Exchange Income Corporation ($EIF)
Earnings Call Transcript · May 12, 2026
Highlights from the call
In the Q1 2026 earnings call for Exchange Income Corporation (EIF:CA), management reported a significant revenue increase to $868 million, up from $668 million YoY. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $166 million, reflecting strong operational performance. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $850 million to $875 million, signaling confidence in continued growth driven by new contracts and acquisitions, particularly in the northern regions of Canada.
Main topics
- Revenue Growth: Exchange Income Corporation reported Q1 2026 revenues of $868 million, a substantial increase from $668 million in Q1 2025. CEO Mike Pyle noted, "the rate of growth isn't slowing down. It's in fact, accelerating."
- Adjusted EBITDA Increase: Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2026 reached $166 million, up from $130 million in the prior year. This growth is attributed to operational efficiencies and successful contract wins.
- Guidance Revision: Management raised its full-year revenue guidance to $850 million to $875 million, up from the previous range of $825 million to $875 million. Pyle stated, "we're now believe we're at the top end range, which is significant growth off of last year's $750 million."
- Medevac Program Expansion: The company is expanding its medevac services in Manitoba and Newfoundland, which are expected to contribute significantly to revenue growth. Pyle emphasized that this service is a "strong, reliable source of revenue where we do a great job."
- Canadian North Acquisition Impact: The acquisition of Canadian North is a key driver for growth, with Pyle noting it positions EIC as a dominant player in the northern aviation market. He remarked, "we're just at the beginning of this" regarding future growth opportunities.
Key metrics mentioned
- Revenue: $868 million (vs $668 million YoY, +30% YoY)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $166 million (vs $130 million YoY, +28% YoY)
- Full-Year Revenue Guidance: $850 million - $875 million (raised from $825 million - $875 million)
- Adjusted EPS Payout Ratio: 67% (lowest in EIC's history)
- Free Cash Flow: up 50% YoY
- Canadian North Contribution: significant growth expected
The strong Q1 results and raised guidance position Exchange Income Corporation favorably for continued growth. The focus on expanding medevac services and leveraging the Canadian North acquisition presents significant catalysts. However, analysts will be watching for any signs of competitive pressures and the effectiveness of integration efforts.
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesGood morning, everyone, and welcome to the Annual general and special meeting of the shareholders of Exchange Income Corporation. It's great to see so many here, particularly those who have been shareholders since the establishment of our company. My name is Don Streuber and as Director and Chair of the Board of Directors, I will act as Chair of this meeting. Before we begin I would also like to take a moment to review some important safety information. Emergency exits, please familiarize yourself with the nearest emergency exit. The primary exits are in the north corner not over the wings, but in the north corner or the door that you entered in from over there. In the event of an evacuation, please proceed calmly to the nearest packet and move to the designated muster point outside. The muster point is on the corner of Ferry Road. Fire alarms, and equipment. If the fire alarm sounds, we will stop the meeting immediately and evacuate the building. fire extinguishers are located at every exit and only personnel trained should use them. No smoking or vaping are permitted indoors at any time. If you notice any hazards or unsafe conditions, please report them right away to any staff member. Your safety is our priority. Thank you for your attention and cooperation and do not look for an oxygen mask to drop from the ceiling. Before we begin, I would like to also take the time to acknowledge that this meeting is taking place on the indigenous ancestral lands on Treaty 1 territory. The Red River Valley is also the birthplace of the Meaty. We acknowledge that our water is sourced from Shoal Lake F First Nation and we respect and give honor to the indigenous people's history on this land and recognize First Nations, Mate, Inuit People ongoing contribution in our neighborhoods and communities today. I will lead us through the formal part of the agenda, and then we will have a presentation by our CEO, Mike Pyle, on the company's progress during the past year, after which we will have an opportunity to answer questions from registered or beneficial shareholders. For those of you attending virtually instructions on how to use and to ask questions and the voting procedure will appear on your screens. As with any technology, unexpected glitches may occur, but our service providers for this platform at Lumi are very experienced at running this type of meeting and will help us out, if any, issues arise. I would like to offer a very special welcome to the mentees from, I believe, it's 16 of our businesses that are coming here to join us today. And I would also like to offer a very special thank you to the team at perimeter as well as custom helicopter for getting this room ready and providing us with some show and tell or after the meeting. Please take the time to ask the questions and to just look at some of this new equipment that's been out for your enjoyment and information. The meeting -- we'll now come to order, and I will ask Dianne Spencer to act as Secretary of the meeting; and Kristine Calesso and Jennifer Villareal of the TSX Trust Company to act as scrutineers. Everyone present in person should now be registered with the scrutineers and all proxies should have been deposited. If not, please do so now. The Secretary has confirmed to me that the notice calling this meeting of shareholders was filed on SEDAR+ on March 6, 2026. And the record date for the determination of shareholders entitled to receive Notice 7 to attend and vote at the meeting was March 31, 2026. The scrutineers have provided the chair with a report and the Chair adopts the scrutineer's report confirming that there are present by proxy of a sufficient number of persons holding a sufficient number of shares entitled to sufficiently vote at the meeting to constitute a quorum. Voting delegates and any other person attending a meeting of the shareholders may address the meeting when there is a call to discuss a motion before the meeting. Should you wish to address the chair on any motion, please raise your hand and the Chair will call upon you or for those attending virtually, please type in your question or comment in the message section and the moderator will read the question allowed. Notice having been mailed as required and a quorum being present, I declare that this meeting is duly constituted for the transaction of business, and the polls are now open for all resolution matters with voting required for 4 of them. We will conduct the votes on the matters before us by poll. On a poll, every shareholder entitled to vote on the matter has 1 vote in respect of each share entitled to be voted on the matter and held by the shareholder. The poll will be open for all resolutions at the same time. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until conclusion of discussion on each resolution prior to casting your vote. If you have already voted in advance of the meeting and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to vote again during the meeting. Finally, we would like to remind you that our answers to your questions and our presentation may contain forward-looking information. By its nature, the information contains forecast assumptions and expectations about future outcomes, which are subject to the risks and uncertainties discussed more fully in our public disclosure filings. We will now go through each of the items on the agenda in turn. The first item, financial statements is to receive and consider Exchange Income Corporation's consolidated financial statements for the period ended December 31, 2025, together with the auditor's report on these statements. The financial statements and auditor's report on them were included with the material sent out giving notice of this meeting and available on SEDAR+ and the corporation's website. Nicky Murray of PricewaterhouseCoopers audit partner for the EIC audit, is in attendance here today. Unless there are any questions of management or the auditors, we will take the financial statements and auditor's report as received and considered. The second item of business is to appoint the auditors of Exchange Income Corporation for the ensuing year and to authorize the directors to fix the remuneration of the auditors. Would a voting delegate please make the motion.
Richard Wowryk
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I move to resolve that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed auditors of Exchange Income Corporation to hold office until the next Annual General Meeting or until their successors are duly appointed and the directors be authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration.
Travis Muhr
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I second the motion. You've heard the motion by Richard Wowryk, seconded by Travis Muhr. Is there any discussion of this motion?
Unknown Executive
ExecutivesNo. Mr. Chair, there is no discussion at this time.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesThank you, Madam, operator. As there is no discussion, I will now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Any contrary? Would all virtual voting delegates please enter your votes in Lumi. The third item of business is the election of directors of exchange Income Corporation for the ensuing year. As we did not receive any other nominations in compliance with our advanced notice bylaw, I declare the nominations closed. And I will now entertain a motion to consider an ordinary resolution to elect 11 directors to hold office until the next general meeting of the shareholders or their earlier removal or resignation. Brad Bennett, Gary Buckley, Polly Craik, Bob Gamey, Bruce Jack, Duncan Jessiman, Carmele Peter, Michael Pyle, Melissa Sonberg, Donald Streuber and Edward Warkentin have been nominated for the election as directors of EIC. Would a voting delegate please make the motion?
Richard Wowryk
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I move to resolve that Brad Bennett, Gary Buckley, Polly Craik, Barb Gamey, Bruce Jack, Duncan Jessiman, Carmele Peter, Michael Pyle, Melissa Sonberg, Donald Streuber and Edward Warkentin be elected as directors.
Travis Muhr
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I second the motion.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesYou have heard the motion by Richard Wowryk and seconded by Travis Muhr. Is there any discussion of this motion?
Unknown Executive
ExecutivesMr. Chair, there is no discussion at this time.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesThank you. As there is no discussion, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Any contrary? Would all virtual voting delegates, please enter your votes in Lumi. The fourth item of business is to approve the fifth amended and restated shareholder rights plan of the corporation. A summary of the key features of the fifth amended and related shareholder rights plan of the corporation was included in the corporation's management information circular dated April 6, 2026, and a copy of the fifth amended and restated shareholder rights plan may be obtained by contacting the corporation at the address set forth at the end of the Management Information Circular or on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Would a voting delegate please make that motion?
Richard Wowryk
ExecutivesMr. Chair, be it resolved that as an ordinary resolution of the shareholders of Exchange Income Corporation, the shareholder rights plan of the corporation be continued the fifth amended and restated shareholder rights plan agreement to be made as of May 12, 2026, between the corporation and TSX Trust Company as rights agent, which amends and restates the fourth amended and restated shareholder rights plan agreement dated May 10, 2023, be and is hereby authorized and approved. And any one director or officer of the corporation be and is hereby authorized for and on behalf of the corporation to execute, deliver and file such documents and do all such things and as such persons considers necessary or advisable to give effect to the foregoing resolution.
Travis Muhr
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I second the motion.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesYou have heard the motion by Richard Wowryk and seconded by Travis Muhr. Is there any discussion of this motion?
Unknown Executive
ExecutivesMr. Chair, there is no discussion at this time.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesAs there is no discussion, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Any contrary? Would all virtual voting delegates please enter your votes in Lumi. The fifth item of business is to approve on an advisory basis, the corporation's approach to executive compensation. As described in the corporation's management information circular dated April 6, 2026, the corporation's compensation policies and procedures are based on the principle of pay for performance. The Board believes they align the interest of the corporation's executive team with the long-term interest of shareholders. Would a voting delegate please make this motion?
Richard Wowryk
ExecutivesMr. Chair, be it resolved that on an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the directors of Exchanging Home Corporation, the shareholders of the corporation accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the management information circular delivered in advance of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the corporation.
Travis Muhr
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I second the motion.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesYou've heard the motion by Richard Wowryk and second by Travis Muhr. Is there any discussion of this motion?
Unknown Executive
ExecutivesMr. Chair, there is no discussion at this time.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesAs there is no discussion, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Any contrary? Would all virtual voting delegates please enter your votes in Lumi. We will now take a short pause to answer any questions that have been submitted and to permit any registered shareholder or proxy holder who has not already done so to record their votes on Lumi on the motions before the meeting. Having received no questions, I will close the poll in 30 seconds. Can somebody sing the jeopardy song? I have now received the preliminary scrutineers' report. With respect to the election of directors, I'm advised by the scrutineer that each of the proposed nominees has been duly elected. With respect to the resolutions to appoint the auditors, approved the fifth amended and restated shareholders' rights plan of the corporation and approval on an advisory basis, the corporation's approach to executive compensation. I am advised by the scrutineer that these resolutions have been duly carried. The detailed results of this meeting will be announced in a press release and will be included in a voting report to be filed on SEDAR+ as soon as practical after this meeting. Is there any further business to be conducted at this meeting? If not, I will entertain a motion to terminate this meeting.
Richard Wowryk
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I move to terminate the meeting.
Travis Muhr
ExecutivesMr. Chair, I second the motion.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesYou have heard the motion by Richard Wowryk and second by Travis Muhr. Is there any discussion of this motion?
Unknown Executive
ExecutivesMr. Chair, there is no discussion at this time.
Donald Streuber
ExecutivesYour turn. Please welcome Mike Pyle, CEO of Exchange Income Corporation.
Michael Pyle
ExecutivesWe'll start with a brief video, Pam has put together about the company, and then we'll talk a little bit about last year. what's happened in the first quarter of this year and some of the things that have helped us get there. [Presentation]
Michael Pyle
ExecutivesBefore I start, this popped up on one of the LinkedIn pages of one of our employees. And kind of jumped off the page, someone's put together a list of the 25 largest airlines in the world by market cap. When we started in 2004 with our purchase of perimeter flying metros into Shamattawa or St. Theresa Point. I really didn't think that there'd be a day where we would be the only Canadian company on the west and in the top 2 airlines in the world. Now the shareholders in this room know we're a lot more than an airline. But to be grouped with the biggest in the world shows you what's been accomplished here over the last 20-plus years as we've added great companies and then the teams there have grown those businesses. It's something that we're really proud of that we're on that biggest stage while sticking to exactly what we promised our shareholders back when we started in 2002. So what have we accomplished? Dividend increases over the life of the company. And I think that's significant because we've been giving lots of advice from our investment bankers and that help us to say what we should do in the flavor of the day. There's times when dividends are sexy, there's times when growth is sexy. There's times when deep value is where you want to be. We've been the same thing for 20 years. That's a company that delivers a reliable, growing dividend to our shareholders, but not just the dividend, we give you growth beside us. So you could see that chart, it doesn't go straight up because there are some periods when things aren't very good, like you could see during COVID, we didn't increase the dividend because it wasn't prudent to do it. And then '22, '23 when we came out, we were rocking and we increased it more than once a year. And so the Board is very cognizant of raising dividends when we have the money to be able to do it. But having our shareholders be able to know that's a core value to us as a company, and they can rely on that check every month and the fact that next year, that check will probably be a little bigger. Interesting numbers. We've now paid over $1 billion in dividends to our shareholders. If we were only going to have one chart to show you, I think this is the one I would use. This shows our returns for -- since we started 15, 10, 5, 3 and 1 year period. And you could see that it's typically right around 20%. But more importantly, compare that to the TSX or the Aristocrat fund. And the Aristocrat fund is one of the highest profile dividend funds in Canada, which has remarkably successful companies. I'm proud we're a part of it. But in -- we're at least 2x in most periods and a lot of times closer to the return of that index. And by doing that over the long period we have, it shows you that it's not one great decision that's been made or one big contract, somebody's on or one really good decision. It's a business model where we buy great companies and empower management teams and then stay out of their way. You could see some of the CEOs in the room here. I hope you get a chance to say hi and talk to them about their individual businesses. But the magic of EIC isn't what we do to the companies when we buy them. It's what we don't do to the companies when we buy them. We don't think that all of a sudden because we own a matting company, that we know more than the stars and the matting companies we own, we clearly don't. Our job is to provide capital, provide support and then let our superstars control the game. And this chart, I think, tells you that, that business strategy works. This is another way of looking at the same sort of thing. If you had thrown $1 into our stock in 2004, it would be worth slightly less than $6,000 at the end of last year. Comparatively, if you throw it into the TSX, you'd have $6. And if you were to run this chart now, it's closer to $7,000 than it is to 6%. So just going quickly over our results for last year. You could see a big jump in our revenue. That was largely driven by a few key contract wins and the acquisition of Canadian North. I'm going to come back to Canadian North in a bit, but I would tell you that is longest acquisition process in the history of man. We started talking to them in 2007, and it only took us 18 years to get the deal done. But we're so proud of that as part of EIC because now we are the dominant player in the north. And with all the great things that are happening in Canada is north, the commitment of the new government to the north, if you want to go there, I don't know which EIC you're playing, you're going to fly on, but you're going to fly on one of our planes. And so what we're doing now is a fraction of what we'll be doing in the future. You could see our EBITDA has grown pretty much on the same track. If you look at 2020, the trough trying COVID about just under 300, and we're now 3x that size. That's a pretty dramatic growth in 6 years. This shows the same thing on a per share basis. It's not as dramatic because we've always invested in our balance sheet and making sure we've got equity so that our leverage stays reasonable, and that it's reliable, and we don't have to worry about our banks changing their mind at all-time highs last year in EPS and in free cash flow per share. And when we pop forward to the next quarter, you're going to see a much more dramatic increase in that. So here's Q1. Last year, we had revenues of $668 million. This year, $200 million more than that. Adjusted EBITDA moved from $130 million to $166 million. And what I would point out, just as an aside is if you look at 2020, we made $67 million in EBITDA in that first quarter. Our increase this year was half of that. And so the rate of growth isn't slowing down. It's in fact, accelerating. Here, you see -- remember, I talked just a few minutes ago about how on a per share basis, the increases were smaller, and it's because of the investments we made in our balance sheet where we converted all the convertible debentures into equity bumped up our equity box by $400 million, and that increases the number of shares. But the profitability of our growth is such that we've made twice as much in the first quarter in terms of earnings we did last year. And we're up about almost 50% on the free cash flow basis. But where the rubber hits the road with these numbers is what's our payout ratio look like? We always talk about how we want to reduce our payout ratio while at the same time as increasing our dividend. Shareholders in here will know we bumped it by about 5% in November. At the same time, as we took all that equity on, so we increased the number of shares outstanding, increase the dividend per share. And I'm ecstatic to tell you that our adjusted EPS payout ratio is the lowest it's been in the history of EIC. We're down to 67% payout ratios. And on a free cash flow basis, not quite the all-time record we're going to need another quarter or 2 but we're down to 57%. That's just a couple of quarters after we increase the dividend and after we added the equity. So that puts us in the spot where come November, management might suggest to the Board we do it again. And if we keep performing like this, I'm pretty confident we'll continue to have the support of the Board to do those things. And it's really about the earnings and the growth come first and then we share the rewards with our shareholders. So let's talk a little bit about what we're going to do this year that's going to drive us to our guidance we've given the market of $825 million to $875 million. I should point out that on our conference call this morning, I told the market that originally, we had said $825 million to $875 million. And then in February, we bumped it to kind of the mid-upper range, which was $850 million to $875 million. And on our call this morning, we said we're now believe we're at the top end range, which is significant growth off of last year's $750 million. What's going to fuel that growth? How are we going to get there? Well, it's growth of our medevac program. In Manitoba here with the highly acute Medevac program that we signed with the province of Manitoba that's now fully operational. It's the Newfoundland Medevac program, which will kick into full force sort of midyear here. It will be the growth of our Nunavut contract and an expected long-term extension of that. And in addition to this, it's what's going on with our BC notwithstanding challenges we had in getting all our airplanes from our manufacturer. Our team at Carson has found a way to keep our government customer not just satisfied by happy, and we will be taking our final delivery this summer and have the full ramp of that project as well. And so medevac, which is the most -- one of the most reliable sources of revenue we have, it's not affected by inflation. It's not affected by unemployment. It's not affected by fuel prices. It's just a strong, reliable source of revenue where we do a great job. Northern routes are going to be a big part of this. We've added Canadian North. And so in the first and second quarter of this year, we don't have a comparative for Canadian North. So that gives us a big jump in our numbers. But beyond that, with the investment in Canadas North, we've seen passenger numbers growing significantly in our Nunavut business, not just in Canadian North but in Calm Air as well. And so we're just on the description I used in our conference call. We're not even in the first inning of that growth, where they just threw out the honorary first pitch of that game, and that growth is going to grow, and you're going to see that over the next decade as the Canadian government invests in new runways for the F-35s to land on new military bases private enterprise invests in new mining and critical mining opportunities. And so we're just at the beginning of this. You're going to see that northern routes on thing for the next 3 or 4 years as we talk maybe longer than that, but as we have this meeting every year. Maritime Surveillance continues to grow. The demand for this around the world is remarkable. The uncertainty that's been created by the change in policy in the American government, where they're less reliant on NATO, less reliant on partners more stand-alone has made other countries step up and say we're going to look after ourselves. And we've been the benefactor of that, particularly with new operations in Europe. A couple of years ago, we won in the Netherlands, we won in Great Britain. We announced that we've been selected to work with Greenland, and we're in discussions in other countries. I want to deal a little bit with -- we announced that we worked the winner in Australia. I don't know why we didn't win. And we frankly -- we don't even know who one or if anyone wanted. They just told us it wasn't us. And the idea that this should be dramatic or a big problem, I really think is incorrect. We've talked about the growth of maritime surveillance, and we're not going to win every contract that's out there. But the proof is we won one already another way, and we're going to win more. And this is a long-term, highly profitable part of our business. And we're excited about it. We're not going to get every one. And if we do get everyone, we're probably not bidding the right price. There are competitors who are good at this. But we're really good at it. And with the expansion of our stuff in Europe, the potential to do it in Northern Canada. I think you'll see us in other European countries in years to come. Aircraft sales and leasing. Our Regional One business is booming. It's grown dramatically because of investments in aircraft we've made in prior years. Our leasing revenue is way up. Hank have been in front of the curve in terms of buying things before everyone realized we need them. The shortage of engines and the shortage of certain types of aircraft is going to continue to drive this in the future. We've got our eyes on the horizon because of the crazy oil prices and more importantly, potentially fuel shortages has had no impact on Hank's business so far. But we're we have our eye on it. We've also got the checkbook for Ritchie that if there is uncertainty in the business and there's assets become available, the best deals we do are in uncertain times. I've told a number of you about Hank came to me during the middle of COVID and said he wanted to buy a fleet of Q400 aircraft, which weren't exactly in COVID at the time. And I kind of look like, do we really need to do this? And Hank, he's not on. We got to do this. And so I listened and unfortunately, all those aircraft are gone. And we bought them for the price of about half an engine today. And so it's what you can buy in bad times that drives this business in good time. So hopefully, the market doesn't slow down. But if the market does slow down, we're going to be super active and take advantage of it. We added MACH 2 to the family earlier this year. We've talked about for a long time that we'd love to expand our portfolio outside of regional jets and big turboprops. MACH 2 is in that market. They're a small player, but they are similar to Regional One in that they are very good at buying older aircraft, parting them out and earning special returns. With Regional One's model, the market information on bigger jets from Canadian North and from MACH 2, it's going to give us the second booster of our rocket as we move into other types of aircraft over ensuing years. Now like Regional One, we're not going to jump into this boldly and take on too much risk. We want to make sure we know exactly what the value of the things we're buying is. So it will be a slow steady climb, but many of you are long-term shareholders will remember in the late '20 teens, we weren't really in the ERJ market. We are a Bombardier company. So CRJs. We dipped our toes into that. And today, we would do at least as much business in ERJs as we do in CRJ. I think you'll see that as we move into the 737s and ultimately the wide-body jets in the future. Finally, matting solutions. The Northern Mat acquisition in 2022 has been amazing for EIC. They're the dominant player in Canada. We bought them just as we are heading into the back end of a super cycle with long linear projects in the company greatly outperformed what we bought it off of. The last couple of years have been more in quotation marks normal and that there weren't a ton of long-run linear projects. That has turned. We've heard everybody talk about how the utilities are investing in new distribution capacity and new production capacity to look after driving electric cars and to look after data centers. Well, every one of those new distribution lines needs matting to -- for the construction equipment to drive on. So we're ecstatic about what Canada looks like. And a little over a year ago, we bought Spark, the composite manufacturer in the U.S. The U.S. market is a little ahead of Canada in that the electrical projects are well underway. Not that they're nearing completion, there's decades worth of work in that business. And we've essentially been sold out since the beginning of last year. And so I'm excited that we're building a new plant. It's on time, on budget. We're building it in Saltillo, Mississippi. If anybody has been there, I think you're the only one, but it fits us for what we do access to raw materials and access to the people we need and we're ecstatic that will be open next summer. Finally, it's not on here, but we've really seen an uptick in our -- in the balance of our manufacturing business. early in the year, it was slow, and I was a little concerned that we might be going through a lull. And in February, it was like someone turned on a light sludge, whether it's our stainless steel tank business in Springfield, Missouri, where we took the biggest order in our history to build the cooling system for a data center at over USD 20 million for a single project or whether it's our precision metal manufacturing businesses, Ben Machine, Ontario, where we're doing incredible high-tech pool work for space projects for the F-35 spike rider or our manufacturing businesses in Southern BC, where we're building racking and things for data centers or our West tower business, doing a full bunch of laying of the cable for these data centers or our pressure system business in Alberta. The backlog is at record highs and growing. And so the future truly is bright. And I say that with one of our segments is -- has gone through a tough time, our Windows business. Darwin and my team out in Toronto, we've done a great job of realigning our costs, streamlining our production and we know we're going to build apartments. We know it's the cheapest place live. So it's a matter of time until that returns. And what it does, it's going to add $50 million or $60 million more to what we're doing here with no investment because we already own the equipment, we own the buildings, and we've kept the people. So it's kind of our ace in the hole, one of our founding directors, Duncan and I have a running joke where Dunc says, Wouldn't it be great if we could get them all going at the same time. And then I tell them all the business models designed that they don't all go in exactly at the same time because then they could all not go at the same time. So it shows you we're hitting record results with 1 cylinder not fire it. And that cylinder will come back, and it will add to the growth in the future. So I'm going to talk 2 or 3 really quick case studies and then I'll answer any questions if you have them. Canadian North is the dominant player in the east part of the Arctic and the West part of the Arctic. Calm Air was the dominant player in the central part of the Arctic. And Canadian North went through a challenging merger with -- First Air, sorry, I've got a brain tumor just before COVID. And COVID made that merger even more difficult of the pressure on companies to keep their employees and do things like that. And so it was a great opportunity for us to pick up an airline that has great people, a great tradition and wonderful market share, combine it with Calm Air to cover the whole north. And I think the proof of that was our customer, the government in Nunavut most would be concerned that, hey, these guys are consolidating the business. Now we've got one big supplier. They were so happy that we had accomplished this and put 2 great airlines together that we got a new 10-year contract on a negotiated basis, which solved some of the aviation inflation challenges we had and put us on the path to grow we're working on streamlining operations, seeing what we could do between the 2 airlines to continue to make them more profitable. But it's very clear in our in our financial results, the Canadian North has been a huge part of our growth and is a huge part of the future as the North takes greater precedence in Canadian economic development. So Canadian North was an acquisition. These 3 are examples of making investments into businesses we already own. We talked about Spartan, which my management team has done a phenomenal job of keeping that plant going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and it can go every composite not they can. But we're nowhere near meeting the demand of our customers. So we're building this new factory, which will more than triple our capacity. It's an investment that's about $60 million, if I remember correctly the budget. And we expect that it will be up and we'll be testing product next summer, and we'll be in production by the end of the year. And with the demand we have there, that's going to fuel our '27 and '28 growth. [indiscernible], you see it across the board -- [indiscernible] and I say many, they're bigger than we were for most of our history. But they're involved in the scheduled airline like Calm and Perimeter and Canadian North. They're a feeder for Air Canada, where we do stuff on a tariff basis for them. And we're big players in the aerospace business. Well, we've invested in that company consistently. It's 5x the size it was when we bought it and growing. And we bought planes for the Air Canada contract. We've invested in new maritime surveillance aircraft. I can't wait to it another maritime surveillance contract and buy some more planes there. But it shows that if you put capital in the hands of people who know what they're doing, you reprewards. And then finally, MACH 2, I talked about already. It's really -- it's an acquisition, but it's really buying capabilities for Regional One. Regional One needs that knowledge of the parts, the knowledge of the product and put it into the engine that it is in how it attacks the market. And so that's going to give us the ability to grow that business in the future. If you walk away with a couple of things out of this is our business model works. We're not changing our business model, and our business model is based on putting money into the hands of people and smarter than the people that had office. Finally, one thing I want to touch on before question and answers is most of the stuff I've talked about is dollars and cents and finance. What we've accomplished at EIC is way more than that. A few years ago, we started the program of digging First Nations children in to the reconciliation game at the Ballmer Stadium. And we brought in 1,000 kids. And I still remember when Wade Miller, the President of the Ballmer steamed to me and said, Mike, you guys got to step up. We haven't played for a year. And in the past, we had brought in one community again. So 20, 30, 40, 50 people do a game, not too hard to manage logistically. And I broadly shot off without thinking. We'll do 1,000 for that game. I walked back to my office and I told Pam and she looked at me and said, we don't have enough capacity to move 1,000 people. But we found a way the airlines brought in extra planes. We shared it and it is a testament to what we do in terms of investing back into our communities. And it's a proud normal when you look at that orange end to the stadium, with all those kids in orange Ballmer gear, which is kind of an oxymoron for a team that was blue, but it shows up in the stadium. Well, we kind to put the rest of the CFL to shame my real job was being the chair of the bombers. And so I was surfing at some of the other teams that they need to step up their game and follow us. And over the ensuing 2 or 3 years, every team now has some version of what we do for reconciliation Day. And it's different with every team depending on what the First Nation's component is of their fan base, where they get them from. And this year, with the acquisition of Canadian North, I'm so proud to announce it's not just a Winnipeg story anymore. We're going to do it in Edmonton, and we're going to do it Canadian North is going to bring the people down from those communities. And we are going to make a difference in people's lives. And then that is we've taken one step further into economic reconciliation with Atik Mason program where we're now graduating 30 or 40 pilots a year which are going into our base. And on one hand, we're giving opportunities to First Nations people who didn't have that chance before. But on the other hand, it's incredibly selfish because we're getting pilots that get to service their own community. They don't run away to go to a job at Air Canada. They're proud to fly the St. Theresa point, [indiscernible] Bay or rank an inlet. And it's a big investment. I'm really thankful that the Board backed us on investing. We're spending north of $5 million a year on that program, but we're graduating pilots and we're making a difference. And the reason I wanted to close with this is that being socially responsible and being profitable don't compete with one another. They go together. And I'm really proud of what we've done at EIC. So if there's any questions, glad to answer them. If not, we can have a sandwich and chitchat. Last word? Okay. Thank you very much, people. We'll see you soon.
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