Please welcome Mr. Aaron Regent, Chair of Scotiabank's Board of Directors. [Foreign language] Aaron Regent, [Foreign language]. Let's welcome Aaron Regent, Chair of the Board. Thank you for being here on this lovely spring morning. My name is Aaron Regent, and I'm the Chair of your Board of Directors. [Foreign language]. In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, I'd like to begin by acknowledging that we are here as visitors on the unceded territories of the Mi'kmaq, the Wolastoqey, and the Peskotomuhkati peoples. I'm grateful to the Indigenous stewards of these lands, past, present, and future, for the opportunity to be on their territory for these important discussions today. On behalf of Scotiabank, I acknowledge the collective obligations we each have under the peace and friendship treaties. Truth and reconciliation is all of our responsibility. For those of you who are joining us virtually, I encourage you to reflect and acknowledge the traditional Indigenous lands of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people from where you join. These acknowledgments remain one way to express gratitude to Indigenous peoples for being stewards of the land that we live, work, and play on. The Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan, the plan which was publicly launched in the fall, outlines 37 commitments designed to progress reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada and restore relationships of trust among Indigenous employees, clients, and communities. With the plan as a guide, the bank is committed to working in partnership with Indigenous communities to remove systemic barriers to economic inclusion, participation, and growth, including those that have in the past made it difficult for Indigenous peoples to have access to financial services and have meaningful careers in the financial industry. It is heartening to know that Scotiab ank was once again recertified at the gold level through the Progressive Aboriginal Relations certification, a demonstration of support for Indigenous employees, clients, vendors, and communities. As we continue down this path, we are committed to ongoing listening and learning to further understand the role that Scotiabank can play in increasing prosperity for future generations of Indigenous peoples. Now, it is my pleasure 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. 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 one, and French is channel two. For those of you joining us online through the webcast, you may choose the language of the webcast interface in the top right of the broadcast screen and the language of the streaming audio in the bottom left side of the broadcast screen. Sign language is now that you please turn off all personal communication devices to silent or vibrate at this time. We are so pleased to be holding this year's AGM in Halifax, the very place where the bank first began its journey. I want to extend a warm welcome to everyone joining us today in Halifax and by webcast. Thank you for taking the time to be with us. Shareholders to attend online or in person and vote their shares and submit questions regardless of their method of participation at the meeting. Now, please allow me to introduce the members of Scotiabank's management team who will be presenting today: Scott Thomson, President and CEO; Jaime Larry, VP, Bank Governance and Interim Corporate Secretary. In accordance with the bylaws of the bank, I, as Chair of the Board, will act as Chair of this meeting, and Jaime Larry will act as Secretary. I appoint Tara Israelson and Colleen Nielsen of Computershare Trust Company of Canada as scrutineers. I receive proof that notice has been duly given and that a quorum is present. As such, this meeting is duly constituted. 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 duly appointed proxy holders of the bank, and we do this to facilitate the introduction of motions. Jaime will now speak to some of the procedure items for today's meeting. 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 one 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 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 proposals. 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 the bank's Annual Report and Annual General Meeting webPage. If you are attending in person, please refer to the leaflet that was provided at the entrance to this room and the shareholder proposals. Each item of business that will be put before the meeting will be voted on by ordinary resolution requiring a majority of the votes cast for approval. We will provide the preliminary voting results during today's meeting, and the final voting results will be available after the meeting. Thank you, Jaime. We will be conducting a meeting in accordance with our rules of conduct. Shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders attending 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 in the meeting. Shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders are also 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 typing your phone number in the box to indicate that you would like to ask your question over the phone. I have asked Jaime to read out questions submitted through the web chat. The agenda for today's meeting can be found in the leaflet that was provided at the entrance to this room. As in 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 questions over the phone, after you are prompted to provide your phone number, please ensure that you also note the subject matter of your 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 questions at the meeting have an opportunity to do so, I would ask that each speaker focus their question on the topic under discussion at the time and to please be brief and concise, limiting their comments to three minutes. We also request that anyone wishing to ask a question limit themselves to one question at a time until others have had their opportunity. Client or personal questions can be directed to one of the contacts on the back of the proxy circular. Bank representatives will also be available after the meeting to answer any additional client 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 may group these together. We endeavor to respond to your questions during the meeting. However, any questions that cannot be answered during the meeting and that have been properly booked before the meeting will be posted with answers on our Annual Report and Annual General Meeting webPage as soon as practical after the meeting. For those attending online who are asking questions over the phone, if for some reason we are not able to address your questions during the meeting, please use the web chat to submit your question. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. 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 at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax. Scotiabank has a deep connection with the city where our story began over 190 years ago, and we are very happy to be back here and to spend some time with our shareholders that call Atlantic Canada home. It continues to be my pleasure to serve the bank and you, our shareholders, as Chair of our highly qualified and engaged Board of Directors. Under Scott Thomson, the bank has taken important steps to establish a solid foundation for growth. This includes focusing on earning more primary client relationships, strengthening the balance sheet, delivering on its capital allocation priorities, and growing deposits. I know that Scott will speak more about the bank's progress in his prepared remarks. However, I would like to recognize the board's support of the bank's strategic execution and the important work that has been done over the past year. We remain highly engaged with the management team in providing oversight and stewardship of the bank, and we look forward to continued progress in the year ahead. This year, the board continued to engage with many of the bank's shareholders on a wide range of issues, with particular focus on governance, sustainability, and leadership matters. The board remains committed to our governance processes to ensure active oversight in this ever-changing environment that we all find ourselves in today, and look forward to continuing to meet and engage with our shareholders on various matters in the years ahead. I would also like to acknowledge how proud the board is of the many Scotiabankers across the bank's footprint who continue to support our clients and shareholders. That includes those that I've had the pleasure of meeting this week here in Halifax, whose passion, warmth, and deep sense of community are a true demonstration of everything that Atlantic Canada is known for. As a board, we are extremely confident in the path that the bank is on today as it continues to unlock its true potential. Now, before we turn to the first item of business, I would like to point out that the 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, and there may also be references to non-GAAP measures. The detail of our warning regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures are behind me and 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 CEO, Scott Thomson, to address the meeting. Good morning, Halifax, and good morning to all of our shareholders that are tuning in from across the globe. This is the first time the Bank of Nova Scotia has taken its annual meeting on the road since the pandemic, and I cannot think of a more fitting location to host it than here in Halifax, the city where our story began. As past CEO Cedric Ritchie said during our AGM in 1975, "It is the tradition of the sea that a ship must return to her home port periodically to report to her owners on the results of her latest voyage and trading activities." So it is this morning that the blue nose of Canada's banking fleet drops anchor in her historic home port of Halifax. Our history in this region goes back nearly 200 years. A group of merchants were frustrated that the only other financial institution in Halifax was a private bank that could not meet their needs. So, with a handful of staff, we opened our first branch in 1832, just down the road from here at the corner of Duke and Granville. By the late 1800s, we expanded into New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Our journey has since taken us across the world as we followed our clients to where they wanted to trade and transact, into the U.S., the Caribbean, Latin America, and beyond. But even with all of our growth and expansion, the Bank of Nova Scotia has never shied away from its Atlantic roots. This is our home. Our vision is to be our client's most trusted financial partner, and today, thousands of Scotiabankers proudly represent our bank in Atlantic Canada, serving more than 950,000 clients in one of our nearly 100 branches across the region, or in our offices as advisors, corporate and commercial bankers, and portfolio managers, and in our client experience center at Scotia Square, which employs more than 450 people in Halifax that are serving clients across the country. Our client experience center is an anchor of our Atlantic footprint, and I'm proud to share that we are making a long-term investment in the facility to fully modernize and transform it into a multi-purpose campus that will house as many as 800 employees across our business. Through this commitment, as well as an additional investment to increase the footprint of our wealth management office at Purdy's Wharf, we are continuing to support growing employment in the region. Our client experience center is just one of our unique differentiators in Atlantic Canada, another being our corporate and investment banking office. We are the only one of our peers with such an office locally. It is one of the reasons that we hold such a strong position in the market and maintain relationships with the 10 largest TSX-listed companies in the region, representing some of our biggest clients in Atlantic Canada, many of whom are long-standing with relationships that go back generations. Clients like Sobeys, who've been with Scotiabank since we lent Frank H. Sobey the money to buy a load of potatoes and expand his business 100 years ago after no other lender would do so. That deal helped launch Sobeys journey towards becoming one of Canada's great retail success stories and formed the foundation of an enduring relationship that has only grown throughout the last century. Today, Sobeys and parent company Empire are amongst the bank's closest partners as we co-founded and co-own our best-in-class loyalty program, Scene+, which has created immense value for clients of both of our businesses and are fiercely passionate about this place they call home. We are here with them every step of the way. Beyond our clients, we are also investing deeply in helping Atlantic Canada thrive through initiatives that drive economic resilience in communities across the region. You may have recently seen new signage being hoisted outside of Scotiabank's center. We are proud to have renewed our partnership to support the next era of best-in-class sports, entertainment, and community programming that the center has become known for. Yesterday, we brought together local community leaders for our sixth Scotia Rise Summit to discuss how we can support a stronger Atlantic investments in the region, and we are increasing our support for 2025. This includes a new partnership with Dalhousie University to help establish a first-of-its-kind College of Digital Transformation that will drive greater inclusion and opportunity within high-demand technology fields. It also includes our partnerships with Hope Blooms to develop youth entrepreneurial skills that make MacPhee Divert Cultural Centres' emerging creators program and our deeply rooted partnership with the United Way Maritimes and our partnership with the QEII Health Sciences Foundation, which connects educated newcomers. We are investing in Atlantic Canada because we see the opportunity and potential here. We see the region's key position in a more connected Canada, and we see the important role that the Atlantic region plays in our own strategy that we unveiled just over a year ago. To deliver on our vision to be our client's most trusted financial partner and drive sustainable and profitable growth, our strategy centers on redeploying capital into North America with a focus first on Canada, as well as making important investments to deepen our relationships with our clients, to get to know them better, and to help them thrive. This has certainly been a year of progress for the bank. Our North Star continues to be earning primary clients and growing deposits. 30% of our Canadian retail clients are now primary, having added more than 200,000 since we launched the strategy. This is being driven by programs like Scene+, which has grown to 15 million members, with 25% of Scene+ members now having a Scotiabank payment product, and Mortgage+, which combines your mortgage with other Scotiabank products to provide clients with preferred rates and now accounts for nearly 90% of new mortgages. Beyond our Canadian retail bank, our Canadian wealth business delivered double-digit earnings growth last year. The Canadian wealth business reached an all-time high in client satisfaction and delivered 30% more financial plans to our clients on the back of investments that we are making in talent and in our offering. Client referrals across our Canadian Retail, Commercial, and Wealth businesses grew to CAD 13 billion last year, while retail deposits and retail investments grew 6% year-over-year. Alongside indigenous partners, we also launched Cedar Leaf Capital, Canada's first majority-owned investment dealer by indigenous partners. It is uniquely positioned to foster greater indigenous participation in Canadian capital markets and is reflected within Scotiabank's first Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan that we released this past year. All of this is indicative of the focus that we are putting on our home market of Canada and the results that we are beginning to see. Canada is at the heart of our strategy, and our success here sets us up for success across the larger capabilities to deliver more for our clients. Just this past quarter, Global Banking and Markets delivered a very strong start to the year with earnings up 33%. We recently took a 14.9% stake in KeyCorp, a leading U.S. regional bank. This investment is a cost-effective, high-return, and low-risk way to deploy capital into the United States while contributing to our earnings growth. When we introduced our strategy, we also committed to optimizing our International business, including turning around or divesting those markets that have been underperforming. To that end, we recently announced the transfer of our banking operations in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama to regional bank Davivienda for 20% ownership in the newly combined entity. The work we have done over the last two years in managing our capital, improving our balance sheet metrics, and responsibly building allowances has set a solid foundation for the bank. Since the end of 2022, we have improved our capital ratio by approximately 140 basis points. We've built approximately CAD 1.6 billion and significantly improved our liquidity ratios. I want to take a moment to recognize that the changes we've been making at the bank to deliver profitable and sustainable growth have not been easy. In pursuit of these goals, we have asked our teams to collectively rethink our priorities and relentlessly and efficiently pursue them to create better results for our clients, our shareholders, and each other. We started down this path over a year ago, steady and consistently, knowing that this was a multi-year endeavor. We closed out last year. We are committed to our journey. We are doing what we said we would do, and we are now realizing the benefits. We have not made knee-jerk reactions in the face of evolving macroeconomic conditions. We have not changed course. We continue on confidently even in these volatile times. It is on the back of this discipline and balance sheet strength that we find ourselves well-positioned for today, this country's future and to the next generation of Canadians. If there is a silver lining to today's uncertainty, it is that it has driven a conversation around Canada's economic potential and the kind of country we want to be. It has become abundantly clear that for too long, Canada has let its own growth and productivity stagnate, and the country now finds itself at a crossroads. Much like the journey Scotiabank recently undertook to chart its new strategic direction, Canada must focus on building the capacity and means to grow without relying solely on external relationships that the country has perhaps taken for granted. Canada needs a growth-first agenda. With more exports going to the United States alone than moving between provinces within our own borders, dismantling barriers that prevent goods and services from flowing freely is essential. The federal government must come out strongly on this issue, with Nova Scotia leading the way across the country to tear down these economic walls. Studies indicate that trade barriers add between 8% and 15% to the cost of goods sold across the country, and lowering these barriers could increase per capita GDP by CAD 3,000 - CAD 5,000. A more interconnected Canada is important because from coast to coast to coast, ours is a country that is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, a highly educated population, robust governance, and a strong, stable financial system. Canada consistently ranks highly amongst its peers in quality of life and is considered to be one of the most desirable places to live for highly educated workers. The world needs and wants what Canada has, and yet Canada's economic potential is massively underdeveloped and unrealized. Growth-first means unlocking Canada's natural resources, which have the potential to give the country a unique place on the world stage as trading partners seek more supply lines. This includes critical minerals, which are an essential component of much modern-day manufacturing. Yet the vast majority of production of critical minerals is concentrated in a small handful of countries with opaque governance, which the world relies on for the security of their economies and consumers. Canada, by contrast, has rich allowance of critical minerals, with the potential to be a major player as global demand is expected to double by 2040. Here in Atlantic Canada alone, the Atlantic economy offers revenues and security to future generations of Atlantic Canadians. In recent years, European leaders have said that Canada is their preferred resource partner, yet our critical mineral exports to the EU are only a fraction of our U.S. exports. Canada accounts for roughly a third of the world's reserves and production of potash, the largest of any nation. Used as an agriculture fertilizer, global demand for potash is only expected to grow alongside increasing demand for food, and Canada can be the secure, stable supplier of what the world needs. Canada has the world's largest deposits of high-grade uranium ore and is the second largest producer of uranium globally, accounting for 13% of global output. This is at a time when the International Energy Agency estimated that installed nuclear generation capacity could grow by 80% within the next 25 years. In fact, Canada holds reserves of all. But it will take massive investment and a clear path to enable that investment to fully assert its position as a natural resource powerhouse. Nowhere is this challenge more obvious than in the energy sector. The failure to get the Northern Gateway Pipeline built has been well documented and is a clear example of the short-sighted policymaking that has led to Canada's current predicament. Natural gas is another area where Canada can and should be a global leader, making a product that delivers energy affordability, energy security, economic growth, and lower emissions relative to other fossil fuels. For those trading partners around the globe that want to diversify their supply, Canada's gas is produced in one of the most secure, stable, and trade-friendly jurisdictions in the world. Canada's production and environmental standards are amongst the highest in the world, regulated by institutions that ensure industry practices are monitored, measured, verified, and authenticated. Yet if we look back at Canada's efforts over the past decade or so, it is valuable to compare ourselves to the United States. Both countries had strong visions about the role they could play in energy security beyond their borders and the impact LNG could have in supporting an orderly energy transition while creating economic growth. Fast forward to today, and the U.S. has eight LNG export facilities in service with nearly two dozen more in the pipeline. They are capable of exporting some 14 billion cu ft per day of LNG to places like the Netherlands, France, Japan, and South Korea, with billions more in capacity poised to come online in the coming years. The U.S. natural gas industry employs more than 220,000 workers and contributed nearly $45 billion to the American economy last year, while helping global partners move rapidly off thermal coal in exchange for a more emissions-friendly option. By contrast, in the face of red tape and regulatory obstacles, Canada has not yet put a meaningful export terminal into service. There are seven projects in various stages of development that could collectively represent more than CAD 100 billion in investment if fully advanced and realized, including a new plant in Kitimat that is expected to share its potential. For the benefit of Canada's economic growth and security today and the world's energy security tomorrow, Canada needs to create the conditions to build big infrastructure like pipelines and LNG facilities faster and more efficiently. Growth-first is about more than just the resources that we can pull out of the ground. Canada faces a near insatiable appetite for electricity and alternative energy sources, including renewables, as the country pivots towards a more sustainable economy. The federal government's Electricity Advisory Council has estimated that the demand for electricity will double above current levels in Canada over the next two decades. Yet the obstacles to meeting this growing appetite are significant. Canada's transmission network is well connected to the United States, but our provincial and territorial electricity systems remain largely siloed from one another. This is a significant milestone, but even it will require substantial infrastructure investments to realize. Building the infrastructure required to meet Canada's growing needs will mean investing CAD 55 billion, roughly double today's investment, every year for the next 25 years, with half going to transmission infrastructure to bring power to where it will be required. The good news is that 80% of Canada's electricity is already emissions-free, like the 102-megawatt South Canoe Wind Project, the largest operating wind farm in Nova Scotia, which the Bank of Nova Scotia helped to finance. The majority of clean tech projects in Canada are in the energy sector, with three out of every five energy projects planned or underway classified as clean technology. The country is also a leader in carbon management, with the third most active projects in the world. The recently announced CAD 2 billion partnership between Strathcona Resources and the Canada Growth Fund to capture and permanently store up to 2 million tons of carbon dioxide annually is a great example of the innovative work underway here. Strathcona is an entrepreneurial success story that is responsibly developing Canada's resources, creating jobs for Canadians, and contributing royalties and taxes to governments across the resource value chain. Scotiabank is a strong supporter of the work they are doing. However, to meaningfully reduce Canada's emissions over time, carbon capture will need to double or triple in capacity above what is already planned and announced in this country. If done right, Canada could be a global hub for investment, technology, and expertise, but it will take significant investment in infrastructure, growing the skilled workforce, and finding efficiencies in constructing new projects to get there. I am not alone in advocating for a growth-first agenda that leverages Canada's economic strengths for maximum impact. Canada is facing one of the most consequential economic and existential challenges that it has faced in its 158-year history. This is no mere inflection point. This is something bigger. The country cannot afford to stand still, to wait to see where the chips will fall, and then react. Our Scotiabank economics team recently proposed that Canada's political leaders, those competing to be the next prime minister, should commit to raising real GDP per capita growth, roughly CAD 1,200 per person, or almost CAD 5,000 over a four-year period. Think about what that could mean for those families working hard to make ends meet here in Atlantic Canada. Our governments have spent the past decade investing deeply in this country's human capital, but now is the time to be equally ambitious in physical capital. This includes addressing the real obstacles that stand in the way of big infrastructure projects: high cost, long timelines, an immense regulatory burden, unpredictable policymaking, a lack of government guarantees, and important indigenous rights considerations, to name a few. If Canada hopes to compete on the world stage, we need to be able to build faster, create the conditions to get resources to tidewater, and export them to foreign markets that are looking for energy and resource security. We need to lay down a more integrated, sustainable, and future-ready electricity grid that connects all corners of the country to move clean energy from provinces with a surplus to provinces that need it and ease the path towards decarbonization. This would be a national project not just for today, but for the future, benefiting generations to come. I also recognize that as banks, we must play an important and constructive role in driving forward Canada's growth-first agenda. We are economic engines and financiers of first resort, drivers of prosperity in good times and bulwarks in bad. We need to be advocates for policy that works and vocal about policy that does not. We need to be there to support our producers, our manufacturers, our builders, and our innovators in creating good jobs, building affordable homes, producing what the world needs, and getting those goods to global markets. For our part, and I say this to our clients, to our political leaders, and to all of our stakeholders, if you propose it, if you plan it, and if it makes good economic sense, we will help you drive it forward. We are here to help move the needle, whether through our balance sheet, through our partnerships, or by leveraging the relationships that we are building through Cedar Leaf Capital to help facilitate solutions that bring all stakeholders and right holders on board. This year, we'll be working with key clients, sectors, and industries to collectively and relentlessly focus on a new economic trajectory for Canada. In the new economy, every business needs to be thinking about getting better, faster, and more efficient. This includes working with our clients in all sectors, big and small, that are committed to growing their productivity and helping clients on all sides of the border manage through this uncertain time. We will also be discussing how we can better leverage our own community investment portfolio to help address both the challenges of today and those posed by greater economic growth, such as supporting people through economic shocks or providing wraparound support for those whose hard work will power the construction of our massive infrastructure needs. This is the time for big ambitions. Growth-first means Canada and Canadians need to deliver urgently, collaboratively, and in alignment. The solution is certainly greater than Scotiabank alone, but you can be sure that we are here to play our part. Closing out my remarks today, I want to take a moment to thank you, our shareholders, for your confidence in our bank and in our management team as we've executed on our new strategy. You have continued to stand by the Bank of Nova Scotia, and we are committed to delivering for you. We recently introduced a new culture framework for our bank, our Scotia Bond, with the core values and key behaviors needed to help us build a strong future for our clients, shareholders, and Scotiabankers globally. Because while we cannot predict the future, and recent events certainly demonstrate that, we can ensure that our bank is ready for every future. Reflecting again on Richie's comments 50 years ago, he told shareholders that storm clouds are already rolling on the horizon, but this doesn't faze anyone living on or by the sea. This is the way it has always been and always will be. Notwithstanding the roughness that may await us, the combined strengths of a strong ship and a sturdy crew will win out in the end for you, the owners. Long-term sustainable growth does not happen overnight, but with inclusion as our bond and 90,000 Scotiabankers lined up behind a shared vision, we will get it done. This is a belief that Scotiabankers here in Atlantic Canada and across our global footprint have held throughout our nearly 200-year history, and it is one that we continue to hold today as we look ahead to the next 200 years. Thank you very much. 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, which contained the bank's 2024 financial statements and auditor's report, were sent to shareholders in advance of this meeting. You can also obtain a copy of our 2024 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 CFO, is here with us today. Again, please use the microphones located in the aisles or raise your hand if you need a microphone brought to you. Please state your name and whether you are a shareholder or proxy holder. I don't see any questions in the room. Jaime, do we have any questions online? We have no questions online. Thank you. 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 would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Scott Bonham, Michael Penner, and Calin Rovinescu, who are not standing for reelection this year. Their expertise and guidance over the years have been so valuable to the board and to the bank. Scott, Michael, and Calin, thank you for your service, and we wish you all the best. This past year, we were delighted to welcome Steve Van Wyk to our board, who is standing for election at today's meeting for the first time. Steve is a former Group Chief Information Officer of HSBC Bank, PLC. He brings 40 years of international technology and financial services experience to our board, as well as expertise in human capital management, executive compensation, and retail and consumer matters and risk management. We are very fortunate to have Steve on our board. The Board of Directors has fixed the number of directors to be elected at 12, and I confirm that all nominees are eligible for election. We believe we have a board with the right combination of skills, experience, and integrity to provide strategic counsel to management and oversee the bank's business and affairs. All of your directors are joining us today, either in person or virtually, and I will invite Jaime to read the names of the nominees standing for election, and I would ask each nominee who is attending in person to stand as their name is called. Thank you, Aaron. The nominees for election as directors are Nora Aufreiter, Guillermo Babatz, Don Callahan, Dave Dowrich, Michael Medline, Lynn Patterson, Una Power, Aaron Regent, Sandra Stuart, Scott Thomson, Steven Van Wyk, and Benita Warmbold. Thank you. The board looks forward to serving you, our shareholders, this year. You will find information about each of our nominated directors on Pages 15 to 21 in both the English and French versions of the bank's management proxy circular. I now call on Julia Burina to make the motion for the nomination for directors. Mr. Chair, my name is Julia Burina, and my pronouns are she/her. Here at Scotiabank, I'm a Branch Manager for Advice, Sales, and Service at our Bridgewater location in Nova Scotia. I'm a shareholder. It is my pleasure this morning to nominate each of the director nominees as set out in the management proxy circular to be director of the bank until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, thank you, Julia. Are there any questions or comments about the election of directors? Please use, again, use one of the microphones located in the aisles or put your hand up if you need one brought to you. Again, you can also ask a question through the online channel. If asking a question, please state your name and whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. I see no questions in the room. Jaime, online? We have not received any questions online. Thank you. I then declare the nominations closed. The election of directors is the first item to be voted on. If you have not yet voted, please vote now by selecting either the option for or withheld for each individual director. I'll pause here for a moment so people can complete their voting. The next item of business is the appointment of the auditor. At the annual meeting held on April 9th, 2024, shareholders reappointed the firm of KPMG LLP as a shareholder's auditor of the bank for the 2024 fiscal period. You will find enhanced disclosure on Pages six and seven in both English and French of the management proxy circular. The board recommends that KPMG be appointed as the auditor of the bank until the close of the next annual meeting. Jim Newton and Abhi Verma, representing KPMG, are here in person today, and it is a pleasure to welcome them to this meeting. Jim and Abhi, would you please stand to be recognized? I now call on Elvin Narrainsawmy to make this motion. [Foreign language] Elvin Narrainsawmy. Mr. Chair, my name is Elvin Narrainsawmy, and my pronouns are he and him. I'm the Manager of the bank's Customer Experience Center, and I'm a proxy holder. I move that KPMG LLP be appointed as the auditor of the bank until the next annual meeting of shareholders. Thank you. To second the motion. [Foreign language] I support the motion. Thank you, Elvin and Jaime. 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 you need a microphone brought to you. You can also ask a question through the online channel, and again, please state your name and whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. I see no questions in the room. Jaime, online? We have received no questions online. This item of business is the second item to be voted on. For those of you who have not yet voted, please vote now by selecting either the option for or withheld. 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 63 to 111 in the English and Pages 70 to 123 in the 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. The resolution on the approach to executive compensation is set out in the management proxy circular on Page eight under the heading advisory vote on our approach to executive compensation. I now call on Elizabeth Hill to make the motion to approve the bank's executive compensation approach. Mr. Chair, my name is Elizabeth Hill. I am a Scotia McLeod Senior Wealth Advisor, Portfolio Manager at Scotiabank. I am a shareholder. 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, Elizabeth. I now call on Jaime to second the motion. I second the motion. Thank you, Elizabeth and Jaime. Individual over here. Sir. [Foreign language] Chair, hello. My name is Willie Gagnon. I'll give you a minute so you can put your headset on. My name is Willie Gagnon and I represent MEDAC, Mouvement d'Éducation et de Défense des Actionnaires. I have a very simple question and a few comments with respect to compensation, and it's on Page 112 of the French version. There's a table, and it seems that the current CEO for International business is paid more than the CEO and President, Mr. Thomson. So we'd like to understand why? It's rarely seen, and we're very happy to see as well that on Page 92, as you do so and have done so for the past few years, you are publishing ratios, compensation ratios, as compared to the median or average income of households. So I have a question with respect to that. Why are you picking households rather than individuals' incomes to come to that ratio? In fact, that ratio does not appear. You say that you look at this CEO's income compared to household incomes, but there's no figure. You have figures for the median and average income of employees here in Canada, and we submit, as we do every year, that your ratio, the calculation of the ratio, should be based on all employees, not only those located in Canada. For all of these reasons, other than the fact that we feel that a higher ratio than 30 is too large, we object to this motion. We will be voting against this motion on compensation. Two questions. One, why is the group head paid more than the CEO, and why do you not look at individual median income rather than household income? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gagnon. I'll try to answer both of your questions. The first is with respect to the amount that executives are paid and somebody being paid more than the CEO. That is a temporary situation. As we look to add talent to the bank, we are recruiting globally, and to recruit individuals, often we have to compensate your senior in the proxy circular. That is temporary, and you'll see, I think, next year going forward, all things being the same, that our CEO will be the highest-paid executive in the bank. Your second question on the vertical pay, I think I've got it. What we're trying to do is compare it with, first of all, looking at the Canadian market. When you look at the amount we pay in different jurisdictions, it clearly is most reflective of what is the market standard and what is competitive in those markets. We've concluded that the best comparison to sort of provide the calculation is to look at Canada and to look at the median household versus individuals. So that's the conclusion that we've come to, and we disclose it accordingly. [Foreign language] May I please have a follow-up? You came to, I understand that. I understand your logic. That doesn't mean, however, that you can't still publish a ratio on all employees, which would allow us to compare both ratios over time. The question I was asking is not so much what conclusion you came to, because I can see that conclusion. I want to know why? I've answered your question, but we'll take this under advisement, and if that's okay with you. We can talk further as well. I'll set this meeting if you'd like. Jaime, do we have any other? We have no further questions online. This year, we have six shareholder proposals that 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 Shareholder Association for Research and Education, or SHARE, which you will find beginning on Page 115 of our management proxy circular in English and Page 128 in French. The management proxy circular includes statements by SHARE in support of its proposal, as well as the bank's response. Sarah Couturier-Tanoh of SHARE is joining us virtually today. Welcome, Ms. Couturier-Tanoh. You are welcome to address the meeting with any comments on this proposal, and please ensure to move the proposal. Good morning, Shareholders. My name is Sarah Couturier-Tanoh. I am the Director of Shareholder Advocacy at SHARE, and I am here representing the Hamilton Community Foundation Shareholder of Scotiabank, which has filed this proposal. This protocol requests that Scotiabank indirectly disclose the results of a third-party equity audit to assess the actual and potential impacts of the bank's employment and commercial operations on Indigenous and racially marginalized communities in Canada and the United States. As Scotiabank continues to focus its current strategy on North America, a racial equity audit provides Scotiabank with a comprehensive mechanism to: one, assess compliance with U.S. civil rights laws, Canadian human rights, and Indigenous rights framework; two, identify gaps in financial products and service offerings for underbanked communities; and three, evaluate deficiencies in the bank's systemic discrimination risk mitigation processes, including the resourcing and staffing of compliance functions. The business case is clear. Indigenous and racialized communities represent growing market segments with significant spending power, yet remain disproportionately underbanked as consumers and underrepresented as suppliers, employees, executives, and board members for reasons unattributable to merit. Expanding financial access, equal contract, and equal employment opportunities for these populations enhances Scotiabank's business resilience, competitiveness, and long-term sustainability. A racial equity audit will also unify Scotiabank's presently fragmented reconciliation and equity initiatives, providing a coordinated enterprise-wide assessment to drive meaningful improvements to the bank's core values, values which affirm the bank's commitment to promoting accountability and inclusivity as essential to its growth strategy. Notwithstanding the fact that Scotiabank's existing initiatives are insufficient to identify and address systemic discrimination risks, BMO, RBC, National Bank, and CIBC have all made values-informed commitments in recent years to conduct and disclose the results of a racial equity audit. Racial equity audits conducted by peer banks are public affirmations of their intention to advance racial equity and mitigate systemic discrimination risks. Talent diversity are strategic necessities for serving the full breadth of their employment practices and products and service offerings in Canada and the United States. Furthermore, as I speak to you all today, I recognize that we are at a pivotal moment that requires companies and investors to continue advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion as a business imperative. In Canada, human rights and Indigenous rights frameworks are strengthening through the Government of Canada's National Anti-Racism Strategy and Reconciliation Action Plan. Meanwhile, in the U.S., diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are under attack, accommodating equal opportunity and access. These are not just attacks on principles reflected in Scotiabank's own values. They are attacks on Scotiabank's key client segments, existing talent pools, and suppliers. By proactively identifying and addressing inequities through a racial equity audit, Scotiabank will be better positioned to manage reputational, legal, and operational risks, fulfill its own racial equity and Indigenous reconciliation commitments, and build long-term value for shareholders. Fellow shareholders, I move the protocol and ask for the support. I look forward to a more constructive and meaningful engagement with the company. Thank you. Ms. Couturier-Tanoh, thank you for your comments. Shareholders can find the bank's full position on Pages 116 and 117 of the English circular and Pages 129 to 131 of the French circular and read about the proactive efforts that the bank has taken and continues to take to deliver against the objectives of the proposed racial equity audit. Are there any other questions on this proposal? I don't see any in the room. Jaime, online? We have not received any questions online. If you have not voted, please vote now by selecting the option for, against, or abstain for proposal one. The other five proposals were submitted by the Movement to Education and Defense of the Shareholders, or MEDAC, which you will find in the management proxy circular beginning on Pages 117 in English and Page 131 in French. The management proxy circular includes statements by MEDAC in support of its proposals, as well as the bank's response. Mr. Willie Gagnon of MEDAC is joining us in person today. Bienvenue, welcome. Mr. Gagnon, you are welcome to address the meeting with any comments on your five proposals, and please ensure to move each proposal. [Foreign language] Hello. I'm Willie Gagnon, and I represent MEDAC. As it's always been the case, we believe that we've garnered a lot of support for prior proposals, and that's why we are retabling them. We're very happy to be here in person, and this is something we've asked for since the pandemic. We're very happy that your bank has chosen to have an in-person meeting, and that's the reason why we're here in person. I had submitted five proposals, as you mentioned, so I will try to be brief. They start at 131, advanced, or rather combating forced labor and child labor in loan portfolios. We believe that the bank should disclose to its stakeholders any information on measures taken during the past fiscal year to reduce the risk of loans being afforded to companies that use forced labor or child labor. The last exchange we had with the bank goes back to January 27th, more than two months ago, and we did not come to an agreement with the bank on that question, although we did find an agreement with the Bank of Montreal and with the CIBC. We even withdrew the proposal last week during CIBC's AGM, given that those two banks gave us a little bit more than what Scotiabank chose to provide us with. In other words, we don't seem to be able to get enough information on the past year and on loan portfolios. That's why we ask shareholders to support a second proposal, proposal three, advanced generative AI and code of conduct. We propose that the bank adhere to the voluntary code of conduct on the responsible development and management of advanced GenAI systems. This is a voluntary code of conduct that's been introduced by the government of Canada. Other banks, such as CIBC, have adhered to this code, and we would appreciate all banks adhering. We do not understand why the Bank of Nova Scotia is not adhering. In your response, you say that you have a framework for GenAI, that the bank already adheres to its own code. It wouldn't cost much, or if anything at all, for the bank to adhere to this federal code. So we ask shareholders to support us. This is set out, as you know, in the proxy circular. The fourth proposal, disclosure of languages spoken fluently by employees, fluently being some language that's spoken orally and in writing well enough by its employees to conduct its activities. We would like to have statistical information on the languages required by the bank for different positions. You say in your answer that it's not necessary to speak multiple languages to be successful in employment. However, our employees are fluent enough in the languages they need to conduct their activities as we need. We're wondering what you make of social responsibility. Any contribution of the bank to the community is measured in the number of employments it provides. If it supports French language, it does so through jobs in French-language communities. It does the same thing in English-language communities and all other languages. We think that this is information that would benefit all shareholders, that would cost nothing to divulge. We perfectly understand that support of shareholders for this type of proposal is not the same as the support of the population at large. In a recent survey, we showed that a large part of the general population would like to have access to this information. So we ask shareholders to support this proposal. And proposal, pardon me, I'm moving on to the next proposal. Our sixth proposal, public disclosure of non-confidential information country- by- country. We received almost 10% of votes in favor last year, so we ask shareholders to continue to support that shareholder, which would help to improve the quality of the ratio that you publish. So that's for I think I may have skipped one. I think I did everything. My apologies. Yes. Say on Climate Advisory Board on Environmental Policies. You read in my thoughts. Thank you very much. So the Advisory Board on Environmental Policies, we sent you this proposal last year. What number is it? I'm lost here. Five. Thank you. Yes, I skipped it. Last year, we obtained almost 13% votes in favor. I won't rehash the same argument. It's the same argument as the advisory vote on compensation. If there's one advisory vote, why wouldn't you have two? One on environmental policies. I want to tell you on a personal note that over the past 20 years, this is one of the best AGMs I've seen. The lighthouse is extraordinary. The sun is shining. It's beautiful. It's one of the best AGMs I've seen. It's impressive. I'm really happy to hear the CEO talk about economic interests that transcend the bank's interests. It's very important to have these reflections when we're in a substantial economic crisis that will last probably another four years. We're really happy to hear the CEO speak to these issues at a bank AGM because it's not always the case. It's very interesting to see that you're going beyond specific interests of the bank. Anyway, I digress. I do hope that you will forgive me for digressing, but I ask all shareholders to support our proposals. Mr. Gagnon, thank you for your comments and your proposals. The last two points that you made on the AGM and Scotia Markets, I think we're in 100% alignment. I think we agree with you on that. I think on your five proposals, however, you have seen our response in the proxy circular, so I encourage everybody to read that. But I do want to provide some context. We do engage with Willie on a regular basis throughout the season. There are proposals that he puts forward that he subsequently withdraws after discussions with us. But there are others, such as he's put towards this meeting today, that we don't support, and we've explained why in the proxy materials. Mr. Gagnon, thank you. Are there any other questions? I don't see any questions in the room. Are there questions online about the proposals, Jaime? There are no questions online. Okay. So like before, if you've not voted, please vote now by selecting the option for, against, or abstain for the proposal two to six. Having now completed the formal items of business as set out in the notice, the voting is now closed. Okay. InvestNow submitted a proposal which was withdrawn after the bank withdrew from the Net Zero Banking Alliance in January. Ms. Gina Pappano of InvestNow would like to speak to this proposal. Ms. Pappano, you may briefly address the meeting with respect to your withdrawn proposal. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to deliver the events and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero GFANZ. These are two interrelated UN-sponsored and up until recently Mark Carney-led organizations whose members pledged to align their lending, investment, and other activities with decarbonization goals, including achieving net zero emissions by 2050. In other words, by joining these alliances, the banks pledged to restrict capital to and divest from oil and gas. The good news is that in January, our shareholder proposal became obsolete when six of the only partial because there is some bad news, which is that both the American and Canadian banks have stressed that leaving NZBA won't affect their net zero commitments or their determination to help achieve a net zero global economy. What does a net- zero global economy mean in practice? It means drastically reducing oil and gas production and use over a short time. For a country like Canada, as was pointed out in the opening remarks, whose economy is extremely reliant on natural resources, especially oil and gas, a net zero brings energy price increases, emissions caps for oil and gas, deindustrialization, and widely felt economic hardship. The real-world effect of Scotiabank's net zero policy is to eliminate oil and gas, one of Canada's most productive and prosperity-creating sectors. Its elimination would be bad for bank shareholders and customers, industry in general, the economy, and our entire country. Scotiabank should not continue down this net- zero ideological path, which runs counter to the interests of shareholders and the public alike. InvestNow applauds Scotiabank for exiting the net- zero alliances as a first step towards moving past the madness of net zero by 2050. But the fact that Scotiabank remains committed to net zero, to decarbonization, and to the effective end of our natural resources sectors demonstrates that our work is not done. We will continue until Scotiabank turns its back on the net- zero ideology and instead prioritizes its role serving the people of Canada and the best interests of its customers and shareholders. Canada's growth-first agenda can only happen when net zero is gone. Thank you. Ms. Pappano, thank you for your comments, and thank you for being here. Ladies and gentlemen, the scrutineers, I understand, have completed the preliminary tabulation of the votes cast in respect of each item of business before the meeting. I would now ask Jaime to speak to the preliminary report of voting results. Thank you, Aaron. We wish to report that the vote return is over 46%. I'm pleased to inform you that each of the 12 nominees for director named in the management proxy circular has been elected and received over 93% of votes in favor. The auditor was reappointed. Over 94% voted in favor of KPMG LLP. The advisory vote to executive compensation was passed. Over 94% voted in favor. The shareholder proposals were defeated. Proposal number one, over 62% voted against. Proposal number two, over 78% voted against. Proposal number three, over 87% voted against. Proposal number four, over 99% voted against. Proposal number five, over 86% voted against. Proposal number six, over 91% voted against. Thank you, Jaime. 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 the results on the bank's website. That terminates the 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, Scott Thomson, to return to the podium and preside over this section of the meeting. Jaime will read out questions received online and will state the name of the shareholder or proxy holder who submitted them. As noted earlier, this is a shareholders' meeting, and as such, questions should be general in nature and related to the meeting. If you have a client-related question, bank representatives will be available to speak with you after the meeting at the client care desk outside this room. To give all shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders the opportunity to participate and ask questions, please ask only one question at a time and re-queue if you have another question. Before asking a question, please give your name and state whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. Andrew Ritchie, I'm a shareholder. Andrew. A couple of logistics problems to begin with. I have a health condition that requires me to drink water frequently, so I'm not very pleased today that they're not allowing water in the facility here. So perhaps in the future, you can work out some different logistics for people. Whether they have a health condition or not, they should at least have table water here available for them. Secondly, in respect to our French-speaking shareholders and guests, I went to use the translation equipment, and that was not functional. All three pieces that were out there, not functional. So I think as an organization, you have to do some different things in that regard. I did have two questions about combining them into one because the first one, I think I can make an assumption that management has received. My question is related to dividend increases by the bank. The last increase was in July 2023. Thus, we've been eight quarters at the same rate of dividend. Interesting that there's funds for compensation changes and bonuses, but not sufficient funds for shareholder bonuses. I might add that in the past 38 years, the dividend has been increased at least once every four quarters, except for the period September 2019 to October 2021, nine quarters. July 2008 to July 2010, seven quarters. 1994 to 1995, six quarters. 1989 to 1991, seven quarters. Myself and my brother, who is here today, we're direct descendants of Alexander Stewart, one of the bank's founders, and our family has been continuous holders of common shares of Bank of Nova Scotia since its founding. As a family, we're historically interested in income more than share appreciation for the purpose of capital. As well, your five other bank counterparts have a better record of dividend increases on a quarter-to-quarter basis. So my question to you, regardless of varying economic conditions, which historically there is always something influencing the bank's net income, under your leadership, I mean by your leadership, your leadership and the board's, has the board decided to embark on a direction away from at least annual increases in dividends to primary focus of share appreciation? Thanks for the question. Maybe someone can get the gentleman some water. Part of the shareholder proposition. We recognize that as a management team and as the board. What we're trying to do is continue to grow the earnings so that we can continue to grow the dividend. What we found ourselves in a period when I took leadership of the bank is that our dividend payout ratio was too high. What we wanted to do is set a strategy in place where we could grow earnings and then restart the dividend growth. Our objective is to grow our earnings at a reasonable rate and restart the dividend. You always have to be sensitive about earnings, right? In the environment we're in, the dividend is, but you can be rest assured dividend growth will continue to be an important part of the value creation story for the Bank of Nova Scotia. Thank you. [Foreign language] Willy Gagnon. Willy Gagnon from MEDAC, the Movement. I have a simple question. We've noticed, and it's already been discussed here in this meeting, that you've left NZBA. You're not the only bank to have left it. All of the major Canadian banks did that this year. So you've left NZBA. We know that there was a proposal with regard to withdrawing from the NZBA, and I have a few questions on that. Did you leave NZBA after this proposal, or was your decision already made before that? If the decision was made prior to the proposal, is the decision of leaving the NZBA about the same time as all the other banks, is that a factor that was taken into consideration in making your decision? Moreover, I understand that you've not dropped your net zero targets. In that case, why have you left the NZBA? Was it causing issues? I would like to remind everybody in the meeting here that it's on the basis of you come back with this proposal to obviously request all kinds of information with regard to your commitments for net zero. I would also like to say that the comment that I'm making right now is not an ideological issue. The reason for which we are asking this question, it's not from an ideology standpoint. We just want to understand the logic, the reasoning behind these decisions, please. Thank you very much, Mr. Gagnon. There are quite a few questions there, I'll try my best. If I miss one, please let me know. We made the decision separate from the shareholder proposal. We didn't know the shareholder proposal was there, but that wasn't the reason for our decision. What you'll see from us is the introduction of what's called an energy supply ratio. That energy supply ratio, I think, is a more thoughtful way of getting after the transition by looking at fossil fuel investments and the help to those companies for energy transition and the investment in alternative energy sources, which helps the world to decarbonize. For a country like Canada and for a bank like us, I think that's a more appropriate way to think about the energy transition. So that would be our plan going forward. The decision had nothing to do with what other Canadian banks were doing. Frankly, we were on the cusp of making that decision when I think one of our peers went the day before us. But it was, I must say, from an overall right approach going forward. [Foreign language] I have a question that was asked from someone online, Alan Best. He's asking about the promotional effort to grow deposits that he has been following. How successful is it? What else are you doing to get on track, improve performance, get the payout ratio back to historical norms, and grow the dividend again? Why did we lag for so long, and why is it taking so long to get back on our feet? Great. Thank you very much, Alan. Sorry you're not here. I understand that you come to most of these annual general meetings, so we miss you. First, deposits has been a big part of strategy and primacy, a big part of primacy with retail, corporate, and commercial clients is having the deposit or the deposits over the last two years. If you look at some of the drives of that, I talked about it in my speech, Scene+, 25% now of Scene+ clients are payment product clients of the bank. Mortgage+, now 90% of mortgage clients have multi-product relationships with us. 47% of our retail clients in Canada are multi-product clients. So all in all, that relates to a 200,000 increase in primary clients. I think we're making good progress, but it is a long-term proposition. This is something that we are committed to. It's going to take time. You don't fix this in a quarter. It's a multi-year journey. I actually feel really good about where we're heading. I think you're starting to see the results in the numbers. In terms of the dividend payout, I think it was a similar question to another shareholder. We need to get that dividend payout ratio into a little bit of a better place. But as we grow earnings, which our expectation is we will grow earnings on the back of increased primacy, then the dividend will start to increase again. But we need to get that combination of earnings growth and dividend growth better connected. Your typical retail investor, my holding in the grand scheme of things is immaterial among the 2.4 billion shares outstanding. Still, the holding is quite important to us. I have listened to Mr. Gagnon faithfully make proposals to the board for what seems like decades. All have been rejected. In my eyes, Mr. Gagnon is a thoughtful man and represents retail investor concerns in many ways. We retail investors have minimal influence on Scotiabank decisions. If Scotiabank performance had shut the lights out for the last decade and more, I could understand the view the board may have that we don't need any help. This has not been the case with BNS performance. I ask that the bank get more seriously involved with Mr. Gagnon and seriously consider adding someone as good as Mr. Gagnon to be involved with the board. Great. Thanks for that second question. A couple of comments. One, I also agree that Mr. Gagnon asks very thoughtful questions. I would say that there is a lot of interaction between Mr. Gagnon and our corporate day or five things we didn't agree with. In terms of you being a shareholder, actually, every shareholder is an important shareholder. So let me make that clear. If you ever want to engage with the Bank of Nova Scotia, I'm looking directly at my Head of Investor Relations, John McCartney, soon to be Manny Roman. You are welcome to call the investor relations department and talk about your concerns about where the bank's heading. I think last year was a good year, frankly, 35% up from a share price perspective, which was not the top in the financial industry sectors, but it was not the bottom. It was right in the middle of the pack. We've got a lot more work to do. We've got a lot of more work to do, and we're five quarters into this journey. But as we execute on this primacy strategy, as we allocate, correlate directly with increased shareholder and better shareholder outcomes. I look forward to engaging with you. Mr. Ced Ritchie, one of my predecessors said, "it's a multi-year journey and keep the faith." So thank you very much. Great. Thank you, Scott. We don't have any more questions. So that will conclude this meeting. Before doing so, I'd just like to thank the.