The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Aaron Regent, Chair of Scotiabank's Board of Directors. [Foreign Language]

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. As you heard, my name is Aaron Regent, and I'm the Chair of your Board of Directors. [Foreign Language], and welcome. I'd like to begin our proceedings by acknowledging that we are gathered on the traditional territory of many indigenous nations, including the Mississauga's of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa and Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. I also recognize that many First Nations Inuit and Métis people now call these lands home which are covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississauga's of the Credit and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississauga's and Chippewa bands. For those of you who are with us virtually, I acknowledge that you're joining us from traditional indigenous lands from across Turtle Island and beyond. What this acknowledgment means to me is that I am grateful to the indigenous stewards of these lands who have made it possible for us to gather and have these important discussions. It is also a reminder of my commitment to reconciliation with indigenous peoples that I'd like to quickly share with you. I'm committed to educating myself about the atrocities that happen at residential schools so that they never happen again and the children who didn't make it home are not forgotten. I'm committed to working to remove systemic barriers that have in the past made it difficult for indigenous peoples to access financial services and have meaningful careers in banking. To help fulfill these commitments, I am listening to indigenous leaders to better educate myself and understand the role that Scotiabank can play in growing the indigenous economy and increasing prosperity for future generations. I'm also learning how indigenous perspectives and values can be incorporated into serving all of our customers. I make these commitments to all indigenous peoples personally and as Chairman of Scotiabank's Board. I encourage each of you joining us today to think about what it means to be on these lands as well as your commitment to reconciliation with indigenous peoples. Now it's my pleasure to welcome you to Scotiabank's 191st Annual Meeting of Shareholders. As we have done in the past, we are proud to offer today's meeting in both of Canada's official languages for all participants. For those of you joining us in person, simultaneous interpretation headsets can be found just outside the entrance to this room. And if you don't have one and would like one, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring one to you. English is Channel 1 and French is Channel 2. For those of you who join us online through the simultaneous webcast, you may choose the language of the meeting in the top left side of the broadcast screen. Sign language interpretation is also available in the room at today's meeting, and we are offering close captioning on the webcast in both English and French. I would ask that you please turn all personal communication devices to silent or vibrate. Thank you. I want to extend a warm welcome to everyone either joining us in Toronto or by webcast. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today. We continue to make every effort to host this meeting in a manner that promotes shareholder participation by providing the option for shareholders to attend online or in person and vote their shares and submit questions regardless of their method of participation in the meeting. Now allow me to introduce the members of Scotiabank's management team who will be presenting today. Scott Thomson, our recently appointed President and Chief Executive Officer; and Julie Walsh, Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Chief Corporate Governance Officer. In accordance with the bylaws of the bank, I, as Chair of the Board, will act as Chair of the meeting, and Julie Walsh will act as Secretary. I appoint Amanda Castellano and Colleen Nielsen of Computershare Trust Company of Canada as scrutineers. I received proof that notice has been duly given and that a quorum is present. As such, this meeting is duly constituted. We have a few guidelines on how this morning's meeting will proceed. Please note that in advance of today's meeting, the bank has asked certain employees to move and second the motions for shareholders' consideration today. These individuals are shareholders or proxy holders of the bank. We do this to facilitate the introduction of motions. Julie will now speak to some of these procedural items.

Thank you, Aaron. For those shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have not voted in advance, voting will be available throughout the meeting until the formal items of business are concluded. To facilitate the voting procedure on the items of business coming before today's meeting for those shareholders attending in person, there will be 1 ballot. A ballot will be provided to any registered shareholder who has either not completed a proxy form or would like to vote on the motion in person rather than by a previously delivered proxy. Any person appointed as proxy by a shareholder who has not indicated voting instructions on the proxy form may also request a ballot. If you would like a ballot, please raise your hand now so that they may be handed to you by the scrutineers. Completed ballots will be collected by the scrutineers following the voting on the shareholder proposal today. Also please ensure that you print your name clearly on the ballot and sign it. Instructions on how to submit your votes online are available under the home icon on the top left side of your screen, if you are watching the webcast, in the rules of conduct under the documents icon at the top left side of your screen and also in the AGM user guide located on our annual report and Annual General Meeting web page. If you are attending in person, please refer to the leaflet that was provided at the entrance to this room. The items to be voted on are: the election of directors, the appointment of the auditors, the advisory vote on executive compensation and the shareholder proposals. Each item of business that will be put before this meeting will be voted on by ordinary resolution requiring a majority of the votes cast for approval. We will provide preliminary voting results during today's meeting, and the final voting results will be available after the meeting.

Thank you, Julie. We will be conducting the meeting in accordance with our rules of conduct. I also note that questions may be raised by shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders through the various channels made available today. Shareholders and proxy holders attended in person are invited to approach one of the standing microphones in the room. Or if easier, please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you. I ask that you hold your comments and questions until the appropriate time of the meeting. Shareholders and proxy holders are also asked -- able to ask questions through the webcast by selecting the messaging tab and either typing the question in the box at the top of the screen or type in your phone number in the box indicating that you would like to ask your question orally. For questions submitted through the web chat, I've asked Julie to read out the questions. The agenda for today's meeting can be found in the leaflet that was provided at the entrance to this room and is also posted as part of our webcast. Similar to previous years, we will have a general question period at the end of the meeting. If you have a question on the business of the meeting, shareholders and proxy holders submitting questions online are encouraged to submit their questions as soon as possible during the meeting so that we can do our best to address them at the appropriate time. For those attending online and wishing to ask oral questions, after you are prompted to provide your phone number, please ensure that you also note the subject matter of the question so that we can do our best to address it at the appropriate time during the meeting. To facilitate the timely conduct of our business and to ensure that all shareholders who wish to raise issues at the meeting have an opportunity to do so, I would ask that each speaker be brief and concise and limit their comments to 3 minutes and focus on the topic under discussion at the time. We also request that anyone wishing to ask a question limit themselves to 1 question at a time until all the shareholders have had an opportunity to ask questions. Questions should be of a general nature as this is a shareholders meeting. Customer or personal questions can be directed to one of the context on the back of the proxy circular. Bank representatives will also be available after the meeting to answer any additional customer or personal questions from in-person attendees. As we will be receiving questions through multiple channels, we do appreciate your patience. If there are several questions on the same topic, we will try to group these together. We are endeavoring to respond to your questions during the meeting. However, any questions that cannot be answered during the meeting and that have been properly put before the meeting will be posted with answers online as soon as practical after the meeting on our Annual Report and Annual General Meeting web page. For those attending online who are asking oral questions, if for some reason, we are not able to address your question during the meeting, please use the web chat to submit your question or reach out to the Corporate Secretary using the contact information on the back of the proxy circular. And on behalf of your fellow shareholders, I thank you in advance for your cooperation. Now before we turn to items of business, I want to take this opportunity to say how pleased we are to be hosting today's meeting in the Scotiabank Center steps away from the Scotiabank North, our new executive offices. As Chair of the Board, it continues to be my pleasure to serve the bank and you, our shareholders, alongside a highly qualified and engaged Board of Directors. This year, I've had the privilege of spending time with many of the bank's shareholders as the Board continues to engage regularly with stakeholders on a wide range of issues, including with respect to the bank's progress on various ESG matters. The Board continues to provide strong oversight of Scotiabank's ESG priorities addressing important issues such as climate change, financial inclusion and diversity, equity and inclusion. We also had many constructive discussions on the Board's governance practices and processes. As directors, we always appreciate hearing shareholders' perspectives. I would also like to acknowledge Brian Porter, who retired this year after more than 40 years at the bank and congratulate Scott Thomson on his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer. The Board was unanimous in its decision that Scott is the right leader with the right skills and background to carry Scotiabank into the future. He joins as a seasoned CEO with global experience and a proven track record across multiple industries and geographies. He's a leader that creates trust, unites teams and delivers results. And he is focused on building value for shareholders. To that end, Scott is currently leading a strategic review and refresh focused on ensuring that the bank delivers profitable and sustainable growth. I know that he will be speaking to this during his remarks to our shareholders. The Board is also proud of the bank's 90,000 Scotiabankers who are continuing to build for the future together. We strongly believe that the bank's best days are yet to come. Before we turn to the first items of business, I'd like to point out that discussions during today's meeting may contain forward-looking statements about the bank's outlook and objectives and our strategies to achieve them. The bank's actual results could differ materially from any expectations discussed. There may also be references to non-GAAP measures. The details of our warning regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures are behind me on the webcast screen. They can also be found in the bank's first quarter report to shareholders. I'd now like to invite Scotiabank's President and Chief Executive Officer, Scott Thomson, to address the meeting.

Good morning. Thank you, Aaron, for that kind introduction, and welcome to Scotiabank's 191st Annual Meeting of Shareholders. This meeting is particularly meaningful to me as this is my first as President and CEO of the bank. I would like to recognize the warm welcome that I've received from colleagues, partners, customers and shareholders since taking on this role. I would also like to acknowledge the events that have taken place over the past month, impacting the global banking sector. We can all feel confident that the Canadian banking system is widely recognized for its lending and risk management practices, diligent government oversight and prudent regulation. Scotiabank's financial position remains strong and the bank is highly diversified by geography, business segments, sectoral exposure and sources of funding. Thank you to our shareholders for your continued trust in the bank and in our leadership team during this time. Trust is at the core of our business. It sets the terms for how we engage with our stakeholders, and it is central to our purpose to build a bank that is here for every future. For the futures of our customers, our employees, the communities in which we live and work and you, our shareholders. Our leadership team and I are working hard to create long-term value and improve returns for our shareholders now and into the future. I know that we've not delivered the level of total shareholder return that you should expect of us, and we've launched an enterprise-wide strategic refresh to ensure that we are delivering profitable and sustainable growth. Looking across the entire bank, we are focusing on key aspects of our business, including purposely allocating capital and improving business mix and profitability, while meeting our customers' full suite of needs and prioritizing those areas where we can build solid, long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. At the core of our strategic refresh is a deepening of our focus on our customers, millions of whom rely on us to help them plan for their future each and every day. Whether that's paying for tuition, purchasing their first home, growing their wealth or raising capital, tens of millions more looking for the right bank to support them in growing their business or achieving their financial goals. We are only successful as a company in so far as our customers trust our institution, see the value in what we offer and want to do business with us. In the months since I started as CEO, I have spent time traveling in Canada and across our Americas footprint, meeting our teams across the bank and witnessing firsthand the innovative work and best-in-class customer service that we are providing. Our people are the lifeblood of our organization. I'm energized by the passion that I've seen from our team of 90,000 Scotiabankers who bring their best selves to work each and every day to deliver for all of our stakeholders. I've also spent a lot of time with my leadership team and their leadership teams to understand how we can work together to adopt a more customer-focused orientation. An orientation that ensures we are delivering value for the whole customer and meeting them every step of the way along their journey with the right products and advice to help them succeed. We have a great foundation in place to build upon. And as a leadership team, we recognize the immense opportunity in front of us. Across the bank, we are already seizing opportunities to drive more value for our customers. To share a few examples. In Canada last year, the launch and expansion of Scene+ merged our long-standing Scotia Rewards loyalty program with the SCENE program. We introduced new segments and partners such as Empire brand suite of grocery, gas and pharmacy retailers, which includes household names like Sobeys, Safeway, Foodland and FreshCo. This program has revolutionized the loyalty landscape in Canada, helping us to build a deeper and more meaningful relationship with our existing customers and create a stronger value proposition for new and prospective customers. I am proud to share that we have now completed our national rollout with Empire, having introduced the program in Quebec last month, including in IGA stores. And this summer, Home Hardware, another iconic Canadian brand will be joining Scene+. This will add further value for the millions of members that enjoy the program today by allowing them to earn and redeem points at more than 1,000 home improvement stores across the country. Similarly, our Advice+ program is providing our customers with deeper insights on their spending patterns. It is helping them find opportunities to save or invest and connecting them with the right suite of products and services that can assist them in reaching their financial goals. For our wealth management clients in Canada, customer satisfaction scores continue to be significantly higher among clients who receive our total wealth approach. Total wealth brings together investment, private banking, estate and trust and planning capabilities in a team-based approach to deliver comprehensive solutions for clients. It is a key differentiator for us in the domestic marketplace. We have now introduced total wealth in Chile, Peru and Mexico, and we are seeing strong engagement from advisers and clients in those countries. Across our business, we're also working hard to grow our presence in both Quebec and British Columbia where we are underpenetrated and have seen good progress and continued opportunity. And throughout the bank, we are seeking out opportunities to break down silos in order to bring the whole bank to our customers. In our international markets, for example, our retail bank is continuing to share opportunities with our wealth management and capital markets teams. This helps to ensure that our customers whose needs often bridge more than 1 line of business are receiving holistic service and are able to access our full suite of products to meet their needs now and into the future. We are also the only one of our Canadian peers with this level of connectivity from Canada through the U.S. and into Mexico. This is a clear differentiator for us. Our Mexican business is one of the top 5 banks in terms of market share. We have scale with an enormous opportunity for continued growth. Our strong presence in Mexico allows us to serve clients from across our lines of business that are operating throughout one of the world's largest free trade zones, one that covers some 500 million people and accounts for approximately $27 trillion in GDP. Mexico and Canada are both deeply integrated into the U.S. economy, where we already have a significant presence as one of the top 10 foreign banks by assets. The U.S. represents the largest export market by far for both Mexico and Canada accounting for about 1/4 of all U.S. trade. More than 75% of each country's exports go to the U.S. with approximately $800 billion in trade flowing between both Canada and the U.S. and Mexico and the U.S. The trading and commercial opportunities within the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement are enormous, and our footprint helps to enable our customers to seize those opportunities by taking advantage of connectivity that is unique to Scotiabank. This is even more relevant as an evolving geopolitical environment continues to drive increased focus on near-shoring opportunities in Mexico. I see more potential for commercial banking to take advantage of these trade flows and grow our Mexican platform. I see continued potential for us to tap into this connectivity and grow our wealth presence in Mexico. And in Wholesale Banking, we know there's a strong opportunity to strengthen our platform when it comes to ancillary services across the Americas. Further strengthening this connectivity will be a focus for us as we strive to provide our customers with a more holistic offering. We have also made and will continue to make progress in building and leveraging digital tools that help our customers succeed. We benefit from our international platform as we've taken learnings and best practices developed in one jurisdiction and applied them globally. For our retail customers in Canada, last year, we rolled out Scotia smart money. This set of features in the Scotiabank mobile app gives our customers personalized insights, advice and more control over their money. We also launched the next generation of our iTRADE mobile app in Canada. The new app allows clients to trade with greater ease, accessibility and stability and is backed by a powerful engine and a more intuitive interface. And internationally, last year, we launched ScotiaZero, which is the first checking account in Chile with a fully digital onboarding process. For our digital leadership in that country, Scotiabank Chile was recently recognized by Latin Finance as the Digital Bank of the Year in Latin America and the Caribbean. We will continue to invest in the right tools and support to help our customers succeed for whatever their futures may hold. It is our purpose for every future that also drives us to be an advocate and act on issues of importance to communities across Canada and our global footprint. ScotiaRISE is our 10-year $500 million community investment commitment to build economic resilience among disadvantaged individuals, families and communities. We invest in programs that help recipients adapt to change, overcome barriers and fully participate in the economy. In 2022, ScotiaRISE supported more than 200 community partners with $34 million in community investments across our global footprint. Our investments provided help through more than 400,000 critical moments in time. These are moments where an individual or a group received support, training or resources as a result of our contribution. We are very proud that Scotiabank received the Banker Magazine's Banking in the Community Award last year, which is a global award recognizing our impact. Our employees continue working hard to give back to our communities, raising a record $12 million last year through our annual employee giving campaign in Canada. In a year marked by macroeconomic challenges and uncertainty, this represented our best year yet with an impressive 11% increase in contributions year-over-year. 35,000 employees globally also logged more than 86,000 volunteer hours in their local communities throughout 2022. At the same time, we continue to invest in becoming stronger allies to support a culture of inclusion and belonging. We held our second annual Allyship Summit earlier this year, reinforcing our vision to be the employer of choice for diverse talent. We strive to provide employees with an environment where everyone can belong and thrive and bring their whole selves to work. We aim to offer our customers and partners a bank experience that is free from bias ensuring that our practices support and reflect the diverse communities and cultures we serve. This includes through our Scotiabank women initiative. The program continues to grow and provide access to capital specialized education, advisory services and mentorship to more women across the Americas as we help them succeed in business in their careers and in managing their wealth. Last year, we increased our commitment to deploy capital to women-owned and women-led businesses in Canada to $10 billion and have deployed nearly $6 billion to date. The program also expanded internationally for the first time with plans to expand across most of our footprint by 2025. We are also advancing our commitments to build a more sustainable planet. We continue to play a role in the transition to net zero, and we are also making important progress on our own decarbonization goals. This includes securing 100% of our electricity from non-emitting sources in Canada by 2025, which we are well on our way to achieving having secured 83% in 2022, and for our global operations by 2030. To date, we've mobilized over $100 billion in sustainable financing towards our goal of $350 billion by 2030. It is certainly a pivotal time to be at Scotiabank, and we have an exciting road ahead as we work hard to drive this bank to new heights. I would like to sum up by reiterating 3 key points. First, we can do better for our shareholders and through our strategic refresh, we are taking important steps to improve the returns we deliver. Second, we are shifting towards a stronger customer orientation and bringing our entire enterprise in service of deepening our relationship with our customers. And finally, we have a differentiated model with opportunities for further scale, and we will prioritize investing in those business lines and initiatives that can deliver sustainable profitable growth for the long term. I would like to once again thank our employees, our Board and all of our partners for their support and their enthusiasm. I would like to thank our customers for their ongoing business. And I would like to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued engagement. I know that I speak on behalf of all Scotiabankers, when I say that I'm optimistic about the future and what all of us will build together. Thank you.

Thank you, Scott. We will now proceed with the first item of business as set out in the notice of meeting. Copies of the annual report that contains the bank's 2022 financial statements and auditors report thereon were sent to shareholders in advance of this meeting. You can also obtain a copy of our 2022 annual report at the entrance to this room or on our website at scotiabank.com. We will now take any questions directly related to the financial statements. Raj Viswanathan, our Group Head and Chief Financial Officer, is here with us today. Again, please use the microphones located toward the center of the room or raise your hand if you need a microphone brought to you. I'd ask that you please state your name and whether or not -- and whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. Okay. I see no questions in the room. Julie any questions online?

Aaron, we have not received any questions online on the side. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. We will now proceed with the election of directors. The Board's role is to oversee management of the bank, ensuring that strong corporate governance practices are in place. Sound and effective corporate governance is a critical part of the bank's culture and fundamental to our long-term success. Our directors are regional, national and international business and community leaders with diverse thoughts, perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. As a group, they have been selected based on their integrity, collective skills and ability to contribute to the broad range of issues the Board considers when overseeing the bank's business and affairs. I'd like to thank all of our directors for their commitment, hard work, leadership and counsel to me. I'd also like to acknowledge the contribution of Susan Segal, who is not standing for reelection pursuant to our Board term limit after many years of valuable service to the Board. Her insights and expertise helped to position the bank for success and we wish her all the best. In the past year, we were delighted to welcome Dave Dowrich to our Board, who is standing for election at today's meeting for the first time. Dave is a highly accomplished finance executive with global experience and expertise with financial services companies as well as extensive knowledge in finance, risk management and ESG matters. And we are very fortunate to have him on our board. The Board of Directors has fixed a number of directors to be elected at 12 and I confirm that all nominees are eligible for election. We believe that we have a board with the right combination of skills, experience and integrity to provide strategic counsel to management and oversee the business -- oversee the bank's business and affairs. All of our directors are joining us today. I'll invite Julie to read the names of the nominees standing for election and I would ask each nominee to stand as their name is called.

Thank you, Aaron. The nominees for election as directors are: Nora Aufreiter; Guillermo Babatz, Scott Bonham, Dan Callahan, Dave Dowrich, Lynn Patterson. Michael Penner, Una Power, Aaron Regent, Calin Rovinescu, Scott Thomson and Benita Warmbold.

Thank you. The Board looks forward to serving you, our shareholders this year. You will find information on each of our nominated directors on Pages 13 and 20 in both the English and French versions in the bank's management proxy circular. I now call on Amanda Lewis to make the motion for the nominations for directors.

Mr. Chair. My name is Amanda Lewis. My pronounce are she and her and I proudly identifies as black and Indian. I'm a Senior Manager of diversity equity inclusion at the bank. My portfolio consists of supporting the advancement and inclusion of black people, people of color and women in their intersectionality. I'm a proxy holder. It is my pleasure this morning to nominate each of the director nominees as set out in the management proxy circular to be a Director of the bank until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Great. Thank you, Amanda. Are there any questions or comments about the election of directors? And again, please use one of the microphones located toward the center of the room or we can bring a microphone to you. You can also ask a question through the online channel. And again, please state your name and whether or not you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. So I see no questions in the room.

Aaron, we have not received any questions online.

Okay. Our next item of business is the appointment of auditors. At the Annual Meeting held on April 5, 2022, shareholders reappointed the firm of KPMG LLP as shareholders' auditors of the bank for the 2022 fiscal year. You'll find information about the Board's assessment of KPMG's performance and independence on Page 5 in both English and French of the management proxy circular. The Board recommends that KPMG be appointed as the auditors of the bank until the close of the next annual meeting. Jim Newton and Elio Luongo representing KPMG are here today and it is a pleasure to welcome them to this meeting. Jim and Elio, would you please stand to be recognized? Thank you. I now call on Claude-Etienne Borduas to make this motion.

[Foreign Language] Mr. Chairman, my name is Claude-Etienne Borduas. I'm Senior Counsel at the Montreal office of the bank. I am also a shareholder and proxy holder. I propose that KPMG LLP be appointed auditors of the bank until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. And I'll call on Julie to second the motion.

[Foreign Language]

Thank you, Claude-Etienne and Julie Judy. I invite shareholders or proxy holders with questions related to the appointment of the auditor to approach one of the microphones or raise your hand if needed, a microphone will be brought to you. And again, you can ask your questions on the online channel. And I ask again that you state whether or not you're a shareholder or a proxy holder. Okay. I see no questions in the room.

There are no questions online.

Okay. Thank you. The next item of business on the agenda is the advisory vote on the bank's approach to executive compensation, commonly known as say-on-pay. Our approach to executive compensation is described in detail in the Compensation Discussion and Analysis section on Pages 61 to 118 in both the English and French versions of the management proxy circular. Because our annual say-on-pay is an advisory vote, it is not binding upon the Board. However, the Board and the Human Capital and Compensation Committee will take the outcome of the vote into account together with other suggestions that we receive from you when considering future executive compensation arrangements. A resolution on the approach to executive compensation is set out in the management proxy circular on Page 6 under the heading advisory vote on our approach to executive compensation. I now call on Rochelle Davis to make the motion to approve the bank's executive compensation approach.

Mr. Chair, my name is Rochelle Davis, and my pronounce are she and her. I am a proud Metis woman and a member of the Metis nation of Alberta. Here at the bank, I'm a senior manager working with the diversity, equity and inclusion team and I support the advancement of inclusion for indigenous peoples. I am a proxy holder. I move that the resolution set out in the management proxy circular under the heading advisory vote on our approach to executive compensation be passed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. And now I'll call Julie to second the motion.

I second the motion.

Thank you, Rochelle and Julie. And again, I invite shareholders and proxy holders with questions to approach the microphone or to do so through the online channel. And again, please state your -- whether or not you're a shareholder or a proxy holder. Sir.

[Interpreted] Mr. Chairman, my name is Willie Gagnon, I represent MEDAC. We are accustomed to speak against the bank's approach to executive compensation for the overall reason related to the compensation ratio. I will not dwell on the issue, but I have a simple question. I look at the table at Page 68 of the proxy circular. And the figures especially in 2021, 2022, 11.2 million, 11.4 million. I have trouble finding this information on Page 107, the summary of compensation. Could you enlighten me on this? I think this would be an appropriate moment to address this during the meeting.

Apologies. I just got the last part, but you're asking to try to reconcile the table on Page 68 to the compensation table?

Yes, I'm referring to the French language circular.

Got it. In the -- on Page 68, the CEO total direct compensation, this is, I think, highlighting the realized and realized -- sorry, the realized compensation of our CEO, whereas the table in the back of the document sets out the granted compensation. So when you take the granted compensation, particularly as it relates to equity awards, the actually realized will be dependent upon the share price of the stock at the time it's actually crystallized. I think what this does is it kind of highlights the alignment with shareholder and share price performance. That's what this chart is meant to do. Okay. Well, thank you for your question. Are there any other questions, Julie?

Aaron, we have not received any further questions.

Okay. So there are no questions. This item is the third item to be voted on. If you've not already voted, please vote now by selecting the option for or against. The next item on the agenda is the shareholder proposals. This year, 2 shareholder proposals were submitted for a vote at today's meeting. Shareholders and proxy holders will be given an opportunity to ask questions related to the proposals after the proposals have been presented and moved. The first proposal was submitted by Mouvement d'éducation et de défense des actionnaires, MEDAC, which you will find beginning on Page 122 of our management proxy circular in English and French. The management proxy circular includes statements by MEDAC in support of this proposal as well as the bank's response. Mr. Willie Gagnon of MEDAC is with us today. Welcome. We'll address this -- the proposal being voted on first and collect the ballot so that the scrutineers have time to count the votes. We may then discuss your 3 withdrawal propose after the second proposal is presented and voted on. Mr. Gagnon, you are welcome to address the meeting with any comments on your proposal, proceeding to a vote, and please ensure to move the proposal.

Hello. So my name is still Willie Gagnon, and I'm still representing MEDAC, as you were saying, we made 4 proposal only one of which is put to a vote today. The main reason why we are making this proposal is that we obtained 19.3% of votes last year on the same proposal. What concerns us personally that this is a substantial level of support since it means that several billions of dollars in shares have been voted in favor of this proposal. Many of the bank's shares are held by other banks, which, for the moment, are all against this proposal, namely the say-on-climate ballot vote. There is 1 exception; Laurentian Bank will be adopting the practice of an advisory vote on environmental policies as soon as it has completed its existing compliance commitments. A number of major corporations in Canada, including Canadian National and Canadian Pacific have adopted say-on-climate. Environmental issues are a growing concern, as you yourself stated. Because of the importance that you attach to responses to environmental proposals, 2 of them are on the floor today. We would like to know in detail what are the reasons why you are recommending that shareholders vote against the proposal? You have made a detailed response. We do not agree with all your arguments. The agreements that you advance to oppose this proposal are arguments that could be enlisted in support of your opinion against vote on executive compensation. We believe that this advisory vote would be an opportunity for shareholders to provide input. Contrary to what you say in your response, we believe that this would not supersede another exercise but would be additive, and we don't see why you would not wish to accept this proposal. So once again, I invite shareholders to vote in favor of this proposal of adopting this exemplary shareholder democracy practice and we are very curious to see what is the outcome of the vote this year, and we hope that we will do better than last year. This would be a significant progress for us. Thank you.

Mr. Gagnon, thank you very much for your remarks. I think you would have seen through all our disclosure materials, whether it be our proxy, our annual report, our ESG report, our commitment to sustainable development and the transition to a low-carbon economy. In those reports, it clearly states our strategy, our objectives, provides extensive disclosure and monitors our progress and for that reason, I think that the bank has already established a fulsome climate action plan, including robust disclosure. You can find the bank's position on Page 123 of the proxy circular and read why the say-on climate vote is not appropriate mechanism to demonstrate the bank's commitment to these important strategic matters. I would add to that we really appreciate the engagement that we have. And as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, we have extensive consultation engagement with all of our stakeholders, particularly on this important topic, and we do incorporate that into our strategic framework and our approach to ESG. So we feel that we are meeting the objectives that you set out. Are there other questions?

We have not received any online questions on proposal #1 at this time.

Mr. Gagnon, you have another question?

Yes. If I might add 2 words, you say that you don't feel it appropriate to adopt such a mechanism to allow shareholders to have their say on environmental policy. One wonders why you have this opinion since it is the same mechanism as the one you used to pronounce on executive compensation. #2, one of the arguments that you advance in respect of say-on pay, is that it's not easy to identify the reasons why a shareholder would vote against the environmental policy of the bank. What we believe is that when a large number of votes are cast against the bank's environmental policy, this is a spur for the bank to determine why shareholders have voted against the bank's environmental policy. Do you acknowledge that this could be a benefit to the bank in adopting such an instrument. We are also of the opinion that the argument according to which this kind of exercise is more appropriate for polluting enterprises, is not a valid argument since the bank's involvement in funding resource extraction activities. These are 3 arguments that we would like to add to those that we've already put forward. And once again, we would invite all shareholders to support our proposal.

Mr. Gagnon, we appreciate your comments. I don't think I want to stand here and debate you on these. I think the bank has set out its position in the proxy circular, and I encourage all shareholders to read both sides and then, as you said, shareholders can decide with their votes. So Julie, we receive no other questions on this one?

Not on this one. Thank you, Aaron.

Okay. So I'd ask if you have not voted, please vote now by selecting the option for or against Proposal 1. The second proposal is from Shareholder Association for Research and Education share on behalf of The Trottier Family Foundation, which you will find beginning on Page 124 of our management proxy circular in English and French. The management proxy circular includes statements by share in support of its proposal as well as the bank's response. Ms. Jennifer Story is with us from Share today. Ms. Story, welcome, and you're welcome to address the meeting with any comments on this proposal.

Thank you very much. My name is Jennifer Story. I'm the Associate Director of Climate Advocacy at Share. And today, I speak on behalf of The Trottier Family Foundation and move this proposal as their proxy. As we all know here today, Scotiabank is a vitally important institution in the Canadian economy. There is no greater risk to this bank, to our planet and to our portfolios than climate change. To keep the climate from reeling out of control, scientists have clearly told us, we need to keep warming to 1.5 degrees or less. As you may already know, we are already at 1.2 degrees and we continue to climb rapidly. Scotiabank's Board of Directors are ultimately responsible for the bank's climate plan. You all, I'm sure, are aware of the tremendous power and influence as stewards of significant amounts of capital to accelerate the climate transition and to rein in global temperature rise. Share has urged the bank to report on transparency regarding climate transition plans for your lending clients in particular. Ultimately, your clients' climate plans, your high-emitting clients in particular or their lack of plans are essentially yours to own. This is the nature of accounting for and addressing and ultimately reducing finance emissions. Scotiabank, therefore, has enormous leverage to shape the nature and the pace of this transition and to help its clients along the way as we -- as it is essential for all of us to ensure this transition is orderly for all of us as individuals, for our clients and for the economy. Your investors at Share and elsewhere want assurances that Scotiabank is doing all it can to move beyond risk assessment to maximize your positive impact in the face of this global crisis. Ensuring your clients are aligned with a 1.5-degree limit to warming means they have business plans and most importantly are making their capital expenditure investments in such a way that ensures rapid emissions reductions. Simply put, we have no more time to waste. Share's clients, including The Trottier Family Foundation are your investors, we want to know that the bank is doing all that it can. A growing list of the bank's peers are already doing this important work. My question to all of you today is why wait and follow when we together can lead. Regardless of the outcome of today's vote, we look forward to the ongoing dialogue with the senior leadership team and with the Board of Directors. Thank you for your time.

Okay. Ms. Story, thank you for your comments. And I think as I sort of stated earlier, the bank, this is a top priority for the bank, and we -- in our role with respect to transitioning the account to net zero is something that we are very committed to, and you've seen that in the commitments that we've made in our various documents. And the bank has reflected on the importance that we place on net zero commitments and related transition planning through our actions to date, which you've seen. You can find the bank's full position on Page 125 of the management proxy circular and read how the disclosure requested in the proposal is being addressed or will be addressed by required regulatory disclosure to which the bank is already subject with the exception of certain requested disclosure, which we feel is overly onerous, prescriptive and not aligned with the industry practice. Are there any other comments or questions on this proposal? I see none in the room. Is there anything online?

We have not received anything online, Aaron.

Okay. So no questions. If you have not yet voted, please vote now by selecting the option for, against or abstain for Proposal 2. I have now completed the formal items of business as set out in the notice. The voting is now closed. The scrutineers will now collect the ballots, and please ensure to raise your hand if you need the scrutineers to pick up your ballots. Now MEDAC has submitted 3 additional -- sorry, MEDAC has submitted 3 additional proposals, but withdrew these proposals following a discussion with the bank. And as part of their withdrawal, MEDAC asked that the proposals be included in the proxy circular along with the bank's responses. And you'll find MEDAC's withdrawal proposals and the bank's responses in the management proxy circular on Pages 126 to 130 in English and Pages 127 to 132 in French. Mr. Gagnon with MEDAC, you are welcome to briefly address the meeting on your withdrawn proposals.

Willie Gagnon from MEDAC. And I will be briefly submitted another 3 proposals on which we agreed to withdraw. First of all, in terms of language, we sent one last year and a new one this year about the fluency of languages spoken by directors, and we are pleased that this is disclosed. You'll find it on Page 15 on the circular that you'll see that 100% of directors speak English and 33% of directors speak French. These were languages that were mastered by directors. And this is a practice that is already in place at SNC-Lavalin. We would have liked the information to be detailed for each director. That's what we invite you to do in the future. And there was another proposal that we withdrew that was about artificial intelligence that the -- and the importance that should be given to AI by the bank, we read your position about ethical issues, including artificial intelligence that are the responsibilities of the Board committees, and we're pleased to read that and we wanted information about this, and we now have it. It is published. And the third proposal that we submitted was about the same topic about the proposal sent by share and that we support, which was about increasing environmental transition efforts. We would have wanted your opinion about an OXFAM report that was also produced by IRÉC. We discussed it with you this year, but it is not directly mentioned in your response on Page, but we see on Page 131 and 132 of the circular table with the timetable of engagements and commitments from the bank. And this is something that we'd like to see every year. A summary of what the bank does in terms of environmental issues, and we would like to see this in the future. But for the time being, we're quite satisfied to see this. I would like to thank Ms. Walsh. We had a difficult relationship because of technical issues this time, but we are sure that they will improve in the next few years. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Gagnon, and we appreciate the constructive engagement that we have with you and look to continue that going forward. So thank you for your participation and your comments. So ladies and gentlemen, scrutineers have completed their preliminary tabulation of the votes cast in respect of each item of business before the meeting. I would now ask Julie to speak to the preliminary report of voting results.

Thank you, Aaron. We wish to report that the voter turn this year is over 50% and I am pleased to inform you that each of the 12 nominees for director named in the management proxy circular, has been elected and received in excess of 95% votes in favor. The auditors were reappointed, approximately 86% voted in favor of KPMG, LLP. The advisory vote on the approach to executive compensation was passed, approximately 91% voted in favor. And the shareholder proposals were defeated. On proposal #1, approximately 82% voted against; and on proposal #2, approximately 75% voted against.

Thank you, Julie. The final voting results will be available after the meeting, and we will also issue a press release as required by the Toronto Stock Exchange and post results on the bank's website. Now that concludes the formal part of -- formal business of the meeting. We will now take questions from shareholders and proxy holders. In keeping with our past practice, I'll ask our President and CEO to return to the podium and preside over this section of the meeting. Julie will also read out the questions received online and will state the name of the shareholder or proxy holder who submitted them. As this is a shareholders meeting, questions should be general in nature and related to the meeting. If you have a customer-related question, bank representatives will be available after the meeting to speak with you at the customer care desk outside the meeting room. [Operator Instructions].

All right. So Scott and Aaron, we have received one question just related to the shareholder proposals that has come to us from a shareholder, Jeff Carlson, who is online. I believe if the operator could queue Mr. Carlson, he might want to ask this question directly.

Yes. Can you hear me okay?

Thank you. We can.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for taking my question. My name is Jeff Carlson, and I am a shareholder, and I'm pleased to be able to address the Board management and fellow shareholders today. We just listened to a number of withdrawn shareholder proposals from MEDAC that appear in the management circular. Including them in the circular or discussing them in this meeting sends the message to shareholders that they should be seriously considered when instead they've been withdrawn. Any specific shareholder proposal appearing within the management circular and expect it to be discussed should either be included for voting or if withdrawn, should not be discussed as a shareholder proposal or at a meeting. Otherwise, it's nothing more than lobbying by a special interest group such as MEDAC at the expense of shareholders. My question is, why does the bank believe it necessary to include shareholder proposal in its management circular that have been withdrawn from voting or to allocate any time at its AGM for their official discussion. Thank you.

Jeff, thank you for your question. And I said that we have extensive engagement with our shareholders on a range of issues and including multiple shareholder proposals that are presented to us throughout the year. And ideally, what we'd like to be able to do is to work through those proposals with our shareholders and hopefully reach a satisfactory conclusion where we can demonstrate that we're addressing their concerns through the actions of the bank. It is a process where sometimes, in many cases, that is the end result, but there are some situations where the result of those discussions, where a compromise as a proposal is withdrawn, but shareholders feel that is a matter which is very important to be -- to bring the attention of other shareholders. And as a result, as a compromise, we agreed to include it in our proxy materials. So that's kind of the approach that we've taken. I don't know, Julie, if you want to add anything.

No, 100% Aaron, that is our approach, and we welcome engagement from our shareholders all year. And in this case with Mr. Gagnon, MEDAC and the shareholder proposals, we agreed, and he thought it was of interest to other shareholders, notwithstanding that he did not think they were required to go to a vote, and we respect that, and we most importantly appreciate the discussion so that we can reach an appropriate resolution on these matters, but also inform our shareholders of what we're doing on all things regardless if they're going to a vote. But we appreciate the question, and thank you.

Okay. question-and-answer session. Hello sir.

I'm Paul Durnan from Burlington. According to a computer screen, which could be wrong, Scotia's insured mortgages are only 28% of the total with the rapid rise in interest rates over the last 1.5 years, I hope this is not creating a mortgage problem for the bank going forward. Now that's not my question. My question is Peru, which has some kind of a change of government, which impaired people going to Machu Picchu and coming back. And so could you -- from the bank's point of view, how do you look differently at Peru now compared to prior to the change of government? And also quickly just -- why do you have nothing or little or nothing in Brazil, most populous country, I think it's the most populous of South America, isn't it? Why aren't you making a presence there.

Great. Thank you very much for your question. Nice to see you again at the Annual General Meeting. In terms of your first comment, and I know it was in the question, but I think it speaks to my comments around this safety and security of the Canadian banking system. Obviously, it's a difficult time for a lot of our customers given the increasing interest rates, and we're very sensitive to that and working through that with our customers. And we feel like, right now, our customers are in relatively good shape and able to manage through. And nevertheless, we are projecting a mild recession over the next few quarters. And so we'll obviously work with our customers through that period. Your comments on Peru and Brazil, actually, Francisco Sardon, where are you? Can you just stand up? Mr. Sardon, we're lucky to have Mr. Sardon here today. He's our Head of our Peru operations. I was actually with Mr. Sardon 3 weeks ago now in Peru. I think you referred to Machu Picchu being closed for customers. I mean, it is a difficult period right now for Peru as they're going through another presidential potential election. I was there in Lima. It's actually -- the economy is actually performing reasonably well. You saw that in our first quarter results. And it's more calm there than I think the media would highlight, but nevertheless, it is a difficult time for our employees and our customers, and so we're working through that with them. In terms of Brazil, we actually don't have a significant amount of people in Brazil, but we are a lender in Brazil. So we have a number of customers in Brazil that we lend to and it actually was a driver of our outperformance in our GBM business in the first quarter of the year. So thank you for your question. We'll continue to lend to select customers in Brazil.

But no branches.

No branches.

Good morning. My name is David Peters, and I'm a shareholder. I have a 1-minute story related to the news of the day and then a question to follow that. Back around 1990, 1991, I was a finance professor at Ithaca College. And I was teaching a bank management course and on this particular day, I was lecturing on leverage buyout loans. And at the same time, Donald Trump was trying to borrow money to acquire a business and put his name on it, a very substantial amount of money. And so one student aware of the news asked me, Professor Peters, if you were a banker, would you loan money to Donald Trump? and I -- my reply to that was there's not a shot in hell that I would loan money to Donald Trump. Well, this student was from New York City and Trump was in big real estate business. So he asked me to explain, and I said, I don't understand Trump's motivation, whether he is trying to maximize wealth or whether he's trying to pursue some narsicism. Anyway for the sake of Mr. Rovinescu, I believe the company was trying to acquire was an airline. Anyway, so my question to you is in analyzing corporate loan request, to what extent do you consider the motivation of the applicant and the character of the applicant?

Professor Peters, thanks for your question. I think Scotiabank and you can see this through our disclosure is very well positioned from a credit quality perspective. So most of our lending would be to investment grade companies, and you can actually see that in the supplemental material. We -- I can attest to -- we have weekly meetings, risk management committee meetings, where all loans are brought forward. And a big part of that discussion is not only on the credit quality, but also the people behind the lend or the lending request and their intentions for moving forward in terms of trying to build a better business, not through some other motives that you might be referring to.

Good morning. I'm [Angus Wang]. I represent -- I'm speaking as a proxy for shareholders. So first of all, I hope you're enjoying your first couple of weeks -- sorry, months in your new position. So a few months before you started your current position on October 5 to be exact in 2022, Bloomberg reported that the investment arm of Scotia, 1832 is the largest foreign shareholder of an infamous weapons company, Elbit Systems , owning roughly 5% of the shares, valuing roughly at $500 million. For reference, RBC and TD Bank combined has 3 million worth of shares in the Elbit Systems. So making Scotia's and 1832 investment pretty big for a bank in size. Elbit Systems for background has been responsible for countless deaths around the world with its tanks and drones, help build the Trump border wall. The weapons -- its weapons has been found in the hands of military junta in Myanmar and until last year, according to MSCI tied to controversial weapons. Since October, 12,000 members of the organization, I represent [indiscernible], formerly some of us signed a petition calling for Scotiabank to divest from Elbit Systems. I delivered the names of the 12,000 people that signed the petition, some of which are customers and shareholders to Julie Walsh earlier today. And I've had -- I've been engaging in dialogue with her and some of the senior team for the past couple of months, and it's going pretty well. The big question remains from our 12,000 members who signed a petition, why does the third or fourth biggest bank in Canada own so many shares in this weapons company? I think this week, I started figuring out why, a journalist contacted me, and he believes that one fund manager at Scotia own -- at Dynamic Funds -- sorry, like Scotia owns Dynamic Funds, has been using middle-class families investments to invest in these companies based on his political views. The full story will come up later this week. So we believe this type of investment with customers' money erodes customers trust and has a reputational risk to Scotia shareholders. So my question is ahead of next year's AGM, will you develop policies to address this reputational risks?

Great. Thank you very much for your question, and thank you for coming today. I know there's been a lot of engagement between our 2 organizations. Glen Gowland, who is our Head of Wealth, is actually here today and prepared to answer your questions. So Glen?

Sure. Thanks very much. I appreciate the question. Scotia Global Asset Management is the second largest investment fund company in Canada. We have over $200 billion of investable assets that we manage on behalf of millions of Canadians in over 200 investment mandates. 14 of those investment mandates own Elbit Systems, it's actually about 0.3% of the overall assets. One thing that's very important to note is that we,, at Scotia Global Asset Management, have a fiduciary obligation to act in the best interest of the owners of those investment funds. And we take that obligation very, very seriously. Elbit Systems is included in many of the well-known indices around the world. So for example, the MSCI World Index, the Morgan Stanley Capital International EP index and if you are tracking and have a fund that tracks those indices, you're required to hold that within the funds. That's actually 5 of the 14 funds that actually takes place in. The remainder are managed not by a single person, but by various groups, both internally as well as we use external money managers who use their own processes to do fundamental bottom-up analysis of investments they make on behalf of their clients. And those have chosen to put some of that in those portfolios based on those investment mandates. So we certainly have a wide variety of investment mandates. Some obviously incorporate ESG capabilities for those that are looking for those on behalf of our clients.

Great. Thank you, Glen.

Thank you. I look forward to speaking to you when the story comes out.

Good morning. My name is [indiscernible], and I'm with Investors for Paris Compliance. We are pleased to see a growing commitment from the bank to sustainable finance as highlighted by the new $350 billion target. My question for the bank for you is whether the bank will be clarifying how this target quantitatively feeds into the 2030 and 2050 emissions reductions target it has set. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your question. So for other shareholders in the room, this was initially $100 billion target. We've upped that to $350 billion target. So we're pleased with that. And I think the progress to date is about $96 billion. But the key question is, how does that relate to the reduction in intensity of emissions in a critically important issue. So thank you for your question. Our risk group has recently launched a pilot with our oil and gas customers to make sure we understand the alignment between our investments and their plans and reductions in emissions. That pilot has just been completed, and we're working through the insights, which we'll get from that pilot, which we will share with you and the rest of our shareholders as we move forward. And then we're just starting a pilot with our power companies. And as you probably know, we've got some pretty significant commitments to reduce intensity with our oil and gas customers and also our power customers to get to the '23 targets that we've committed to. So stay tuned. We will share that with you, and we understand the issue.

Thank you very much. We will be watching eagerly.

Thank you very much.

Good morning. My name is [Mana Sara Jakub], representing the Shareholders Association for Research and Education, a proxy holder. In an article from The Globe and Mail this morning, one of the bank's spokesperson has mentioned that you're evaluating a racial equity audit. Could someone confirm on this? And also what is the time line that you're foreseeing in this regard?

So great question. This is obviously a very important topic as we move forward and continuing to build a more inclusive bank, the racial equity audits have gotten a lot of prominence. I can see the merits to doing that for sure, bringing a third party in and understanding areas for improvement. And so we are evaluating, conducting a racial equity audit, and we'll have more to say on that in the future. I think we have someone in the second row that's looking to ask a question, probably need a microphone.

Good morning. My name is [indiscernible], congratulations, Scott. I'm a shareholder, also a long-term Scotiabanker and there were a few in your capacity in the energy space. I'm really glad for your new appointment, but I do have one question. Scotiabank, like in the past has been concentrating a lot in like South America, the Caribbeans. And A few years ago, they retreated from the New York office. They bring a lot of the stuff back to Canada. So in view of today's space of acquisitions in the States by 2 major banks and Royal Bank acquiring a local bank. What are your views and strategies, I mean you have a lot of people skill and your strategic acumen impressed me a lot. I mean, one is -- also one of my previous clients, so I'd like to know your view and also the Board's view on how to tackle the compatibility of Scotiabank. Like the U.S. is at least 1/3 of the world market and our position there, probably much better than myself. I haven't been in Scotiabank for a number of years. And also for the Board, how are we going to tackle the question and also our wholesale market, the capital markets position going forward. Really welcome to Scotiabank, and thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments, and I'll start, and then Aaron, you might want to add on. So I think there has been a lot of great work done under Brian's tenure to refocus the operations in international, and we have a great platform there, mean we really do when you think about our Peru operations, our Chile operations, our Mexican operations, the Caribbean, these are big banks in those markets. And I do think we have a competitive advantage. We have to work on improving the returns on those businesses given they do have a higher risk and we're on track to do that. And you saw actually in the first quarter, improved results in those markets coming out of COVID. So congratulations to the team on that. What's also lost, I think, is we actually do have a pretty big U.S. business on the corporate side, and Jake and the team have built that over the last 4 or 5 years. I was down visiting New York 3 or 4 weeks ago, and it's impressive the type of talent we've been able to attract, the team that we've built and actually about 1/3 now of the Global Capital Markets business is from the U.S. I think what you've seen in the U.S. over the last few weeks is going to question the amount of -- well, they're likely to be consolidation in the U.S. over the next 5 to 10 years because some of these smaller banks, I think the business model is going to be challenged. And I think the other thing I would say is that the Canadian banks are very stable and are going to come out of this last few weeks is global winners. We've seen demonstrated our strength. And therefore, there probably will be opportunities as you think forward to invest in the U.S., and we've got a great foundation upon which to do that. That's a longer-term agenda for us right now as we think about continuing to improve our Canadian business, improving the returns on our international business and continuing to build out the foundation which we have, but I think all Canadian banks will have that opportunity to deploy capital to the U.S. over time.

I don't think I have much to add. I think Scott kind of laid out the strategy of the bank, but it really is building on the interconnectivity that we have between the Americas, if you will, and the presence we have in Canada, Mexico, for example, there has been the buildout of the wholesale business in the United States. Wealth is another, I think, focal point for the bank. And so I think that, as Scott said, I think there are opportunities there for sure and something that we will be pursuing.

Thank you for your question.

I guess it's still morning. My name is John Flanagan. I'm a shareholder. Over the last 8 years, I've tried to attend the shareholders' meetings. And my background is mechanical engineering. I'm a 39-year member Society of Automotive Engineers and served on the governing board of the Central Ontario section. I would like to share some insight from my perspective in this transition time we're in. I also own shares in 2 oil and gas companies. And they are in the process of doing research and development to bring on the production of hydrogen, which is the future of the electric vehicle, which is the fuel cell electric vehicle. It's not the plug-in electric vehicle. We don't have the infrastructure for everybody to plug-in electric vehicle at home or wherever a charging station. So I'm all for the transition because my first 5 years on the governing Board, I was the Vice Chair of Student Activities, where I saw first year to fourth year plus graduate engineers working on electric vehicles, specifically for the Formula SAE competition. Those are some of the engineers that are now in industry working on this transition. So I would caution pulling all funding from oil and gas companies because they're already working on the research to bring on hydrogen production. And I was up in [Indiscernible] with Minister Fedeli doing -- meet the minister and mentioned that specific concept that, yes, in the interim, electric vehicles, plug-in or the transition period, but eventually, it will be fuel cell electric vehicles. So I wanted to share that with the other shareholders and management and the Board of Directors. So as an engineer, I'm very concerned with the environment. So my -- actually, my first business was an environmental products company that was selling air and water filtration products for the home and office, just my insight.

Thank you, Mr. Flanagan. I think there's a lot of interesting insights there. One of the reasons that we're working with our oil and gas customers in terms of understanding their emission reduction plans is because we do believe it needs to be a thoughtful transition. So I guess that would be point 1. Point 2, green hydrogen, there's a lot of merit to getting to the point with green hydrogen. There's lots of challenges to doing that. I think one of the things I would say is you think about our Chile business, if green hydrogen is going to work, it's going to work in Chile first. And that's a competitive advantage for us. The sun always shines, the wind always blows, renewable energy is great, and they're not dependent on a resource industry. So as I think about competitive advantages, Chile is front and center for green hydrogen. And then also living in Western Canada. I know that there's a massive amount of focus on making green hydrogen work in Alberta, right? And I think sometimes people don't quite understand how much effort is going into building out those capabilities because this transition does have to be thoughtful. So thank you for your comments.

Okay. We have no questions online. I don't see any more questions in the room. Okay. Thank you, Scott. So ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the meeting. I'd like to say a sincere thank you to everyone who made today's meeting possible. There are many Scotiabankers behind the scenes as well as translators and the production team that I'd like to acknowledge and thank. I'd also like to thank you all of our shareholders for attending our annual meeting. This meeting is now terminated. If you have a simultaneous interpretation unit, please leave them on your chair. Thank you, and have a great day.