Okay, so good morning and welcome to George Weston's 96th Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Galen Weston, the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Each year we look forward to this meeting and the opportunity that it provides to speak in person with our shareholders. At the same time, we are broadcasting the meeting virtually as we have for the past four years. This hybrid format provides all shareholders an opportunity to participate regardless of their location. Joining me on stage are Richard Dufresne, our President and Chief Financial Officer, and Andrew Burston, our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary. Several Director nominees, representatives of the Auditor, and other members of our management team are also here with senior executives from Loblaw and from Choice Properties. I'd now like to call to order this Annual Meeting of Shareholders of George Weston Limited.
I'll begin today's meeting by outlining how voting and questions will be addressed in this hybrid format. Usually, and this year is no exception, the majority of shareholders have submitted their proxies or voting instructions in advance of the meeting. Voting during today's meeting will be conducted in person or through the online platform. If you requested to vote in person, please use the ballot that was given to you when you registered. If you have voted in person with a ballot, please raise your hand, and at the end of voting on all matters, a representative from the scrutineer will come and collect your ballot at that time. To vote online, please use the Lumi Platform, and when we're ready to table an item of business for a vote, you will see voting options appear on your screen.
If you have voted in advance of the meeting and do not wish to revoke or to change your previously submitted proxy, then you do not need to do anything. The scrutineers will tabulate all the votes cast during the meeting, and we will report on the results of each resolution near the very end of the meeting. Questions will be accepted in person and through the online platform. To ask a question in person, please line up in the front. There are microphones, as you can see, on either side. If you wish to submit a question online in writing, select the Messaging tab on the top of your screen. If you wish to address the meeting verbally, please dial the audio line and press star one, or click the Request to Speak icon on the online platform.
The operator will verify that you are a shareholder or a proxy holder, and you will be able to ask your question at the appropriate time during the meeting. When asking a question, please identify whether it relates to a motion being considered as part of the formal business of the meeting or whether it is general in nature. We will address questions directly related to a particular motion at the appropriate time of the meeting and save general questions until the end of the meeting. We will first answer questions posed from those in person, followed by those questions submitted online or on the audio line.
If you're attending the meeting virtually and logged in as a guest, you will be able to listen to the meeting, but you will not be able to vote or ask questions, as only registered shareholders and duly registered proxy holders may do so. Andrew Burston will read out any written questions submitted online, and a member of management will respond. We will make every effort to answer all of your questions during today's question and answer period. Today's remarks may include forward-looking statements. Details regarding forward-looking statements can be found in the company's 2023 Annual Report and First Quarter 2024 Report to Shareholders.
Speak to colleagues. I think I've been talking to more than 100 customers on the parking lots. In the beginning, I said, "Yeah, hey, I'm new to Canada.
Could you please advise me where to do my grocery shopping?" And then I got a lot of good insight. Except that the second one I said that, who said, "Hey, but aren't you the new guy at Loblaws?" And then, "Yeah, okay, okay, I am, but that was only one who recognized me. I think it's going to be a little bit different from now on." But you're really getting a lot out of interacting with the customers. The other day, there was a couple looking at their phones, and I think I knew what they were doing. They were looking at the Ad Match. So I asked them, "So this Ad Match, how does it work? Do you really like it?" And they said, "Yeah, that's the reason we shop in the superstores. It just gives us some comfort that we're getting the right prices." So Ad Match is good.
So the more you interact, I think the better. When I look at Loblaws from the outside, coming from Europe, big, big credit to Galen and the management board and all our colleagues because you have done an excellent job. There are so many places where we are world-class. We are world-class in our control brands, our No Name and our PC. Again, speaking to customers, they said, "One reason to go to Loblaws stores: you need to buy the PC brand. It's so, so good." Our store standards are outstanding. The other day, I had a visitor. He's the chairman of one of the world's biggest CPGs, and we went to the Loblaws at St. Clair Avenue and Bathurst Street. Going into that store, he said, "Per, that's the best supermarket I have ever seen in my life." And he's not like a guy that gives a lot of credit, by the way.
He was my chairman for eight years, so I know. So no. And then our financial controls, our IT, the team is doing great. And I'm so happy that I don't have to implement SAP for the third time in my life. Everything is working. That's great. Our digital and loyalty, definitely leading the world. Our Optimum program, how we get the digital engaged customers, how they shop more with us, is also something that I will credit the team before me because they have just done an excellent job. Not to talk about supply chain. Supply chain is also cost-leading. It's less than most places, even with the geography that we have here in Canada. And then, of course, not to forget our purpose-driven colleagues. I'm meeting so many great colleagues out there, whether it's the beauty managers, shoppers. These beauty managers, shoppers, they're so good. They're so engaged.
They're so willing to help you. Again, talking to them, you also get some insight because if we are CAD 0.10 off a loaf of bread in an offer aisle, customers will give us a hard, hard time. But selling fragrances, if you sell something for CAD 50 or CAD 100, and I've been talking to many of those beauty men, they say, "No, no, customers, they don't care. We have the points, and we do this, and we have some offers." They never question a price for fragrance, but they do offer a loaf of bread. So that's also some good insight to have. And luckily, the beauty category is growing over and above the food category. So that's great. Yeah. And I'll just say that our staff, they love their customers and the communities that they serve.
So if you're a little bit bored in the head office, just go out, visit the stores, and you'll certainly be in a much, much better mood. If we move on to our three divisions. So we made a few changes in the beginning of the year because if I look at the overall market, we are seeing some trends that customers want more value. They want more value in Shoppers. They want more value in our superstores and our market division, but also in our hard discount division. So we took and we carved out our hard discount division. We gave that to Melanie Singh, who's a terrific leader. She's going to take our hard discount to new levels. And she's, by the way, sitting right down there, so you can talk to her afterwards.
Because everywhere in the world, hard discount is increasing, whether it's Australia, whether it's England, everywhere. I believe the same will happen here. That's why we have full focus on hard discount. We want to give customers value for money. That's why we are singling it out and giving it full focus. We have taken the market division, the Real Canadian Superstores, and combined those. One example for what we are doing there, we are taking the Atlantic Superstores together with the Real Canadian Superstores. We are bringing them together in one entity. Now we have superstores from coast to coast. This division is led by Frank Gambioli, 29 years at Loblaws, one of the best, if not the best, retailers in the world. I really, really trust that he's giving customers what they want.
They also want value in the market division because if you go to our market stores, we see lots and lots of quality. But I think we can do a little bit more of showing them the great offers that we have. So you will see some changes over the next months. We're just in the midst of implementing them. Then last but not least, Jeff Leger, he's heading up our Shoppers Drug Mart. And what a great story. What a good idea to buy them 10 years ago. I benefit from that today. And how our Shoppers Drug Mart are engaging in the local communities, how they're dealing with their customers, it's just really, really good. Because I, in the beginning, I said, "Okay, what is a real Shoppers Drug Mart? There must be something wrong." But anyway, no.
The more I look into Shoppers Drug Mart, the more amazed and the more I admire the format that we have. And again, it has done well, and I'm sure it will continue to do well going forward. Of course, we are doing a lot. We are also doing a lot of new stuff. Behind me, there's a few examples, and for sure there'll be more to come. Hit of the Month is one example. And this is all about utilizing the skill and scale of the group. And we need to do more of that. We need to break down the silos. And in all big companies, there's a few silos here and there. So we need to break them down. And we have done that by engaging in a very tactical program where we are selling the same products across 2,400 stores.
It's, I'm sure, the biggest promotion ever seen in Canada, starting off with the Kraft Dinner, CAD 0.55, a price never seen before, selling millions and millions of Kraft Dinner. Just this month, where we had the Planters and the T-shirts, they will also be selling millions. So again, the more we can utilize the skill and scale of the group, the better. The better for us, but also for our customers who really get value for money. There's also something about brands. When we talk to customers, they said, "We really want brands in clothing." So we're giving it to them. Today, we have it in 40 stores. We want to be present in many more stores. And first signs of sales are also looking really, really encouraging. On our strategic priorities, I think it's important that we are not here to change everything.
80%-90% of what we have done already is working very, very well. We're building on the strategy that we have already. Very, very short, we want to grow with hard discount. We want to grow significantly with shoppers. We want to grow with the market for both superstores and the market division. And by doing that, keeping costs low, growing a little bit more, washing out the cost, then I think we are set for the future, and we're set to deliver on our financial framework. Retail excellence. We strive to be the best buyers in Canada. And we did that before, and we will do that even more so going forward. We want to drive growth, again, building new stores, but also continue to build the digital engagement with our leading PC Optimum program.
We want to continue to invest in the future. Yes, we have been here for over 100 years. Every year, we try to make strategic investments. We try to build on what we have. This year alone, we are investing more than CAD 2 billion into the Canadian society. Honestly, what's not to like about that? To underline it all, our environmental and social and governance initiatives influence all our strategic decision-making. Last week, we had our 17th ESG report highlighting an aspiration to be a force for positive social and environmental governance. This approach, we are focused on two priorities: fighting climate change and advancing social equity. There's a lot to be proud of there. One example would be food waste on farms. Throughout our food distribution network, in stores and in our homes, has an economic cost of almost CAD 50 billion.
Our target is to eliminate 100% of the food waste in our enterprise by 2030. It's not easy, but we're going to get there. In 2023, we diverted 20% more food from landfill compared to 2022, working with partners like Flashfood and Food Charities. A great job to the entire group from Loblaw because this is not done just by having a group of people in the corner working with ESG. We need to work together on fighting climate change. So I think that was my 10 minutes. So I hope that you sense that I am highly motivated and very excited about working for Loblaw. And I think we have a great future ahead of us. Thank you for listening.
Terrific. So you got a great sense of Per's enthusiasm. I'm glad you're sitting there.
Don't go too far because I hope that there will be some questions and that I can get Per to answer them. So that'll be very terrific a little bit later. But before we get to the question period, we got to go through all of the formal procedures of the meeting. We got to vote for a few resolutions and make sure that we conduct the appropriate processes. Okay. So as we move on to that, I'm going to ask Andrew Burston to act as the secretary of the meeting. Computershare Investor Services will act as the scrutineer of the meeting by way of its representatives, Melody Scott and Kate Stevens. I don't know where you guys are. You're somewhere here.
Only shareholders of record at the close of business on March 11th of 2024 or their appointees are entitled to take part in or to vote at this meeting. To make the best use of our time, certain shareholders have been asked to move and second the motions, which are called for in the meeting itself. A copy of the notice of the meeting and proof of its mailing have been filed with the company. The scrutineer's report indicates that a quorum is present. I now declare that this annual meeting has been properly called and is duly constituted for the transaction of the business for which it has been called.
Mr. Chairman, I rise on a point of order.
Bob, go ahead.
Okay. My name is Robert Verdun. I am duly registered as a beneficial shareholder.
Well, I'll begin by saying that I have some very serious concerns about the legitimacy of the participation of beneficial shareholders. I was not able to get into the Loblaw meeting despite doing what I thought was the appropriate paperwork in advance and getting a notice from my brokerage that I was duly appointed. That particular meeting, there was only one question asked. Given the intense public interest in grocery pricing these days, I would have expected a lot more questions from shareholders, from the perspective of shareholders, of course. There was only one. So that's a giveaway. On the floor at that meeting, there was a shareholder proposal. I want to make sure right up top that you realize that I believe the voting was something like 74% against the proposal.
You realize that means that a majority of the non-controlling shareholders voted for the proposal that there be an in-person annual meeting for Loblaw. I believe you have a moral obligation, if not a legal one, to implement that proposal next year. Now, on with the point of order. I also have to say because right at the beginning, I'm not an enemy of this company. No. I shop at your stores, and I love them. Okay. My point of order has to do with George Weston Limited. With the education I gained from not getting into the Loblaw meeting, I made sure that I could get into this meeting legally. There are some things that really have to be fixed because it says several times in the documentation, "Make sure you read everything." You end up going around in a circle.
Finally, you do come to the fact that you have to register twice. But in order to register twice, you have to read something that doesn't make any sense. You also have to get over things like finding the 11-digit number that doesn't exist.
Can I just pause for just a second? So do you want to do this right now, or do you?
I want to do it right now because the most important thing today, I've got lots of substantial things to do. But the nitty-gritty of properly conducting a meeting is something very important. And you should remember that I was at the first shareholder meeting that you ever chaired.
I do. I do. I do remember. And you have really improved.
Oh, thanks. That's great to hear. It's been 18 years. That's continuous improvement. Yes.
I did get a chance to. I wanted to say that other than the problem of getting into the meeting, of course, I listened to the meeting. You conducted it very well. Nothing I could find fault with in terms of how you conducted it. But the point I want to make is, so I go through all this, and I get a notice from my broker who says, "Please read the important information regarding this meeting agenda." That had obviously been there when I tried to register for the Loblaw meeting. I ignored it because I'd read all the important information about the agenda three or four times. So this time, I clicked on it.
And bingo, a box comes up that says, "If completing the appointment box above, appointing myself to represent my shares and your appointee intends to attend, you must go to Computershare's website and go through it all over again." But you have to click on a box that says that it has something to do with the agenda. So it's almost like you hired the Republican Party to set up your voting system. So anyway, that's the point of order. That has to be fixed. It has to be relatively easy for the beneficial shareholder because most people today are beneficial shareholders. We're not carting around fancy engraved share certificates anymore. So that's the point of order.
I will trust that your brain trust will deal with it for the future because I'm getting old, and I do want to be able to participate online and not have to hire a lawyer to figure out how to do the paperwork.
Understood. Bob, thank you very much for that. It's certainly something that we understood and recognized at the Loblaw meeting, the number of shareholders outside of the control group who did vote to have a meeting in person. So we rejected the motion. It was voted down. We are reviewing our approach and our process for Loblaw for next year. Of course, as you know, this is an in-person hybrid meeting here at George. Okay. I threw you off. You have also thrown me off. Someone with the transcript will know whether I start in the right place again.
But let's start here. So a copy of the notice of the meeting and proof of its mailing has been filed with the company. The scrutineer's report indicates that a quorum is present. Oh, I did do that. Okay. So we're going to be okay. So we will deal with the formal items of business first. And at the conclusion of that business, we will move to the question period. And we will also announce the results of the voting. I should note that during the meeting, we may pause from time to time just to consult on certain questions or comments that might get raised throughout the meeting on the online platform. So please bear with us and be patient as we do so. Okay.
I'd now like to place before the meeting the annual audited consolidated financial statements of the company together with the notes and auditor's report for the year ended December 31st, 2023. These are included in the annual report, which was provided to shareholders and can be retrieved from the company's website or SEDAR+. Are there any questions related to this matter, Andrew?
We've not received any, Galen.
Okay. Thank you very much. So we'll now move to the nomination and the election of directors. With us today, seated in the front row, are all of your director nominees. I'd ask that they please stand and be recognized. There are seven nominees for election at this meeting. All of these nominees are current directors of the company. Our management proxy circular contains detailed biographies setting out the valuable qualifications and diverse backgrounds of the nominees proposed.
To facilitate the introduction of the nominees, we refer you to the slide on the webcast and projected behind me. I'm pleased to report that based on the proxies received by the scrutineer in advance of the meeting, each director nominee received votes in favor from at least 97% of the votes cast. I declare the polls open on all resolutions. Before proceeding to voting, I'll address any questions related to the nomination and election of directors, first in person and then online. Andrew, are there any questions related to director nominees?
We've not received any, Galen.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I don't have questions. I just want to say that in my long crusade for better corporate governance in Canada, there are a few people on this list that I've encountered quite often.
And as a shareholder here and as a customer here because that also benefits me when you run the company well, that you have some wonderful people. And I have to say something. Any audit committee that has Sarabjit S. Marwah on it has got to have just the best auditing there is. He's one man I could never stump. And Gordon M. Nixon is another extremely accomplished person. And Barbara Stymiest and I crossed swords a few times. And those are the ones that I know very well and, of course, yourself. So the company's in good hands. And one of the things that I set out to do almost 35 years ago was to make boards of directors effective, not a lunch club, but a group of talented people who can actually stand up for the shareholders and the overall health of the business.
And so you have a small board, but they're all contributing something really valuable to the shareholders of the company.
Thank you very much. Very much appreciated.
You're here. Okay. So could I please have a nomination for the election of those directors?
My name is Jeff Gobet, and I'm a shareholder. Mr. Chairman, I nominate the following persons for election as directors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until they resign or their successors are duly elected or appointed: M. Marianne Harris, Nancy H.O. Lockhart, Sarabjit S. Marwah, Gordon M. Nixon, Barbara Stymiest, Galen G. Weston, and Cornell Wright.
My name is Katie McCullum, and I am a shareholder. Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you. I'll now call for a motion to move that nominations be closed.
Mr. Chairman, I move that nominations be closed.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you. I'll ask shareholders or their appointees to cast their votes by completing their ballots or through the online portal. Just as a reminder, if you have already voted or sent in your proxy, there's no need to do anything unless you wish to change your vote. Again, if you're voting by ballot in person, the scrutineer will collect all ballots at the end of voting on all items of business. We'll now move to the next item of business, which is the appointment of the auditor. Are there any questions, Andrew, related to the appointment of the auditor?
We have not received any, Galen.
Okay. Thank you very much. I'll now entertain a motion for the appointment of auditor and the authorization of the directors to fix the auditor's remuneration.
Mr. Chairman, I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed as auditor of the company until the next annual meeting of shareholders of the company and that the directors be authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration for the 2024 fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you. So if you've not already done so, I'll ask shareholders or their appointees to cast their votes by completing oh, yeah. Go ahead. Just a small thing. It's a blank ballot. It just says appointment of auditor. I think you could put the name of that distinguished company on the ballot. Fair enough. Fair enough. Andrew, will you take a note of that? Yeah?
Note taken.
Okay. So I'll now ask shareholders or their appointees to cast their votes by completing those ballots or doing so through the online portal.
The next item of business is the advisory resolution regarding the company's approach to executive compensation. The resolution is more fully described on page 16 of the company's Management Proxy Circular. Andrew, any questions on this one?
No questions on this one.
Okay. So I'll now entertain a motion to approve on an advisory basis the company's approach to executive compensation. Mr. Chairman, I move that the advisory resolution regarding the company's approach to executive compensation, as more fully described on page 16 of the company's Management Proxy Circular, be approved. Mr. Chairman, I second the motion. Thank you. If you've not already done so, I'll ask shareholders or their appointees to cast their votes by completing their ballots or through the online portal. Thank you. This brings us to the end of voting on all items of business before the meeting. I therefore declare the polls closed.
Thank you for casting your votes. The scrutineers will collect any in-person ballots at this time. It looks like you're the only one. But I'm glad we have one. I'm very glad. Thanks. Okay. So that brings us to question period. But before opening it up, I wanted to take a moment to share a few personal thoughts on the unique situation at Loblaw where we find ourselves in the national spotlight facing consistent criticism. I understand the attention and the concern. Food prices have increased by over 20%. And when combined with so many other recent increases in living costs such as rent, mortgage, and car payments, Canadian families are under more pressures than ever. As Canada's largest grocer, it's natural that Loblaw is singled out as a focal point for media, for government, and for consumer frustrations.
As shareholders, you may be troubled by these often repeated stories. I'd like to assure you that your company has and will continue to act with integrity. We, along with the more than 1,500 independent business owners who make up our group, are not responsible for high food prices. In fact, Loblaw's internal inflation rate has been lower than Canada's CPI for food purchased from stores for the past three quarters. We've achieved this by working hard to do things more efficiently in every corner of our business, pushing back on unnecessary supplier cost increases, and competing fiercely with some of the largest retailers in the world like Walmart, Costco, Amazon. As I said last week at the Loblaw annual general meeting, allegations of grocers profiteering on the back of inflation are untrue.
Both the Bank of Canada and the Competition Bureau have studied this issue and have confirmed it. The simple fact that grocery prices have increased 10 times more than grocery profits makes the notion of profiteering impossible. Instead, Loblaw is outperforming the industry because Per and his team are bringing lower prices and better value to customers every week. Unfortunately, the rhetoric continues even though it's untrue. You may be aware of a boycott of Loblaw, which serves as an example of this criticism. The organizers demanded we lower food prices by 15%. To put that in perspective, it equates to approximately three times the total earnings of the company in a given year, the consequence of which would be the end of the Loblaw enterprise, the loss of over 200,000 jobs, and billions in annual investments into Canada's economy. Their frustration is understandable.
But this kind of expectation betrays a misunderstanding of what's actually driving food prices higher in this country. It reflects a worrisome trend as Canadians' trust in national institutions, including business, has steadily eroded in recent years. This is contributing to increasingly poor outcomes for the country, putting pressure on investment, and reducing productivity. For all their challenges and imperfections, market-driven economies have a remarkable capacity to drive innovation, jobs, and growth. But to do so, they need sound policies that encourage investment and a fair and balanced economy. Canada's private sector has some of the brightest minds, most capable resources, and world-class organizations whose leaders are deeply motivated to help deliver on that goal for the country. But their voices are becoming less relevant as enterprise has become an easy target.
Social media's propensity to oversimplify and amplify these narratives is aggravating the situation at a time when, rather than divisive misinformation, Canadians are in need of a shared vision of prosperity. No business is perfect. We have made our share of mistakes. The most important thing is what you do about it. In our case, we try to acknowledge them and correct them as quickly as we can. My family has been responsible for our group of companies and its thousands of employees for over 142 years. We believe deeply that large business can and must have a positive impact on society. Our teams work unbelievably hard to try and do that and by running a successful business with fairness and integrity, by protecting our environment, and by contributing to every community that we serve.
I remain exceedingly proud of the organization for what it's achieved, its ability to overcome difficulties, and the positive difference that it makes in the lives of Canadians. I now like to open the meeting for questions. Bob, I hope you have a question for the question period. And I know we have a couple of questions from our students. Yeah. Let them go first.
All right. So we're taking accounting at Bloor CI. And I was wondering, as the president of Loblaw Companies Unlimited or sorry, Limited, how is the information and financial reports used in your decision-making?
Great question. So I think what I'll do is I'll ask Richard to answer that to start with. Go ahead.
Great question, actually. The financial information is crucial for all our decision-making. You look at how we use it. Every morning, we see our sales. Every week, we see our margins.
Every month, we close a period for the whole of the enterprise. The use of financial information, it's our guide that allows us to build our plans and allow us to deliver on our targets year-on-year out. Because you have to remember that we are a business with very, very small margins. So, therefore, we cannot afford to make mistakes. Therefore, we need to plan and forecast as best we can. That's, I guess, the benefit of having great financial information.
Thank you. I know, for example, that everybody sitting in the second row wakes up in the morning. They look at their financial metrics every single morning, particularly when it comes to sales. It's what makes their day a good one or a discouraging one. Okay. Next question.
Hello. My question is that we understand that some companies have introduced robots into their stores that'll do things like sweep floors and check shelves. Will Loblaw Companies be introducing more automation in the near future? Per, why don't you take that one?
Thank you. And again, a great, great, great question. Because we need to look at automation in a lot of the areas that we do. Whether we're going to do exactly what you mentioned there, I'm not sure yet. But we need to be on the front foot. For example, in our distribution centers, we have a few that's almost fully automated. We have also an automated coming up next year. But also, in day-to-day and in small areas of the business, we need to look more to automation. But it's not only the physical. It's also looking into AI.
How can we do more digital automation and thereby make it better for our colleagues and for our customers? So yes, definitely, we are taking that advice and doing even more so going forward. Thank you.
Thank you.
Do we still have our robots at Leslie Street and Lake Shore Boulevard that bring groceries out to people's cars or no? No. No. We used to have some robots that brought groceries out to your car in the parking lot, but not anymore. Okay. Go ahead. All right.
So we understand that Loblaw has made a commitment to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025. What are some areas that you see the greatest improvements happening? Yeah. Great question. So Per, why don't you answer that? Go ahead.
No. Thank you. And as you know, food waste is the biggest contributor to climate change.
So that's why food waste is one of our absolutely most important focus areas. So we work with Flashfood. But even as important, we work with our system so we can forecast, right? Because to avoid food waste, we need to have the right forecast. We need to predict what customers are buying tomorrow, what they're buying next week. Because the more accurate we are, the less food waste we will have. And of course, we also donate a lot of food to charities. And even the food that cannot be eaten by human, we give that to ZooShare and other organizations that can use that. So this is important for us. And we will definitely hit our target. So thank you for that.
It's really amazing work that's been done over the last number of years to reduce food waste.
My one call-out to well, I'll call it out to everybody here, but particularly to the students who are here today. Watch what you might throw out in your own home. Because that's another big place where a lot of food gets wasted. So in the same way that the grocery stores need to do better in thinking about what they order so that there's no waste, when it comes to fresh food in particular, it's also important for us to be very thoughtful about what we buy so that more of it ends up in our tummies and less of it ends up in the recycli ng bin.
My name is Anne Sutherland. I'm a beneficial shareholder. And I wondered what environmental initiatives you have planned for this year, especially with the way climate change is happening so quickly.
Another terrific question. So am I answering this one, Per? Do you want to answer this one? Oh, no. Now I'm answering. Okay. Oh, no. That's good. That's good. So, well, the first thing maybe I can do is direct you to the Loblaw ESG report or even to the George Weston ESG report, which has the Loblaw report embedded in it. And you'll get a really detailed explanation of all of the things that we are doing. But it begins, first and foremost, with reducing our greenhouse gas emissions from power consumption.
And there are really two big drivers of that. The first is the electricity that we use in our stores for refrigeration, heating, and cooling, and keeping the lights on. The second is what's actually powering our trucks. And so I'm delighted to say we've made incredible progress with our stores and reducing our emissions from our supermarkets. We have a couple of net-zero carbon supermarkets themselves.
We're already changing our refrigeration systems to carbon dioxide-driven. It sounds like that might be a bad thing. But it's actually much, much better than typical refrigerants. Refrigerant leaks generate 10, I think what's the number, Catherine? Is it 10 x the amount of emissions or maybe 1,000 times more emissions than carbon dioxide? That's our biggest area of vulnerability. And we've done amazing work to reduce that. We introduced 14 new electric trucks to bring groceries around, all short-haul trucks. We haven't yet figured out how to replace a long-haul diesel engine for the big tractors that drive from one side of the country to the other. That may be one of the unsolved issues for us so far. But we remain really optimistic that a hybrid electric hydrogen truck may, in fact, be the solution for that.
The last thing maybe I'll say is that that's what we call Scope 1 emissions, Scope 2 emissions. Wait. There's one more. I announced it at this meeting last year where we have the world's biggest pumped or the country's biggest pumped hydro project in Alberta, where we're going to convert all of Alberta from carbon-emitting electricity to zero-emission electricity. And that's a partnership with TC Energy, the energy company, which is going to reduce our total Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions by 17% when that project gets up and running. And for Alberta, it'll be almost 100% reduction. The biggest challenge that, as a grocer, we have, of course, is that we're at the end of the value chain.
So our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions represent about 3%, maybe a little less than 3%, of the total emissions in the system that we are at the end of. Our commitment is to reduce our Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions to net-zero by 2050. That is a big task. What we are seeing from our manufacturers, particularly the big ones, are very ambitious carbon reduction strategies. While I can't say that I'm certain that they're going to deliver on their results, I'm certainly very much more optimistic today than I was, say, two years ago that the private sector is mobilizing around decarbonization in a very meaningful and high-impact way.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Chairman. I do have a few questions. Let's start with one on the environmental theme.
I've done many things in my life. But where I've actually made any money of any significance was in real estate development and marketing. So I'm very interested in Choice Properties. But I'm very interested in what can be done with the many properties that you now own. And several years ago, I gave you a hard—it's probably your father I gave it to—a hard time about that Queens Quay Market being kind of an orphan out there in the middle of nowhere where there's condos all over the place but not with easy walking distance. And I was assured that that wouldn't happen again. But I'm not sure that that has been followed through. Because I looked at the graphics that you had up for Choice Properties.
I didn't see condo buildings and grocery stores combined, which I think is a very big thing to be done. I think, in future, every site you look at, you should analyze to the fullest possible use for residential and those massive warehouses. I didn't see any solar panels on that big picture of a massive warehouse complex. That's where they need to go. Or you could be growing something on those roofs. We're in the food business. That is my primary goal here, to say that has to be a priority. It's a way this company can serve the public interest and make money doing it too. That's question number one.
Let me answer question number one. Then you can go to question number two. Yes and yes is the short answer. We are looking. Rael is here.
He's going to be up here talking about Choice Properties next year if all goes well. And so I'm not going to get him to come up and speak about this today. But it is absolutely one of the things that they do every day. I know Mario Fatica's in the back. That's his job along with Niall. Now, is that you back there too? Okay. There you are, where they're looking at each of these sites that have great supermarkets on them and trying to determine, is there a way that we can increase density? Is there a way that we can create homes? Is there a way that we can create really wonderful high-density communities that are anchored not just by the grocery store, right? Rael, you're here too.
She's working on this to make sure that the communities are not just supermarkets, but they have also microeconomies associated with them to bring a little bit more, let's say, complexity, constructive, positive complexity to the local communities that we can develop. So it is very much part of Choice Properties' placemaking strategy. And then just quickly on solar panels. So our biggest automated distribution center, which is under construction now that Per touched on, is going to have the largest solar installation in Canada on its roof.
Needless to say, the margins in condos are a lot better than the margins in groceries.
Well, that's true, although not as good as you might think with interest rates as high as they are. But it's certainly something we discuss regularly. Okay. Now, I raised the issue of the Loblaw meeting being in person in future. I have a suggestion.
Would you consider? Obviously, you are not going to get rid of the two-company structure. It does allow you to legitimately control Loblaw without multiple votes, which I approve of. But I think there'd be a very simple formula that could solve a lot of problems and save money because it costs money to set this up. Have the meetings on the same day. Have the Loblaw meeting in the morning. It's the one most likely to draw questions from shareholders. It's a broad shareholder base with Loblaw. Have a little lunch. And then convene the George Weston meeting. And I think that would accomplish what needs to be done in terms of respecting the value of the in-person meeting for the person who really wants to be there for a good reason but then also not waste shareholders' money. So would you please consider that?
Absolutely. We will consider it. In fact, Andrew and I talked about it, that exact solution, a couple of days ago. We still haven't worked out whether we can do it. My suggestion was that we have them at the same time and that we have the Weston shareholders down here and that we had the Loblaw shareholders up there. They could vote separately. So we're really putting our creative sort of wheels working on this. I think it's nice to have an in-person meeting. That's certainly why I think it's so good to have this George one in person. Okay. But it's the Loblaws that has the broad range. Over the years, there have been some really fun meetings with lots of people out. You get stupid questions sometimes. But corporations these days invest a lot of money in getting feedback.
That's feedback that's coming to you. It's feedback from shareholders, people who've got a little more on the. I just like the idea that Real and the Choice Properties folks can also get a few questions at the same time. It seemed efficient to have all three in the room. But look, I totally take your point. As we mentioned last week at the Loblaw meeting, the proposal was rejected. But we are looking hard at how to address the minority concern that was represented in their vote.
Okay. My final question is kind of a big one. It has to do with Shoppers Drug Mart. I love Shoppers Drug Mart, always have. It's a brilliantly managed company. And I have a history with them because of my newspaper business of seeing up close how they watch a market and jump in and do smart things.
But the Optimum program is getting out of control. This past Saturday, I got three pitches for Shoppers Optimum in my email, three. And one of them was misleading. It said, "Get 20,000 bonus points. Just open your PC Optimum app. Shop, scan, and earn." Well, I checked the asterisk and didn't tell me anything at all. And then I went into about an eight or 10-page email. And then down near the bottom, well, I had to spend CAD 80 to get 20,000 points. And that's not a good deal at Shoppers. You get a lot better deals than that. So I think you're reaching the point where you're going to be annoying your serious best customers by overdoing it. Focus, focus, focus, the KISS principle. Don't forget the KISS principle. But that's a general question. The specific question is that the systems fail.
And when they fail, you do not have a repair mechanism. I've got documentation on two examples where I had 20 x points offers that didn't work. In one case, they said, "Oh, you didn't load it." Well, I have my receipt that says, "Yeah. Your points balance is unavailable. The system wasn't working that day. I had prima facie proof that your system wasn't working." And much correspondence gets nowhere. It sent several emails. And finally, nope, you didn't register. You're not getting your points. And in another case, they said, "Well, we can't find the offer." And I printed a screenshot and sent it to them. And they still didn't. And these are significant amounts of money for we pensioners now. And so that has to be addressed. Make sure they work. And you're really good if somebody doesn't get their 600 points.
Go to Zehrs to get a product. And I didn't get my 600 bonus points. Quick email, fixed right away for CAD 0.60. But hey, I like to keep you disciplined. And over the years, I've been some companies' favorite customer because I find the holes in their systems. And they fix them.
Yep. Well, I was about to say something similar. I'll answer that one now. But do you have another question?
No. That's it. Just simplify the Optimum program and have a system for dealing with the big mistakes because they're going to happen.
Yeah. I mean, so a couple of things. You can be sure there's at least two people in this room who, when we have big mistakes like that, know about it within the space of, call it, minutes, largely because people call.
One of the most difficult things to deal with is a wave of phone calls landing at our call centers at the same time. So you're right. The best way to fix that is to reduce the number of times it happens. And I don't know the details. But I know it's been a priority for at least a couple of years and that there has been vast improvement in terms of identifying offer misfiring or offers not firing issues in the business. And so I suspect we are hopefully kind of at the tail end of that. But you make a good point on where's the small print? Because our customer communication philosophy is that there shouldn't really be fine print that matters. That should be right up close, maybe not on the front page of an offer but right one page away.
So we will take that feedback. And then in terms of the overall PC Optimum program, the idea, okay, where we are trying to get to is a place where you get all your offers in your app on a regular basis. And they are simple. And they are personalized. And they are specific to you. And so you don't need to be overwhelmed by what we would call mass offers that tend to go out to everybody. And you're right. Getting three in a week is an awful lot. Three in a day. Or three in a day can also be an awful lot.
Well, just to wrap up, yeah, yeah, I have never ordered online beauty products. And I get an awful lot of pitches for online beauty products. And nothing's going to help me. Fair point.
Bob, thank you. Appreciate it very much.
Just something else to think about too. The number of times that I see customers who don't have an Optimum card. So you might want to refresh how you're getting that message out to people, that it doesn't cost anything. And it's free food eventually if you use the card.
Terrific. Bob, thank you so much. Thank you. It was really nice to see you. And I'm glad you made the visit. And I'm very sorry about your communications or getting online to the Loblaw meeting last week. Okay. So we are now into voting results, aren't we? Yep. Okay. Andrew, do we have the votes in? Have we had enough time? We have. Okay. So we have received preliminary voting results from the scrutineer on three items of business, the election of directors.
The voting results show that each director nominee has received votes in favor from at least 97% of votes cast. I accordingly declare that the proposed director nominees have been duly elected to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until they resign or their successors are duly elected or appointed. On the appointment of the auditor, the voting results show that approximately 99% of the votes cast were in favor of the appointment of PwC as the auditor of the company. I declare that PwC is appointed as auditor of the company. And that the directors are authorized to fix their remuneration. On the advisory vote on the company's approach to executive compensation, approximately 96% of the votes cast were in favor of the company's approach to executive comp. I declare this motion to be passed.
The final voting results will be available after the meeting and posted to the company's SEDAR+ profile. As there is no further business, can I have a motion to terminate the meeting?
Mr. Chairman, I move that the meeting terminate.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you. I now declare the meeting terminated. On behalf of the company, I'd like to thank our incredible colleagues and employees for their hard work over the last year and to all of you for taking the time to join us today. I wish you all the best, your families, and hope those who are here in person will join us in the atrium for a few delicious treats, which has always come thanks to Mary, who's sitting in the second row, and the President's Choice Team. You're launching the Insider's Report. May 16th. May 16th? Yep. Okay.
So look out for the Insider's Report. I just went through. I had a pre-look at it with the rest of the board last week. It is awesome. There are a few great samples from this summer's program out there for you today. Thank you very much.