenting your question, we would ask that you kindly identify yourself and confirm that you're a shareholder or proxy holder of the company. Please also kindly limit yourself to one question with a duration of not more than two minutes. If you have additional questions, please go to the back of the line and await your turn at the microphone. Those listening by webcast may also ask questions. If you wish or if you prefer not to address the meeting today but have written your question down on the question card provided, please raise your hand and we will collect them from you.
Should we not have enough time to respond today, please print your name and contact details on the back of the card and we'll provide you with a written response at a later time. With that, we invite questions. Please approach the microphone.
Mr. Chairman and directors, my name is Doug Hornbeck, and I'm from the oilers and gasless team country up north. My question is, can you do more to support the past and present governments to get gas and oil out of our great province?
It's a great question. We're working as hard as we can to do that. I think we, more than anybody, have experienced the difficulties in building egress. Maybe I'll start with the opportunity as a nation. Canada's the third largest oil reserve in the world. The technology that's used to extract it is second to none and advancing every day. It really is a huge opportunity. As we look at the natural gas side, we've seen in Western Canada that recovered reserves have increased from 100 TCF over the last, say five or six, seven years, from 100 TCF to 1,000 TCF reserves. We have an economic resource that we can share with the world. As I mentioned earlier, what we know is the world is going to need more energy.
We're seeing growing demand for oil and gas and all forms of energy. That Canada and Alberta and Western Canada, we think should play a large role in that. Bringing that energy to the world marketplace will make it more stable, will make it safer, and more economic. There's great reasons for doing that, but it is difficult to build things out. In terms of our contribution on the gas side, we're working hard to build what we call egress or transportation capacity to West Coast LNG. We've got a significant multi-billion CAD commitment to do that, both on our existing NOVA NGTL infrastructure as well as building the Coastal GasLink project, and we're looking at many others. We've committed billions of CAD there as well to build transportation capacity going east, south, out of the province.
In total, that drives about an eight and a half billion CAD capital program in NGTL. In that CAD 26 billion that I referred to earlier, of gas projects, CAD 14 billion of it is related to building egress for natural gas out of the province. Then on the oil side, as you're quite aware, we propose things like the Energy East pipeline as well as Keystone XL, and we continue to be committed to doing everything we can to make those happen. We think that they're good for our company, obviously, but probably just as importantly, they're good for our countries, our economies, and for creating jobs. We're doing our best. I appreciate your question, and we'll continue to work as hard as we can to make that happen.
I just wanted to add that from the board's perspective, we very much agree with your perspectives that developing energy and resource projects in Canada has become more challenging, and we're certainly very mindful of generating appropriate levels of shareholder return with commensurate levels of risk at play. As Russ said, we're carefully evaluating projects, working with all of our stakeholders, as well as the various levels of provincial, federal, and U.S. and Mexican governments in the projects that we're involved with.
Mr. Girling, congratulations on a great year. My name's Paul Smith. I'm a shareholder and probably going to own more shares after this meeting. My question is, could you say a little more about the Energy East pipeline? I understand the company's supportive, but I didn't see it on the charts. Where are we on this one?
Yeah, when I said as to Siim's point, I mean, we can only do things that we see viably, economically, and doable from a regulatory perspective. With respect to Energy East, it was, I think, a very well-conceived idea to bring growing Western Canadian oil to Eastern Canadian markets, and then the opportunity to deliver to global markets off ports that exist off the coast of New Brunswick. Unfortunately, we couldn't navigate our way through the regulatory process and didn't see a window by which we could continue to invest money and advance that project. So at least at the current time, we don't see an opportunity to continue to advance that project. My reference to it earlier was in terms of the question of trying to do our best to find economic egress from Western Canada.
Some things are going to work, and some things aren't going to work, and at this time, that's not a project that we are employing any resources to advance.
Thank you.
Hi, thank you. I was just wondering if you could give us a bit more flavor about the climate report that's coming out today. You showed one IEA scenario analysis, but they have a number of analyses with different projections for
types of energy will be demanded in the future, and at what levels. Which analysis do you see as the most likely, and why is the company building towards those?
It's a very good question. What you'll see in the report that we issued today was a number of scenarios that we have looked at the resilience and viability and utilization of our assets under. We went to actually develop those scenarios because they're actually not that well developed. We had IHS Markit develop four scenarios for us that ranged from a high demand scenario, something in the middle that looks like the scenario that I outlined today from the IEA, and then a two degrees Celsius scenario, which was assuming that, taking a look at supply demand of energy, assuming that we could actually hit that target of keeping the temperature change under two degrees Celsius. Under that scenario, and you'll see in the report, we found that our assets, demand for oil and gas, will continue under that scenario.
Given the positioning of our critical infrastructure, both here in North America and pointed towards export points, that for the most part, our assets remained resilient. It's the signpost that we don't know which one of those scenarios is going to be the actual scenario that plays out over time. What we want to understand is how our assets perform and what risks and opportunities might exist for us under all of those scenarios. Then we'll watch for Mileposts along the way, because all of this isn't going to happen overnight. We'll watch for Mileposts, and we will look to make capital allocation decisions based on how the world unfolds. That's what we did in the report, and we'll continue to analyze the risk of our portfolio under various scenarios going forward. We've always done that historically.
One of the things that was asked for last year was, can you share that with us? We have shared that in that inaugural report. You'll be able to read that, and we'd be open to hearing your questions and suggestions after you have a chance to read it.
Hello?
Yep.
My name is Jean Blackstock. I've been a shareholder for many years. I have kind of two questions. My first is about, you talked about permitting, and you mentioned in areas that it might be more onerous than others. I'm wondering if you were saying that it is onerous to get the permitting process in Canada. I'm not sure if you were saying that, but if you could just generally say to me why it would be more onerous to have permitting happen in Canada than, say, the U.S. or, say, Mexico. My second question is, I noticed on your map that a lot of your industry is centered in the U.S. now.
I guess I wasn't sort of watching this information about TC Energy, but if you could tell me, do you have any plans in the future of moving your head offices to the U.S.? Thanks.
Maybe I'll address the first one is, at the current time, we have no plans of moving our head office anywhere unless the board wants to tell me otherwise, but it's not something that we've discussed or have any thoughts on doing. With respect to permitting, each region that we operate in, the communities have a certain familiarity with what we do. I think it's that familiarity or lack thereof, that determines the difficulty or not of permitting certain facilities. I can give you a couple of examples. Permitting our expansion of our nuclear program at Bruce Power has been relatively routine. We've had a site there for many decades. The community is very engaged in what we do. It creates significant employment. We've never had an incident. Therefore, permitting nuclear expansion is not that difficult.
We tried to permit a nuclear plant in Alberta several years ago, as logical as it is to perhaps create steam from a nuclear reaction and deliver that steam to oil sands operations that use a lot of that in their operation versus using natural gas or some other hydrocarbon that creates emissions, we would have thought that that would have been fairly straightforward and understood. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to permit a nuclear facility in Alberta because of lack of familiarity. I think that as we think about the regions that we operate in, as I mentioned, what we try to do is sort of match what we do with where we say it's normal course permitting kind of processes is where those communities are comfortable with what we do.
Again, permitting an offshore oil terminal in New Brunswick and expanding that around the Irving facility where it's been operating for some time wasn't that difficult. We got that part of Energy East done relatively easily. Permitting a West Coast oil facility was far more difficult. It's just familiarity between those two locations. If you look at the production of natural gas in New Brunswick, very difficult because that's not what they're comfortable with. In British Columbia, we're producing significant amounts of natural gas. These regional understandings, and part of our job is to help educate people that all these forms of energies comes with their risks and benefits. We have to explain those risks and benefits better to those communities. Where we're having the most success is along, as I said, our existing corridors.
Places where we have had natural gas pipelines for many years crossing communities. It's not hard for us to expand those. To build a new natural gas pipeline in a new direction, say from Pennsylvania to New York, that's difficult. To bring that gas from Pennsylvania back through Canada, through Ontario, Quebec, and bringing it back into New York through our Iroquois pipeline, that's doable. That's how we're thinking about the world going forward. The value of those existing corridors has become very important. We incorporate that into our risk thinking when we're allocating capital to projects.
I just wanted to add that with respect to your question on the corporate head office, clearly our name change should in no way be construed as any indication of an intention to change the corporate office in Canada, and the board has no intention of doing that.
We've got the question, Christine, this one's for you. What's the percentage of vote on the outcome of the United Church motion? Is that something that we share publicly?
Yeah, I can share. It'll be published on SEDAR by Monday, but in advance of that, I'm happy to share what we have here. Let's just see, shareholder proposal for the motion was 10.21%, and against the motion, 89.79%.
Any other questions? Oh, I have one more question coming up.
I'm a shareholder. My name is Donna Harrison. My question is, would it be doable or even conceivable or does it make sense to convert the main gas line east from gas to liquids to the Great Lakes rather than to the coast?
That was essentially TC Energy's proposal, is the main natural gas line looks on our map like one line. It's actually since 1955 to today, as demand grew and supply grew, demand grew in the east and supply grew in the west. It's actually a series of seven lines that move across the prairies. The TC Energy's proposal was a proposal to convert a 42-inch line, a 42-inch contiguous line, essentially from the Alberta border right through Ontario to the Quebec border, and then a new build through Quebec and New Brunswick to the Irving Oil Refinery as its ultimate destination. That's the proposal that I said was difficult. Difficult as we've seen even in recent headlines, getting through Quebec is extremely difficult. There was a proposal to take one of those lines and do that.
As I said, subsequent to that, we have seen a resurgence in natural gas supply. We're now utilizing more of that capacity for natural gas. Again, it makes that kind of a proposal moving forward difficult because the utilization of the natural gas systems is greater now than it was four or five years ago when we proposed that. If there's no more questions, I'd like to thank you all again for attending the meeting today, and those of you that joined us on the webcast. For those here today, you're invited to stay and join us for some coffee and chat with our leadership team, learn more about our company. The directors and officers are wearing name tags, so you'll be able to identify them. I'd encourage you to ask them a question or two about your company.
Again, thank you all very much for taking the time to come out here to Winsport to join us today and drive safe.