Good morning. My name is Lara, I will be your conference operator today. Welcome to Canfor and Canfor Pulp's first quarter analyst call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. During this call, Canfor and Canfor Pulp's Chief Financial Officer will be referring to a slide presentation that is available in the investor relations section of the company's website. The companies would like to point out that this call will include forward-looking statements, please refer to the press releases for the associated risks of such statements. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Don Kayne, Canfor Corporation's President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Mr. Kayne. Thank you, Lara. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the Canfor and Canfor Pulp Q1 2023 results conference call. I'm going to make a few comments before I turn things over to Kevin Edgson, Canfor Pulp President and Chief Executive Officer, and Pat Elliott, Chief Financial Officer of Canfor Corporation and Canfor Pulp, and our Senior Vice President of Sustainability. In addition, we are joined by Kevin Pankratz, our Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. The first quarter and April were very challenging for Canfor as we announced and implemented the restructuring plans for our lumber and pulp operations in British Columbia. Our Chetwynd sawmill and pellet plant, as well as our pulp line at Prince George Pulp and Paper, have permanently closed, while our Houston facility has been closed for an extended period. Despite the current challenges operating in British Columbia, this province remains a critical part of our diversified operating platform. To that end, we continue to make progress on finalizing the business case to build a new operation in Houston. We sincerely regret the impact these decisions have had on our employees, our contractors, and our communities. However, with a smaller but more stable operating platform in British Columbia, we will be stronger and better positioned for the future. Turning to our other operating regions, construction of our Greenfield sawmill in DeRidder, Louisiana is progressing well, with the sawmill starting up in late February, followed by the planer in early April. With the facility now fully operational, we continue to make progress through the startup curve. We're pleased with the initial performance. We will continue to ramp up production through the balance of this year and on into 2024. In addition, we continue to execute on our other growth initiatives, including the rebuild of our sawmill in Arkansas, second Greenfield sawmill in Alabama, and some organic growth in Sweden. Notwithstanding current lumber markets, we continue to believe the longer-term market fundamentals remain strong, supported by favorable demographic trends, continued strength in the repair and remodel sector, and pent-up demand for new home construction activity. Despite the seasonal working capital build in the first quarter, our balance sheet remains strong. While we are prepared to remain patient and disciplined until the right opportunities present themselves, we continue to assess additional organic and external growth opportunities as we look to grow our lumber business on a global basis. I will now turn it over to Kevin to provide an overview of Canfor Pulp. Thank you, Don. Good morning, everyone. As Don mentioned, Canfor Pulp implemented the permanent closure this quarter of the pulp line at our Prince George Pulp and Paper mill. This was a very difficult decision, and we regret the impact it has had on our employees in the community, but we are focused on improving operational efficiency and reliability with a more stable operating footprint. In addition, over the next several years, we have identified a significant capital reinvestment plan aimed at improving the operational reliability and stability of our remaining pulp mills. To that end, we are pleased to announce a refinancing that will provide the necessary liquidity for the next 4 years to backstop this recapitalization. We have provided guidance of CAD 70 million of capital this year, expect taking into account market conditions and cash flow that in the coming years our capital expenditures will trend in the neighborhood of CAD 100 million, consistent with the past couple of years. This spending will focus on improving reliability, the only significant project that we see on the horizon is the completion of the rebuild of recovery boiler number one at Northwood, which was started in late 2021. Notwithstanding the significant challenges we have experienced over the last several years, we believe an expanded reinvestment plan will support the sustainability of the company for the foreseeable future and allow us to capitalize on the strong global pulp market fundamentals we believe will remain over the medium to long term. I will now turn it over to Pat to provide an overview of our financial results. Thanks, Kevin, good morning, everyone. The Canfor and Canfor Pulp first quarter results were released yesterday morning. In my comments this morning, I'll speak to quarterly financial highlights, a summary of which is included in our overview slide presentation located in the investor relations section of Canfor's website. Our lumber business generated an operating loss of CAD 170 million in the first quarter, which included a CAD 59 million write-down to the carrying value of logs and finished inventory in Western Canada, as well as restructuring charges of approximately CAD 11 million and an incremental non-cash ADD expense of CAD 19 million. These results reflected the sustained impact of a challenging operating environment in British Columbia, driven largely by weak lumber pricing and related operational downtime, which continues to have a significant impact on our per-unit cost structure. While we expect the cost curve in British Columbia to moderate through the balance of 2023, we anticipate ongoing challenges during the second quarter as a result of current lumber markets. Notwithstanding the significant losses experienced in British Columbia, we continue to see the benefits of our diversification strategy as more modest earnings from our US South operations were combined with strong results from our European business, which contributed approximately CAD 50 million in cash earnings in the quarter. These results reflect a slight improvement in pricing and demand in the UK and Europe, as well as increased production and shipments. Our pulp business generated an operating loss of CAD 25 million in the first quarter, which included a CAD 4 million inventory write-down and restructuring charges of approximately CAD 3 million. On an adjusted basis, results in our pulp segment improved by approximately CAD 20 million compared to the fourth quarter. Despite the continued impact of fiber-related downtime, these first quarter results largely reflect improved NBSK productivity quarter-over-quarter, as well as the associated benefit on per unit costs. Looking forward, the focus for our pulp business remains on operational reliability and preserving our balance sheet position. With that in mind, earlier this week, as Kevin mentioned, Canfor Pulp successfully completed a refinancing to support a significant capital reinvestment plan over the next several years. Under the terms of our amended credit agreement, Canfor Pulp converted its CAD 50 million term debt into a new CAD 160 million revolving operating loan facility, of which approximately CAD 65 million is currently drawn. We have secured a commitment to receive up to CAD 80 million of new term debt as part of our capital reinvestment plan, with the additional liquidity projected to more than sustain Canfor Pulp going forward. In 2023, we anticipate capital spending of approximately $450 million-$500 million in the lumber segment, including spending on the three major investments in the U.S. South, as well as organic growth in Sweden. We will continue a modest share buyback program throughout the year. For Canfor Pulp, we are currently forecasting capital spending of approximately CAD 70 million, including capitalized maintenance. With that, Don, I'll turn the call back to you. All right, thanks, Pat. Operator, I'll turn it back to you, and we'll take questions from analysts. Thank you. We will now take questions from financial analysts. If you have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift your receiver and then press star one. If at any time you wish to cancel your question, please press star two. Please press star one now if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while participants register for questions. Thank you for your patience. Your first question comes from the line of Hamir Patel from CIBC. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Good morning. Don, can you speak to what you're seeing on the R&R side, in both North America and Europe? For sure, Hamir. I'll let Mr. Pankratz talk about that. Good morning, Hamir. Yeah, the R&R market. So I'll start with North America, in both Canada and the U.S., has been quite resilient, essentially seeing double-digit growth versus this time last year. We see that continuing into Q2 and maybe some slight moderation in the back half, but still really, really strong. There's some pretty good drivers that are supporting that growth, and we think that's gonna continue. I think in Europe, we saw a resurgence of DIY strength in particular in the U.K. market that was strong and supporting that going into Q2. Overall, the R&R market segments actually globally have been quite resilient. Great. Thanks for that, Kevin. Then just the next question for Kevin Edgson on the pulp side. You know, when you think about your longer term capacity and with some of the investments that you're planning, you know, where do you see the, just looking at the fiber constraints and some of the capital you're putting there, where do you see Canfor Pulp's longer term capacity trending? Thank you for the question, Hamir. you know, when we made the decision to take the PG pulp line down, what we did is we tried to forecast to the best of our ability, not the fiber supply as it exists in the short term this year or next year, but try to look as far forward as possible. In doing so, we think we've right-sized the footprint with the two facilities, the paper machine, as it is now. We think the investments are going to improve our competitiveness, not necessarily increase our capacity, and ensure through that improved reliability and lower maintenance costs to be a more competitive player. At this point, unless there is some material change in terms of government policy or the like, we believe that we're in a stable place. As Don referred earlier to the smaller but stronger, we feel good about where we're at. We're starting to build chip inventories after coming awfully close at the end of the quarter before the shutdown. I think what we've got right now is a good place to be, and it's appropriate for the long term. Fair enough. Thanks. That's all I had. I'll get back in the queue. All right. Thanks, Hamir. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ketan Mamtora from BMO. Please go ahead. Thank you and good morning. First question, I mean, it certainly sounds like the repair and remodeling market in the U.S. has held up remarkably well so far. Some of the home builders have also started to talk about uptick in the orders. We've seen OSB prices kind of strengthen the last few weeks. Why hasn't lumber, you know, not moved higher? What do you think are among the key issues? Go ahead, Kevin. Sure. Good morning, Ketan. Yeah, you're right. The R&R has been the one segment that has been quite strong. Fundamentally, we just haven't seen the same growth that we've seen in the new home construction. I think that's a big fundamental driver that'll support the growth in some of the pricing. We also have on the lumber side still inventories that are quite high on the ports and in certain jurisdictions. It's probably gonna take through Q2, maybe towards the end, before we're gonna start seeing, I believe, some price appreciation get a little bit more attention in the market. Essentially just working through some surplus inventories, and we're starting to see Euro imports come off quite significantly and coupled with maybe the impact of some of the curtailment announcements that have been announced in BC, will have that impact, and then we could see some price appreciation towards the end of Q2. Got it. That's, that's helpful. On the new resi side, are you seeing any signs at all, of activity, improving? You know, I mean, in the last couple of weeks and some of the recent data points from the home builders suggest that things may be turning. Curious what you guys are hearing. Sure. Yeah. We're hearing the same thing, Ketan. I think the one thing that's like, kind of materially different than maybe the last four or five months that the U.S. South, Southeast has been actually quite strong. That's where the bulk of the new home construction has been. We're starting to see a resurgence in the Texas market, which is really significant. It's a huge consuming region for lumber. We're also starting to see pockets of western United States, like in Phoenix. That's another large consuming area start to come back after having a pretty quiet Q4 and into Q1. We are starting to see certain regions starting to come bounce back, which gives us a little bit more confidence, but we'd love to see how that plays out long term here. Got it. That's fair. Turning to, you know, kind of Houston, Don, about maybe, you know, kind of talk about how you guys are sort of, you know, thinking about it and what are the, you know, kind of what are the key things you have in mind as you look to kind of finalize this decision, and eventually, should we expect an update from you guys on this? For sure. Thanks, Ketan, and I'll maybe start with the last part of the question. you know, our plan, I think we indicated before, was to have a, have a, have a decision, from management's perspective by the end of Q2, and we're on track for that. There's obviously a number of, areas that we're looking at to get more, clarity on before we make that decision. That's all underway, now. Assuming that goes in the direction that we hope, which will be to get it all you know, approved here, then the next step will be in mid-July to go to our board. That's the, that's kind of the timing. You know, I think Kevin mentioned it as well, but you know, clearly our strategy in BC as I think you're aware of, is we believe we're gonna be... We will need to be smaller, but we'll be stronger. This will be a, an important part of that, assuming that it all goes ahead. You know, we will see a mill there, probably a smaller mill than we've had before, but a much more focused mill, much more focused on higher value and more of a, less commodity than maybe we've been accustomed to in the past. Other than that, you know, that's kind of where we're at today. There's lots of questions that we still need to answer as we go forward, and that'll be, you know, that'll be a consideration going forward, with the biggest one being fiber, right? Fiber availability, where that's, you know, what kind of certainty or at least, Well, certainty, I guess, we can get around that and maybe leave it at that. Understood. That's helpful. I'll jump back in the queue. Thank you. Thanks, Ketan. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Paul Quinn from RBC. Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks very much. Morning, guys. Maybe start with Don on softwood lumber. I think, you know, last quarter we were talking, you know, sort of more optimistically about that file. We had Trudeau sitting down with Biden. I know you guys tried to press to get it on the agenda. That wasn't successful. Maybe if you could just give us a recap of what happened and where that file sits now, and is there any change? Yeah, for sure, Paul, I can't add too much there other than, you know, we, you know, clearly we were disappointed the fact that it wasn't on the agenda to the degree that we thought it should have been in the president and prime minister meeting here a week or two ago, for sure. You know, at the end of the day, we're still working on it. I think we're, you know, we're trying to make sure that at least from a pan-Canadian position, that we're kind of aligned there. At the end of the day, you know, we still think it's a ways away here before we make any significant progress. You know, we are talking about it. We, you know... As things evolve here, we got 10, close to CAD 10 billion on deposit now. Canfor, as you know, is CAD 850 million, closing in on CAD 900 million ourselves. It's clearly something that, you know, we think, you know, long term here, we need to get some certainty around. You know, it's kind of a work in progress, and it continues to be that way. You're pretty close with some of these U.S. Coalition members. Any movement on those guys at all? Any interest in sitting down now that lumber prices have fallen back to more normalized levels? No. I mean, I, you know, I, you know, we know fairly good, you know, a bunch of us do and, you know, run into them once in a while here and there. I've personally anyway, I haven't heard of anything that would give me additional confidence that we're, you know, we're seeing any kind of progress on their side. I mean, clearly at this stage, you know, they're still dug in with some of their views and so are we, frankly. I, you know, I don't get any confidence yet that we're making a bunch of progress there. That's not to say we won't. I think, you know, ultimately these things come to a negotiation, so hopefully we'll get there in the next, you know, my view is probably, 1-2 years. Okay. Just turning to the BC interior, I mean, it still seems like we need to shut down, you know, a bunch of capacity there. You guys have taken some really hard steps in closing mills. You know, you look at some of the privates and what they've been doing is taking their 2-shift operation down to 1 shift, which I don't quite understand how that's sustainable in the long term. Does that kinda that move kind of frustrate you a little bit to be able to get to more of a, or a quicker supply-demand balance in the BC interior? Actually, yeah. Not really. I mean, from our standpoint, we can't control it. We don't actually spend a lot of time on what others are doing, frankly. I mean, we're just trying to make sure that as we look forward, that we're just focused on where, you know, what we can do and where what our geographical footprint ought to be, right? Which is clearly focused on Europe, focused on the U.S. South, focused on Alberta and BC with the, you know, some of the associated challenges here that you're aware of. You know, we're just trying to get the right production volumes here to match demand for sure and the fiber availability. Maybe switching over to the pulp side for Kevin. You know, you've had great markets in the last couple of years on the, on the, you know, the macro pulp side. And you guys have really had challenging operations through that period. Now we've got a major correction happening in pulp and you guys are reinvesting. I'm just wondering, you know, down the road with this reinvestment, do you actually believe that Canfor Pulp is gonna be well positioned to be sustainable, you know, in the long term? I appreciate the question. I think it's a bit of a fool's gambit if the answer wasn't yes. Let's get to the heart of it. I think it goes back to the 1st question, which is around fiber supply. As I had made mention to Hamir, when we look forward, we anticipated additional permanent closures in the fiber supply. We think we're right-sized for at least what we anticipate to be our fiber supply level. When we made the decision to take the PG Pulp mill down, what we did is we chose the mills that had the greatest flexibility, and whose platform we thought was the best from a future competitiveness level. Yes, it would have been nice to have strong markets for another year just to help us through the transition. We do believe that we can be amongst the most competitive on the NBSK side. We think our product, which is amongst, if not the very best in the marketplace in terms of a reinforcing product, and if we position ourselves or continue to position ourselves with those customers that appreciate that and continue to pull a premium, that we'll be able to be sustainable for the long term and actually return to the kind of, you know, ROIC or return ROIC, whichever measure an investor is most interested in, to the same sort of degree we were, let's say 5 years ago. It's just a function of getting from where we are to there. It won't be easy, Paul, but I have a dedicated team that believes in the future and will continue to work in that direction. All right. Best of luck with that. Just one housekeeping. I mean, I think the Mackenzie mill sale you announced February 2022. It's been over a year. What is the status of that agreement? Well, I guess right now we have been waiting for the timber supply review to take place and we're expecting to see that hopefully today actually. You know, you're just about four hours early. If you call me back or call Paul back in four hours, we'll give you an answer. Okay. That's all I had. Best of luck. Thanks. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Paul. Thank you. There are no further questions. I'll now turn it over to Don Kayne for closing comments. Go ahead, Mr. Kayne. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Lara, and thanks everybody for joining the call this morning and your interest in Canfor. I look forward to talking to you at the end of the second quarter. Have a good day. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much, presenters. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a lovely day.