Intact Financial Corp Annual Shareholders Meeting
May 03, 2017 AM EDT
IFC.TO - Intact Financial Corp
Intact Financial Corp Annual Shareholders Meeting
May 03, 2017 / 02:30PM GMT
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Corporate Participants
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* Alan Blair
Intact Financial Corporation - SVP of Atlantic Canada
* Charles Brindamour
Intact Financial Corporation - CEO and Director
* Claude Dussault
Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman
* Eileen A. Mercier
Intact Financial Corporation - Independent Director
* Frédéric Cotnoir
Intact Financial Corporation - SVP of Corporate & Legal Services and Secretary
* Louise Roy
Intact Financial Corporation - Independent Director
* Monika Federau
Intact Financial Corporation - Chief Strategy Officer of Strategy & Communication and SVP
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Conference Call Participants
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* Paul Keyes
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Presentation
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [1]
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Well, good morning, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, (foreign language). This is the 2017 annual and special meeting of shareholders of Intact Financial Corporation. We will now begin. On behalf of the directors, it is a pleasure to welcome you to this annual and special meeting of the company. (foreign language)
My name is Claude Dussault, and I am the Chairman of the Board of -- and -- of Directors of Intact Financial Corporation. And in that capacity, I will Chair this meeting. I shall ask Frédéric Cotnoir, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Legal Services and Secretary of the company to act as Secretary of this meeting. So before I proceed further, I would like to introduce, for those who don't know him, Charles Brindamour, our Chief Executive Officer of the company.
Votes shall be taken by a show of hands unless a ballot is demanded by a shareholder or a proxyholder entitled to vote at this meeting. Each holder of common shares of record at the record date, namely March 15, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, is entitled to cast 1 vote for each common share held on all matters proposed to come before the meeting. I also inform you that between 84% and 99% of the shares voted by proxy, depending on the matter, have been voted in favor of the appointment of the auditor; the election of the directors proposed in the management proxy circular; the resolution relating to the confirmation, ratification and approval of the amended and restated shareholders rights plan; the resolution relating to the adoption of bylaw #2 relating to advanced notice for the nomination of directors, as well as for the approval of the advisory resolution to accept the approach to executive compensation. This is a very long sentence.
Regarding the amended and restated shareholder rights plan and bylaw #2, relating to advanced notice for the nomination of directors, further to comments received from proxy advisory firms and shareholders, the board has adopted amendments to each of these documents on April 19, 2017, as publicly disclosed on SEDAR to address such comments. As permitted by law and under this meeting process, an amended resolution will be proposed later in this meeting with respect to these 2 matters. All the matters to be dealt at this meeting had been disclosed in the company's management proxy circular delivered in advance of this 2017 Annual Meeting. We have appointed Paul Keyes and Louise Waltenbury of Computershare Investor Services, our transfer agent, as scrutineers of this meeting. I shall ask Mr. Keyes to stand up and to confirm that -- and Mrs. Waltenbury to confirm that they will act as scrutineer.
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Paul Keyes, [2]
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My name is Paul Keyes and (inaudible)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [3]
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Thank you. The Secretary has filed the confirmation from Computershare that a notice calling this meeting has been sent to all shareholders entitled to receive same, the hold in [conformity] with the bylaws of the company and with the securities laws of Canada. Now the meeting is open.
Will the Secretary please advise as to the number of shares represented in person or by proxy at this meeting? Please, Frédéric ?
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Frédéric Cotnoir, Intact Financial Corporation - SVP of Corporate & Legal Services and Secretary [4]
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I confirm that 68% of the issued and outstanding common shares as of March 15, 2017, have been voted and that between 84% and 99% of the shares voted by proxy, depending on the matter, allow management to vote on behalf of the shareholders at this meeting.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [5]
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Thank you. So I hereby declare the notice requirements have been met, that a quorum is present, and that this meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business.
I further direct that the Secretary maintain the proxies and records of attendance with the official records of this meeting. We may now proceed.
For those who would like a copy, I would like to inform you that the minutes of last year's Annual Meeting of Shareholders are available, along with the agenda of this meeting, a copy of which you can find on your chair as well as proposed amended resolutions relating to the amended and restated shareholder rights plan and bylaw #2, relating to advanced notice for the nomination of directors, respectively. The management proxy circular, with respect to this meeting, is also available upon request.
The first order of business is the receipt of the company's financial statement for the year 2016. Copies of these financial statements were mailed to shareholders who requested them, along with the annual and special meeting documentations. Copies are also available on our website and may also be obtained from the Secretary's Office and the Investor Relations Department of the company. Our CEO and I will be happy to answer any question concerning the financial statements later in the meeting.
So now may I have a proposal regarding the reception of these financial statements by the shareholders?
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Unidentified Shareholder, [6]
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My name is [Marisa Mau] and I am a shareholder of the company. I would like to move that the consolidated financial statements of Intact Financial Corporation for the year ended December 31, 2016, and the auditor's report of these financial statements be received by this meeting.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [7]
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Thank you. May I have a shareholder to second this motion?
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Eileen A. Mercier, Intact Financial Corporation - Independent Director [8]
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My name is Eileen Mercier. I'm a shareholder and director of the company, and I second this motion.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [9]
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Thank you. Those in favor of this motion, please raise your hand.
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [10]
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Anyone against?
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [11]
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So the motion is carried.
The next item of the meeting is the appointment of the auditor. Management, the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors of the company have recommended the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditor for 2017 fiscal year and until the next annual meeting. I would, therefore, ask for a motion in this regard, please.
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Unidentified Shareholder, [12]
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My name is [Janice Oddis] and I'm a shareholder of the company. I would like to move that Ernst & Young be appointed as the auditor of the company for the year 2017 and until the next annual meeting.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [13]
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Thank you. May I have a seconder to this motion?
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Unidentified Shareholder, [14]
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My name is [Jillian Jones] and I'm a shareholder of the company and I (inaudible).
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [15]
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Thank you. Those in favor of this motion, please raise your hand.
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [16]
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Anyone against?
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [17]
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So I declare the motion carried, and that Ernst & Young is duly appointed as auditor of the company until the next Annual Meeting of the Shareholders or until their successors have been appointed.
We will now proceed with the election of the directors of the company. Please note that except for Mrs. [Sylvie Bucket], who is being proposed to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Yves Brouillette, all directors proposed by management of the company are the same directors elected by the shareholders at the last year's annual meeting. So may I have a proposal?
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Monika Federau, Intact Financial Corporation - Chief Strategy Officer of Strategy & Communication and SVP [18]
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My name is Monika Federau, and I'm a shareholder of the company. I hereby propose the following persons as directors of the Board of Directors of Intact Financial Corporation as of this meeting and to remain in that function until the next annual meeting: Charles Brindamour, Robert Crispin, Janet De Silva, Claude Dussault, Robert Leary, Eileen Mercier, Sylvie Paquette Timothy Penner, Louise Roy, Frederick Singer, Stephen Snyder, Carol Stephenson.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [19]
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Thank you. May I have a seconder to this motion?
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Alan Blair, Intact Financial Corporation - SVP of Atlantic Canada [20]
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My name is Alan Blair. I'm a shareholder of the company. (inaudible)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [21]
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Okay. Those in favor, please raise your hand.
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [22]
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Anyone against?
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [23]
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Are there any further nominations?
There being no further nominations, I direct the Secretary to register the election of those nominated. I declare the motion carried and declare the following 12 persons to be duly elected directors of the company to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed: Charles Brindamour, Robert Crispin, Janet De Silva, Robert Leary, Eileen Mercier, Sylvie Paquette, Timothy Penner, Louise Roy, Frederick Singer, Stephen Snyder, Carol Stephenson, and myself, Claude Dussault.
So I would like to ask the members of the board to stand up so that we can see you and recognize you.
So the next item on the agenda is the vote on the resolution relating to the confirmation, ratification and approval of the amended and restated shareholder rights plan, which amends and restates the shareholder rights plan agreement adopted at the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders on May 4, 2011 and reconfirmed at the Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders on May 7, 2014.
As I indicated at the beginning of the meeting, the board, under its powers, amended this resolution to provide that the amended and restated shareholder rights plan, dated February 8, 2017, was further amended on April 19, 2017 to amend the definition of controlled and permitted lockup agreement and to remove the reference to National Instrument 62104 Takeover Bids and issuer bids from Section 15, acting jointly or in concert with -- for greater clarity. This resolution must be passed by a majority of the votes cast. The Directors of the company unanimously recommend the shareholders vote for the approval of the amended shareholder rights plan confirmation, ratification and approval resolution. I would, therefore, ask for a motion in this regard.
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Unidentified Shareholder, [24]
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My name is (inaudible) and I am a proxy holder of a shareholder of the company. I propose that the following resolution be approved. Be it resolved that the amended and restated shareholder rights plan agreement dated February 8, 2017, as amended April 19, 2017, between the company and Computershare Investor Services Inc, which amends and restates the shareholder rights plan agreement dated February 9, 2011 and continues the rights issued thereunder. This is [hereby] ratified, confirmed and approved. Any director or officer of Intact Financial Corporation is authorized to do all such acts and things and to execute and deliver all such instruments, agreements and other documents as in such person's opinion, may be necessary or desirable in connection with the foregoing to give full effect to this resolution.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [25]
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Thank you. My I have a seconder to this motion, and you don't have to repeat it.
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Unidentified Shareholder, [26]
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My name is [Jennifer Crew], and I am a shareholder of the company. I second this motion.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [27]
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Thank you. Those in favor of this motion, please raise your hand.
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [28]
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Anyone against?
(Voting)
So I declare the motion carried and the amended shareholder rights plan confirmation, ratification and approval resolution is duly approved.
The following item on the agenda is the vote on the resolution relating to the adoption of the company's bylaw #2, which relates to the advance notice requirement for the nomination of directors, the details of which have been set out in Schedule B to the management proxy circular dated March 31, 2017. However, as I indicated at the beginning of the meeting, the board, under its powers, amended this resolution to provide that bylaw #2 was amended on April 19, 2017 to limit the additional information which may be required to be furnished by a proposed director nominee to the information required to comply with the requirements of OSFI relating to assessing the suitability of directors and potential changes to the board. The directors of the company unanimously recommend that shareholders vote for the approval of the amended resolution. I would, therefore, ask for a motion in this regard.
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Unidentified Shareholder, [29]
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My name is [Michael Ackerman]. I am a shareholder of the company. I propose that the following resolution be approved. Be it resolved that bylaw #2 of the company, as amended on April 19, 2017, be and is hereby adopted.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [30]
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Thank you. May I have the seconder?
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Unidentified Shareholder, [31]
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(inaudible)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [32]
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Thank you. Those in favor of this motion, please raise your hand.
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [33]
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Anyone against?
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [34]
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I declare the motion carried and the adoption of the amended company's bylaw #2 resolution is duly approved. The next item on the agenda is the advisory resolution relating to the company's approach to executive compensation. The Board of Directors believe that the shareholders should have the opportunity to fully understand the objectives, philosophy and principles that the Board of Directors has used and integrated to make executive compensation decisions. It is the Board of Directors intention that this shareholder advisory vote will form an important part of the ongoing process of engagement between shareholders and the Board of Directors on compensation. The Board of Directors recommends that shareholders approve the nonbinding advisory resolution. I would, therefore, ask for a motion in this regard.
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Unidentified Shareholder, [35]
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My name is [Keith Flynn] and I'm a shareholder of the company. I propose the following resolution be approved. Be it resolved, on a nonbinding and advisory basis and not to diminish the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Directors, that the shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the company's management proxy circular delivered in advance of 2017 annual and special meeting of the shareholders.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [36]
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May I have a seconder, please?
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Unidentified Shareholder, [37]
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My name is (inaudible) and I am a shareholder of the company. (inaudible)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [38]
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Thank you. Those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand.
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [39]
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Anyone against?
(Voting)
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [40]
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So I declare the motion and the advisory resolution relating to the approach to executive compensation approved.
So we have now completed the subject matters that needed to be acted upon at this meeting or the fun party of the meeting, as we call it. We would now like to present reports from the directors and from management.
But before we proceed, I would like to take this opportunity to thank one of our directors who is not standing for reelection this year. Yves Brouillette has been associated with the company for more than 40 years, and he has been the architect and a strong pillar of Intact over these years. Yves, as many of you know, led the organization in the '90s, bringing together regional companies and then creating an acquisition machine that became a model of market consolidation. He has also been on different boards of the company for 28 years, and he was our Chair when we made our first IPO.
His legacy goes beyond his contribution to the success of the company for the past 40 years. Yves has left his imprint throughout the organization in establishing strong values that are still driving the company today. You are leaving today, Yves, but many of your disciples are staying behind. So the company would like to offer its sincere thanks to Yves for his tremendous contribution to the development and progress of the company. So I propose a motion to offer our sincerest thanks to Yves and to wish him well in his future endeavors.
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Louise Roy, Intact Financial Corporation - Independent Director [41]
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My name is Louise Roy (inaudible) and on behalf of the company and also the Board of Directors (inaudible).
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [42]
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Thank you, Louise. And thank you very much, Yves.
2016 was a year of unprecedented catastrophe losses in Canada, yet Intact delivered strong results and demonstrated its resiliency and focus on delivering for the customer. The actions of this past year are a testament to Intact's steadfast commitment to its objectives, and in particular, its ability to execute on the same strategy in a manner that is both disciplined and ambitious. As Canada experiences changes at an increasing heightened pace, adaptability and responsiveness will be essential for our future success. While this is not unique to our industry, Intact is focused on continuing to outperform and lead through disruption while building sustainable long-term growth through enhanced risk selection and segmentation. Leveraging the capabilities of data analytics and with the stewardship of your board, we are confident that Intact is and will continue to be well positioned to meet the needs of customers today and in the future. As a board, we provided guidance on the overall strategy, and we were engaged very much in corporate development and many strategies and supportive of actions such as the one that we announced yesterday. Employees are the driving force in executing strategy and delivering for customers. As a board, we participated in conversations regarding your company's diversity and people strategy.
Today, 47% of management roles at Intact are held by women, and more than 40% of women are sitting at the board level. Beyond gender diversity, it should also be noted that 15% of Intact employees self-identified as belonging to a visible minority. Valuing diversity and the tremendous strength it brings to an organization, you should be proud of the progress your company has made thus far. Transparency in communication and quality of governance are attributes that investors hold in high regard. I am pleased with your company's effort in both of these areas.
For the first time, Intact was presented with the Award of Excellence in Electronic Disclosure and also received an honorable mention in the Financial Reporting Category at the CPA Canada's Corporate Reporting Awards. In addition, your board's continued review and renewal of governance best practices that have helped Intact to remain highly ranked in the Globe and Mail's 2016 Board Games.
Through leadership and action, tremendous strides have been made on many fronts this year. I am very proud of your -- of our employees' accomplishments, made possible by their hard work and unwavering dedication. Their efforts help us continue to set Intact apart and reinforce our commitment to make Intact one of the most respected and successful companies in Canada. The board and I look forward to building upon the strong track record and continuing to create value for you and all of our stakeholders. Thank you, and I would like now to invite Charles Brindamour to talk about the quarter and the year. Thank you.
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Charles Brindamour, Intact Financial Corporation - CEO and Director [43]
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Thank you very much, Claude. A special welcome to the Atlantic-based or Halifax-based shareholders. I must admit that I sense familiarity with our shareholder base here in the Maritimes. Thanks, also, to those who flew in from Newfoundland to come to the AGM.
Well, good morning. Thanks to everyone for being here and the fellow shareholders, I'm really pleased to be here with you today to share a little bit the progress we've made as a firm, but maybe more importantly, what you can expect from us in the future. And what better location than here in Halifax, not just because of its weather, but in particular, because we can trace our roots back here in Halifax more than 200 years ago, that's before Canada, with the incorporation of the Halifax Fire Insurance Association. That we're also here to announce an important step to building world-class P&C insurer.
As you might have heard, yesterday, we announced the acquisition of OneBeacon Insurance Group, a leading U.S. specialty insurer. Combined with our own specialty lines division here in Canada, we're creating a leading North American specialty insurer, focused on small to midsize businesses. We think that OneBeacon is a really strong strategic fit for us. They have deep expertise in commercial and specialty lines. But more importantly, we feel that they share many of our values. And as you know, values are at the heart of how we lead the organization and how we behave as a firm. Not only is it an entry in the U.S., but it will certainly bolster our platform here in Canada with new products and cross-border capabilities, which, as many shareholders in the room know, brokers have been asking for those capabilities for a long time. So we look forward to welcoming the OneBeacon Insurance Group team and employees to the Intact family.
I think beyond that, today, when we look at our business, we've built a business that is trusted by more than 5 million Canadians, both individuals and businesses from coast to coast. And as our company continues to grow, we'll never lose sight of our purpose, which is to help people, businesses and society, more broadly, prosper in good times and be resilient in bad times.
Well, last year was no exception. 2016 was a tough one, underscored by the wildfires in Fort McMurray and a series of severe weather events across the country. Here in the Atlantic, snow storms, again, and heavy rain were relentless, impacting homes, businesses and communities more broadly. Despite such adversity, I'm proud of our team, our employees from coast-to-coast. They came together quickly. Their compassion, their effort made a big difference for our customers. And we focus on what's most important, which is getting people back on track as quickly as possible.
And because of that, today, about 90% of our customers affected by the Fort McMurray fires are back on track, 92% actually.
In spite of record-breaking industry catastrophe losses, we delivered a strong financial performance, not good enough, but certainly strong. We posted a solid combined ratio of 95.3% in 2016, translating into net operating income of $660 million. Premiums, direct written premiums grew by a robust 5% to reach $8.3 billion. And overall, delivered a healthy operating return on equity of 12% despite $385 million in catastrophe losses.
So from a capital perspective, we ended the year with a strong balance sheet, with close to $1 billion in excess capital. That's what allows us to consider opportunities like OneBeacon. We also announced a 10% increase in our dividend, our 12th consecutive increase since we became a public company.
If I look back over the year, these results reflect strength of our people and the ability of our company. And as we want to be near here for Canadians for many years to come, we think that to succeed with a very long-term perspective, we'll need to continue to be focused on being customer driven, on excelling at what we're really strong at, in particular, in risk selection, underwriting, as well as in claims. We need to continue to build a very strong distribution platform from coast-to-coast to create options for customers. And then, and maybe more importantly, create a workplace where people look forward to come to and are proud to represent.
I'm confident that this focus will not only build our capabilities to better serve our customers, but it will position us to take advantage of future opportunities, and successfully lead us into the future as the world around continues to move, and moving it is.
In fact, change is happening on many fronts. Consumer expectations are changing and increasingly influenced and accelerated by technology, software and data. And to provide some context, if we take a global perspective, within 3 years, 2/3 of the world population, so that's 5 billion people, will have a smartphone. And what few people know is that Canada is actually leading the way on this front. 7 in 10 Canadians have a smartphone, including 90% for millennials.
In terms of connectivity, Canada is one of the top 5 countries in the world. So these factors are having a profound impact on how people interact, how people share and how people live. Having a strong track record is certainly helpful, but it's no guarantee of future success. So we're not sitting idle. Instead, we have an ambitious response. We're building on what we're good at so that we can continue to lead in the future.
So when it comes to digital, in particular, we've made it easier than ever for the over 5 million yearly visitors to our various electronic platforms. Obtaining insurance quotes for their home, auto can be done online in minutes. Last year, 50% of customers interacting with our brand did so through a smartphone. That's why we continue to design our quoting and self-service platform with a mobile-first approach. And customers also expect to be able to access their insurance information digitally. And we've made all insurance documents accessible online in Client Center, and we'll continue to deploy that across the land in 2017. Features such as claims tracking tool, email and SMS alerts [are] a few of the ways we're enhancing this platform.
Beyond software in the past 2 years, data has grown exponentially. Globally, 90% of available data, today, has been created in the past 2 years. And in the next 2 years, the quantity of available data will increase by a factor of 10. So mastering new analysis techniques will be vital to stay ahead. But given our track record on this front and, in part, Yves legacy, might I add, on the data front, this represents, in my mind, an enormous opportunity for the organization. To do this, we're centralizing our experts and data and adding talent to help us improve our margin, grow our customer base, while improving customer experience. Last year, for instance, we launched the Intact data lab, with the goal to enhance data as one of our core competencies to an even greater extent. This allowed us to build on new techniques, like artificial intelligence, and reinforce our data analytics leadership in the market and globally. And our team there has made tremendous progress on many fronts, in telematics, in particular, where the latest variable they've found, with 3 billion of kilometers driven, [studies] 30% more predictive than our most predictive variable in automobile insurance today and 15 times more predictive than the average variable we're using today in automobile insurance.
We also created strategic partnerships, because we have good expertise but we need to remain in the flow, with leading Canadian universities and research institutions in the artificial intelligence field, such as (inaudible), which is Montréal-based, which is a leading center in the world, the Vector Institute, more recently, in Toronto, just to make sure that we stay on the cutting edge of advancements in technology.
There is, as I mentioned, tremendous opportunity for us as a firm to use artificial intelligence, not just in risk selection and underwriting, but also to improve client experience, to tackle climate risk and to outproduce or prevent risk for customers.
In the next 3 to 5 years, consumer expectations will continue to rise and they'll look for us for simpler, faster, easier access to our services. So we need to be solving the problems of tomorrow today. Beyond what we've just talked about on the digital side and on the data side, we're making massive investments in our technology platforms at the tune of over $100 million a year in software engineering and technology development. This is roughly twice the level of investments we were making 5 years ago. Beyond that, to make sure that we remain in the flow, we've created, a few years back, Intact Ventures, where we partner with companies that have the potential to redefine how consumers behave and, more importantly, the P&C insurance landscape with innovative business models as well as new technology. Our plan is to invest about $250 million over the next few years.
Last year, we also worked to make it easier for customers to connect with us online, on the phone or in person. With 4 Intact Service Centers in Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto and Montréal, which opened last month, actually, we've created a simplified and convenient auto claims experience. Customer feedback so far is very positive and our Net Promoter Score, for shareholders who'd be familiar some of the metrics our employees use, have increased by 15 points. These are important measures to reinforce our claim service leadership.
Looking for growth opportunities is very important, as I've mentioned at the start, that we broaden our distribution platforms from coast-to-coast. And so investing heavily in supporting our broker network, that is close to 400 brokers here in the Atlantic, are amongst our top priorities. We've committed, last year, $270 million supporting brokers in '16 with a variety of services, including technology, sales training and financing to enable them to continue to grow and expand their business. Beyond that, BrokerLink continues to expand its footprint in Ontario, Alberta and Atlantic Canada.
On the direct distribution front, with the Canadian direct insurance acquisition fully integrated in our business now, belairdirect is now available coast-to-coast. And that includes Newfoundland. We're also closer to reaching our growth objective of $2 billion in premiums for direct distribution with the recent acquisition of (inaudible) in Québec. So beyond that, we continue to build a workplace where employees are engaged, are proud to work with us and look forward to come to work. And as you can imagine, we could not have accomplished all we did last year without our people. And so we continue to build the best team, a team that's diverse and that can evolve with our business as customers' needs change.
As Claude mentioned, our commitment to diversity is rooted in actions. With Sylvie Paquette just selected, women will make up 42% of our board, and one of the highest percentages on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This is one of the reasons why 93% of employees feel that Intact values diversity.
Over the years, I'm proud to see our employees getting even more engaged and mobilized with our purpose. Last year, again, we saw our overall engagement go up. And as a result, we've been honored to have been recognized again as one of Canada's top 100 employers as well as Aon's Platinum Level Best Employers in Canada. This is a big accomplishment for our 1,500 leaders from coast-to-coast because we have 12,000-plus employees across the country, a little more than 500 here in the Atlantic. So we encourage employees to challenge themselves, see things from the customer's perspective and help drive change.
Incremental changes, though, remains important and will help improve how we do business and provide customer service that is second to none. And ultimately, we continue to get better at addressing what customers expect from their insurer. And last year was no exception. However, we have a lot of work left ahead of us. So I think that much has been accomplished last year, but looking forward, the pace of change will quicken and our response will, undoubtedly, need to be agile and even sharper than in the past few years. To be the best we can at helping Canadians, we see many opportunities to drive change and are acting on them. We're also actively seeking out the right opportunities to accelerate what we're doing and leverage our competitive edge, and the addition of OneBeacon is a very concrete example of that. But we're true to and committed to staying true to who we are by continuing to transform the customer experience, invest in our teams and our people, and add to our core strengths, and strengthen our network from coast-to-coast to meet the changing needs of our customers. And that's why 1 in 5 Canadians trust us to protect what matters most to them. I'm very confident in our ability more so than ever. And we'll be ready to respond and lead and we'll be here for our employees, brokers and the communities more broadly for a long time. So thanks to our customers, our shareholders, our brokers for their continued support. This is not a support we take for granted. We're working really hard at it every day. I also want to extend my appreciation to the Board of Directors for excellent insight and counsel. I want to also personally thank Yves. He's really shaped Intact and many of us. And so, thanks for everything you've done for us, Yves. And we'll remain true to what you've created and build on that legacy, while remaining true to our values and maintain the confidence of our shareholders and reward them now but in the long run as well. Thank you very much and have a nice day here in Halifax.
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Questions and Answers
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [1]
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So, Charles and I would be happy now to answer to any of your question that you -- question you might have. So now the floor is to you. There are 2 mics there, so feel free if you have questions.
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Unidentified Participant, [2]
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Can I ask you a question?
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [3]
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Yes.
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Unidentified Participant, [4]
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I'll do that.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [5]
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Well, if there are no questions for the whole floor, we will be available, Charles and I and the directors, and we have a number of management -- members of the management team here to answer to your question in the following reception. So we have now completed our agenda for this annual and special meeting. So may I have a proposal to terminate the meeting?
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Unidentified Shareholder, [6]
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My name is (inaudible) and I'm a shareholder of the company. I propose that this Annual and Special Meeting be terminated.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [7]
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Thank you. In all my years, it's the first time that a motion is being applauded. So may I have a seconder please?
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Unidentified Shareholder, [8]
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My name is [Melanie McGraw]. I'm a shareholder of the company. I second the motion.
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Claude Dussault, Intact Financial Corporation - Chairman [9]
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Thank you. So now I declare the meeting terminated and thank you for attending. We ask you to exit by the doors at the back, and there will be refreshments available in the room just as you exit. Thank you.
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