Welcome to WSP's third quarter 2022 results conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Quentin Weber, Investor Relations. A vous la parole. Please go ahead, Mr. Weber. Good morning. Bonjour. We hope that you are doing well, and thank you for joining our call today. We will be discussing our Q3 2022 performance, followed by a Q&A session. Joining us today are Alexandre L'Heureux, our President and CEO, and Alain Michaud, our CFO. Please note that this call is also accessible on our website via webcast. During the call, we will be making some forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ from those expressed or implied. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements are listed in our MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2021. Also, during the call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS measures. These measures are defined in our MD&A for the quarter that ended October first, twenty twenty-two, which can be found on SEDAR and on our website. Our MD&A also includes reconciliations of non-IFRS measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures. Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide useful information to investors regarding the corporation's financial condition and results of operation, as they provide additional key metrics of its performance. These non-IFRS measures are not recognized under IFRS. We do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS and may differ from similarly named measures as reported by other issuers, and accordingly may not be comparable. These measures should not be viewed as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with IFRS. I will now turn the call over to Alexandre. Thank you, Quentin, and good morning, everyone. During the third quarter of 2022, we continued to build on the momentum we experienced in the first half of the year, in addition to closing significant transactions. As a result, we welcome over 7,300 new employees from recent acquisitions, strengthening our presence in key markets and geographies. Organically, we also increased our headcount by 3,200 in 2022, demonstrating the strength of our brand as we recruit new talent organically. In total, we have grown our workforce by 10,500 people in 2022, all while successfully delivering on our projects and being focused on our markets and our performance. I'm going to kick off this call by touching on three key highlights. First, our third quarter results are slightly ahead of our expectations. We achieved solid organic net revenue growth across all our segments and improvements in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net earnings, in addition to maintaining a very healthy backlog. Second, and as just mentioned, since June of this year, we closed six acquisitions, including the E&I business of John Wood Group, our largest transaction this year. The integration of these businesses are underway and progressing as planned. Lastly, we successfully completed in August an equity offering of $ 920 million, providing us with a solid balance sheet going into 2023. To set some structure for this call, I'm going to expand on some of our recent achievements, and Alain will cover our financial performance. Beginning with recent acquisitions, Wood E&I is now officially closed, and the integration is progressing as planned. We are already benefiting from the collaboration between businesses and seizing opportunities across various markets. For example, our team is working together on an offshore wind project in the state of New York, combining a strong brand in offshore wind with the depth, skill set, and solid client relationship. This has translated into a very robust client offering. We're also making key nominations from our recent acquisitions, including the appointment of Joe Sczurko as president of our Earth and Environment business in the USA, representing more than 6,000 employees. Joe was previously the CEO of the Global Consulting business unit of the John Wood Group, which was mainly composed of the E&I business we just acquired. In September, we also closed a previously announced acquisition of Capita Real Estate and Infrastructure and GL Hearn. The two businesses are now being integrated into our UK platform, adding depth and expertise to our advisory engineering business across the country. Emerging success stories include stepping in to support one another's current projects, aligning our opportunities and combining forces doing new work. In a bid for an academic project, REI is now supporting WSP's consortium, enhancing the strength of our bid. Our recent acquisitions include Greencap in Australia, Madrid-based BOD, and Odeh Engineers in the U.S.. These acquisitions support our regional and global ambitions by reinforcing our service offerings in key sectors and strengthening our presence in key geographies. Our M&A activity demonstrates our opportunistic and disciplined approach to acquisition, and we do not foresee the future to be any different. We will continue to allocate our capital in accordance with our strategic plan, with a view to maximize shareholder value. Now moving to our recent industry awards and recognitions. Starting with the ENR rankings, WSP took the number one position in ENR magazine's 2022 list of the top 225 international design firms for the second consecutive year. We also achieved leading position in transportation, buildings, power, water, hazardous waste, and manufacturing. We're also thrilled to have won the two Environmental Analyst sustainability consulting awards. These awards recognize our leadership role in sustainability and resilience. Additionally, the acquisition of E&I has enabled us to strengthen our market position and take the lead in environment analysts top 100 environmental and sustainability consultancy firms for 2022. In our quest to become the undisputed leader in our industry, these recognitions demonstrate WSP's continued focus on achieving its strategic ambition. On the topic of ESG, we continue to enforce our leadership and commitments. In 2021, WSP committed to reaching net zero by 2040 across its value chain, supported by greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. Just at the end of last month, we received official approval for our net zero target under the SBTi's new net zero standard. We are proud to be among the leading companies to receive this recognition. To support our climate commitments, we recently launched our climate transition plan, a crucial element of our journey to reduce GHG emissions as it set out concrete action. Having a solid action plan to decarbonize our own activities as well, to drive growth with our clients, including helping them on their own decarbonization journeys. At this moment, WSP experts have joined world leaders and industry professionals to accelerate climate action and find solutions to the world's environmental and social challenges at the 27th annual Climate Change Conference, known as COP27. In December, WSP will actively contribute to the COP15 conference in Montreal. COP15 will look at the implementation of protocols of the Convention on Biological Diversity. We are honored to share the influence WSP has on the ways to reduce negative impacts on our planet, and more announcements are to come in that regard. Transitioning over to our recent wins, I would like to highlight two notable projects. First, WSP and its partners were recently awarded the opportunity to completely redesign New York's Penn Station. The project involves providing a preliminary design for the long-awaited transformation of the station, creating a world-class transportation facility that will relieve overcrowding, improve safety and deliver rider-focused transit experience. This project will reshape Penn Station into a single-level facility centered around a grand train hall with a 450-foot long sky-lit atrium between Madison Square Garden and Two Penn Plaza. It will benefit from deep collaboration across our transportation, buildings, and advisory business lines. The second project is for Boeing. WSP was selected to provide environmental, health, and safety services, as well as sustainability-related due diligence activities for various Boeing sites across the world. This project is a great example of an opportunity to leverage our global platform and allow us to expand from national to international contracts, increasing our portfolio enormously. WSP was able to emphasize its long-standing relationship with Boeing and its subsequent familiarity with company systems, providing significant time and cost benefits from Boeing, for Boeing. In the U.S., we continue to be well-positioned to win work through the ongoing stimulus plan as federal funding for highway, transit, energy, and water projects, among others, are being deployed. The benefit for WSP will play out over several years and may not peak until 2025. We could expect a positive impact in early 2023, due to the timing of awards for the programs continuing through the year, but the situation remains fluid. Before I pass it to Alain to review our financial results in greater detail, let me state that I am very proud of our performance. We had another good quarter with great achievements on many fronts, including a recent reduction in turnover and continuous success at increasing our headcount to support our growth journey despite a tight labor market. On that note, Alain, over to you. Thanks, Alex, and hello, everyone. I'm very pleased this morning to report on our results for the third quarter. Let me start with top line. For the third quarter, revenues and net revenues reached $2.9 billion and $2.2 billion respectively, up 9% and 8% compared to Q3 2021. The quarter's solid net revenue organic growth of 8% was powered by all our regions, led by Canada, the U.S., Australia, and the U.K.. Backlog as of the end of Q3 stood at $13.3 billion, which is equivalent to 12.3 months of revenues. In the nine-month and 12-month period that ended October 1st, our backlog grew organically across all regions by 11% and 15% respectively. We are monitoring our backlog closely, and our client continues to be committed to their projects, and our pipeline of opportunities remain healthy. Moving on to profitability. Adjusted EBITDA reached $ 407 million, up 8% compared to the same period in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter reached 18.6%, stable versus Q3 2021. Adjusted net earnings for the quarter stood at $ 193 million or $ 1.59 per share, up approximately $14 million and $ 0.06 per share respectively, compared to Q3 2021. The respective increases in these metrics are mainly attributable to higher adjusted EBITDA. Let me now take a few moments to highlight key points on our free cash flow. For Q3 2022, free cash flow stood at $37 million. The main contributor to divert the variation versus Q3 2021 is an additional period of payroll in 2022 versus 2021, representing an outflow of approximately $ 125 million. This situation will reverse in the fourth quarter of 2022. Year to date, in addition to the payroll impact, our free cash flow was also influenced by increased tax payment due to a recent change in tax regulation in the U.S., which delays the deductibility of R&D expenses. This represents approximately $ 100 million of additional cash tax in 2022. In addition, and as expected, we are observing a continued normalization of our DSO to pre-pandemic level. Since the beginning of the year, our DSO has increased from 66 days to 75 days, in line with our 2022 annual target range. From a modeling perspective, each day of DSO represent approximately $30 million of free cash flow. As a reminder, Q4 is typically our strongest quarter of cash collection. Finally, when excluding the impact of changes in tax regulation in the U.S., we are still targeting to convert approximately 100% of our net earnings into free cash flow. As of October 1st, 2022, the net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio stood at 1.8, incorporating a full 12-month of estimated adjusted EBITDA of all recently acquired businesses. We expect this ratio to range between 1.4 and 1.5 as of December 31, 2022. During the quarter, WSP declared a dividend of $ 0.375 per share for shareholders on record as of September 30, 2022. This dividend was paid on October 17, and with a 49.1% DRIP participation, the net cash outlay reached $ 23.7 million. Our financial outlook for 2022, issued in Q4 2021 press release is adjusted with increased net revenues now expected to range between $ 8.8 billion and $ 8.9 billion, and an increased adjusted EBITDA now expected to range between $ 1.51 billion and $ 1.53 billion. Also, acquisition, integration, and reorganization costs are now expected to range between $80 million and $90 million due to our recent M&A activities. Lastly, we would like to remind you that Q4 2022 will have fewer billable days than in Q4 2021, which will offset the additional billable days we had in Q1 2022 versus Q1 2021. On that, back to you, Alex. Thank you, Alain. I will conclude by stating that I am very proud of our performance in the third quarter, which reflects continued momentum across our business and strong execution by our team. Considering this momentum and our solid balance sheet providing both agility and resiliency, we are increasing our financial outlook, and we are moving into the year's final stretch with confidence and a continued focus on executing on our plan with discipline. We look forward to updating you on our 2022 operating plan in Q4. With that, we will now proceed to the Q&A session. Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to slowly press star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Once again, it's star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We are now going to take our first question. The question's come from the line of Jacob Bout from CIBC. Please ask your question. Good morning. Hello, Jacob. Hey, Jacob. Maybe just start off, just talking about if you'd provide a bit of commentary on lessons learned from this RPS experience. Does this set a new precedent going forward, especially as you think about future M&A and, say, Earth and Environment or water targets? I'm not sure it's a precedent because it's happening time and time again around the world, Jacob. It's the second time that we've experienced something like that at WSP. You will remember in 2016 there was a counter bid on the Sweett Group, an acquisition for which I had made an offer, and WSP had decided not to pursue the opportunity. The reality, Jacob, is that we are when it comes down to acquisition and to our strat plan, we're very disciplined, and we're not gonna move away from our set goals and our set plans. If we had made this offer in the first place, it's because we believed this company was valued properly at that time, and we were not prepared to change our view in that regard. Okay. My second question here is, you know, around revenue growth going into 2023. You know, given the strong organic growth you're seeing, this record backlog, is there any reason that this type of organic revenue growth shouldn't continue to 2023? Maybe just comment on, you know, are you seeing any change in client behavior at all, either given your inflationary pressures or risk of recession? Well, let me answer the first part of your question. First and foremost, we're going into 2023, and we're still very much committed to the financial ambitions that we have unveiled in February, our three-year plan. Which means that I can tell you, I'm not sure I'm going to announce anything special here, but that we're clearly forecasting organic growth next year. So I think we're going into 2023, feeling good given the year that we've had in 2022. But I think at the same time, we need to be in touch with our local markets. We need to be focused on the local markets and things could change fairly rapidly. Are we seeing the proposal activity level going down at the moment? No. Are we winning more than our share of work at the moment? Yes. Are we feeling good about the backlog that we have? Absolutely. We're very pleased about that. Obviously when you're faced with a potential recession, you gotta be cautious about it and you have to be, you know, in touch, as I said before, with your local market. We are going to monitor that in 2023. For now, I can tell you that, you know, we're performing very well and there's a lot of activity going on at the moment. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jacob. Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Once again, it's star one and then one on your telephone. We are now going to proceed with the next question. The question's come from the line of Jonathan Lamers from LB Securities. Please ask your question. Good morning. Good morning, Jonathan. If I could ask the organic growth question a different way. Year to date, the organic growth has been well above the initial guidance that was provided in March. Could you comment on where it has been stronger versus your forecast? If you could comment on inflation volume, that'd be helpful. I could take that one, Jonathan. The first comment I would make, just be careful when you look at year-to-date results on growth. Need to remind ourselves that our Q1, if you remember, we had additional billable days. So when you normalize that, your growth of 8% that we see year to date is coming down by about two full percentage points, so about 6%, which is on the higher end of our range that we have announced in March. For us, the performance that you see thus far is reflective of, you know, higher end of the range performance we were planning at the beginning of the year. I think Alain indicated this in his address. I think in Q4 we'll have fewer billable days. When you look at our outlook, on an annual basis, it's going to fall within the disclosed outlook, and we're confident it's going to fall into the disclosed outlook or revised outlook that we provided you with today. At the same time, there's a recognition that it's going to be in the higher end of the range of the outlook. In some fashions, we are obviously very pleased with the way the year has been going on for us. Okay. Thanks for your comments. Thank you, Jonathan. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions or comment, please press star one and then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Once again, it's star one and then one on your telephone. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The next question comes from Ian Gillies from Stifel. Please ask your question. Morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning, Ian. This is a bit of an out-of-the-box question. Staffing has obviously been a challenge, and acquiring talent and adding talent has obviously been a key focus for some time. When I look across the landscape of these tech companies and engineering companies doing layoffs, do you see any opportunity to add any of those people into the fold for the work that you do? Or, I guess the core competency is just too different, and does it create any sort of opportunity for automation within your business or things of that nature? Look, I'm not sure, Ian, that this is well known, but by our investment community or by the investment community. WSP is not just, and there's nothing wrong with that, by the way, but it's no longer just an engineering firm. That's why we're talking about being a consulting firm. I think today, our workforce, it's one of the most diverse workforce that you could find in a management consulting business. We have economists, we have financial analysts, we have biologists, we have scientists, we have tech experts, we have IT engineers, we have. Of course, we are taking advantage of what's going on in the workforce and in the labor market. More importantly, we are taking advantage of our brand to attract the smartest and brightest individuals in our industry, but also outside of our industry. That's what we've been applying ourselves to do for a long time. I think it's paying off. I think we've attracted high caliber individuals to the organization. You're right that we are now in a position to expand the scope of services that we are offering to our clients. From digital offering all the way down to detailed design work that we've done and we're known for. Okay. That's helpful. The other concept I wanted to touch on was on the Earth & Environment side, and whether there's any updated views on, I guess, how much of a project is taken up by permitting Earth & Environment type work today versus five years ago, just as a rule of thumb, because it's obviously increasing in importance. Social acceptability, Ian, is now. It's no longer, you know, an option, it's a prerequisite. It's a requirement. So there's nothing that is being built unless there's been some impact studies being conducted and there's been the proper permitting being secured. So life has changed, and it's never gonna come back to what we used to know, like 20, 10, a decade ago, even 20 years ago. The whole thesis behind growing a leading platform in the Earth & Environment is because we wanted to be there at the beginning of a project where we could advise and support our clients, and then bring the scope of services that we can offer to our clients so that we can deliver, you know, a future-ready project. Meaning that, you know, we design today, but with the future in mind. Being there early on in the process is, for us, very, very important. That's why in 2017, 2018, we chose to take an aggressive stance on this and grow a platform accordingly. Okay. If I could sneak in one more with respect to the U.K. In the MD&A, I believe you noted double-digit organic growth for the last number of quarters. There's obviously been a change in leadership there. There seems to be a lot going on in that market. When do you think you start to get a sense of where the spending cuts are gonna come and the impacts on your business? I think it's gonna happen fairly soon. I think there's a mini budget that will be announced. I don't know. I think if my memory is not failing me, I think it's November 17th or something like that. I think we'll know more at this time. Obviously, we are extremely pleased with the way our UK business has been performing, and frankly, our Central European business has been performing. For me, this goes into the column of very pleased and in some ways above my expectations. We have an incredible business in the U.K.. We have, in my personal opinion, a leading platform over there. We have probably one, if not the most diverse platform in the U.K.. We are in a position, you know, to win in all of the segments. If the private sector and should the planning advisory sector is cooling off and, you know, in a recession, you would need to expect that. Well, I believe that in our public sector exposure, we will be able to compensate in some ways, you know, the cool down or the cooling off of perhaps, you know, the private sector and the planning sector, for instance. To be seen, and I promise you to update you on a quarterly basis as I see it. For now, I mean, we're extremely pleased with the way our cluster EMEA has been performing in 2022. Okay. Thank you very much. I'll turn the call back over. Thank you. Thanks, Ian. We are now going to proceed with our next question. It's from the line of Michael Tupholme from TD Securities. Please ask your question. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, Mike. Hello, Michael. Good morning. First question, just another question regarding the organic growth outlook as we look ahead to next year. I know you're still in your 2023 budgeting process and obviously there's a degree of heightened uncertainty around the broader economic outlook at the moment, so that kinda clouds things presumably. Wondering if you can talk about what end markets and/or what regions you're most upbeat about in terms of organic growth as you look ahead to next year. We are going to update you in more details at the end of Q4, Michael. Obviously, I think you look at the backlog that we have in North America, I have to admit that I'm feeling good about our North American market. It's been a very strong market in 2022. Given like the announcements that have been made by respective federal governments in the U.S. and in Canada, obviously, it's difficult not to feel good about the prospect. I'm not prepared just yet to say that, you know, our European countries are going to go through a very difficult time next year. I think, you know, with what we know today, we're also going in, still feeling good about EMEA. Similarly, I think Asia Pacific has had a good organic growth year by all standards. We hope that this will continue next year. All in all, as I said during my address at the beginning, I think, you know, you look at the financial ambitions that we have set for the company in February for the next three years and, in my personal opinion, at this point in time, there are absolutely no reason why we should change course. I'm feeling good about the business and I'm feeling good about the team that we have, the leaders that we have, and I'm confident that we're gonna find a way to deliver on the ambitions that we have set for the company at this time. I'm actually feeling very good about it. Oh, that's helpful. Thanks, Alex. I guess second question. In your prepared remarks, you mentioned that the integration of the company's recently acquired businesses is going well. Just wondering if you can provide any more detail on that process, and particularly as it relates to the larger E&I acquisition. Yeah. I think the first thing that we've applied ourselves to do is really to look into the leadership of our Earth & Environment business globally. We need to remember that we have now, you know, over 20,000 expert people in this sector. This is a very large segment of WSP, is now representing more than, you know, it's like 32%-33% of our company. This is not de minimis, and this is a sector that is having a great impact on our company. We need to remember that just three or four years ago, we had about 300 people in environment in the U.S., now we have more than 6,000 leaders and professionals working in Earth & Environment in the U.S. alone. We needed a strong leader to take the lead for this business. I thought that Joseph Sczurko, the previous CEO of our Wood E&I business, was the best leader to take our 6,000 professionals on the journey of success. We've applied ourselves to make sure that, you know, we're ready for action, we're ready to win work and making sure that people are aligned. Today, I can tell you that our Canadian business is very well positioned to win in the marketplace. Equally now, I feel we have the structure in the U.S. to make an impact. I'm feeling very good about the acquisition at this time. All right. That's helpful. Thank you, Alex. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question come from the line of Maxim Sytchev from National Bank Financial. Please ask your question. Hi. Good morning, gentlemen, and solid quarter. Alex, I was wondering if you can comment maybe on sort of the M&A pipeline and maybe sort of expectations from sellers if we're seeing a little bit less PE interest. Yeah, maybe just any color or perhaps it differs by market. Thanks. Yeah. Look, well, Max, first and foremost, I mean, given the six acquisitions that we've completed already this year, I feel we're probably ahead on our plan. If we look at the strategic ambitions that we had set. I think it's been a very successful year so far. Obviously, I think the pipeline is still very healthy. Obviously, you know, I'm sure you've heard me saying that many times before. It's very difficult to time acquisitions. Sometimes they're coming as a bunch, and some other times it takes you a bit, you know, it takes a while for transactions to materialize. I feel we have a very good pipeline. I'm still having very informal and sometimes more formal discussions with some companies. I'm confident that, given the strong balance sheet that we have with our recent fundraise, going into 2023, with the integration of E&I going very well, that we are gonna be able to be opportunistic in a market like this. You said it yourself, I think, given the interest rate, given the market, I think that the strategics have and will have, at some point in time, an advantage. WSP just wanna be ready in position to take advantage of that. We just need to be patient, and not get excited or really excited and wait for the right opportunity to come along. If we are patient and stay focused and disciplined on our strategy, I'm confident that that will happen. Right. Okay, excellent. Then just a couple of other small ones. I think in past quarters, you mentioned, you know, data centers being sort of a growth driver for buildings. I'm wondering right now if I guess how big of a market that is, and given the tech spending sort of curtailments, if we should expect any sort of deceleration to actually show up in the numbers or other verticals picking up the slack. Thanks. Yeah. I don't expect a slowdown anytime soon. This is a practice that we started initially in North America, and we continue to expand in North America very rapidly. What's been amazing with the few acquisitions that we completed in recent years is now we have been able to export this expertise on the European continent and also in Asia. We are doing a lot of work for the Facebook and the Google of the world in Europe and Germany and elsewhere, but also in Singapore and in Asia and Asia Pacific. I think this has been, you know, a very good example of two-three small acquisitions that turned out to be a great springboard for us to export this expertise as a center of excellence from one location to many other locations in our network. I expect this to continue. Okay, excellent points. Lastly, just in terms of the mining space, obviously Golder was, you know, very strong in that. Seems to be, you know, still a pretty decent market. Just wondering if you can provide any comments there in terms of that vertical specifically. Thanks. Yeah. Look, your question is so timely. Yesterday was our board, and we had Kevin Beauchamp presenting at our board on the mining sector. I'm personally and as a company, we're still very bullish around the mining sector. The opportunity around ESG are so tremendous, Max. Again, I think given our acquisition of Golder, E&I and all of the recent acquisitions we did in climate change and the people we were able to recruit, it's not just about providing design work for the mining sector, it's about supporting the, those C-suites, the C-suites of those companies and the transition, the green transition of this industry. Let's remember that that's an industry that is becoming more and more sophisticated. That's certainly an industry that we are proud to be part of. The growth profile for next year should be equally good as far as we are concerned. Obviously, we don't have a crystal ball, but we're feeling good about it. Excellent. Thank you. That's it for me. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question is from the line of Frederic Bastien from Raymond James. Please ask your question. Bon matin. Bon matin, Frederic. Bon matin, Fred. Guys, you've been flagging the Middle East as an area of strength for quite some time, but I recall this region slowing down dramatically when oil prices rolled over seven-eight years ago. How different or how resilient are your activities in the Middle East now? I think I would say over the last, like right after the 2014 downturn in the oil and gas sector, Fred, we've taken a very cautious approach to the region. Well, we took a very cautious approach to the region, and we've been extremely selective in the way we pursue work. I also have been quite demanding in the prepayment that we have been requiring in order for to pursue work. If today you look at our DSO compared to where they were seven, eight years ago, I mean, there's no comparison. Today, this is a region where we're generating margins that are essentially in line with the average margin profile that we generate as a company. We have a DSO profile that is essentially close, if not at the average of what we're able to achieve globally. We have organic growth that perhaps it's a bit lower than what we generally generate globally for the reasons that I just explained. We are very disciplined as an organization, and we are very selective in the projects that we undertake. Over time, we've transformed the business, and we do a lot more project management work and owner's engineer work than perhaps the detailed design work that we used to do in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. Over time, we have transformed the organization. For all those reasons, I think we are doing well in the region. We have memories of the past, and we don't forget that, so we are extremely careful in the way we are selecting projects. That's good to hear, Alex. Thanks. Now moving on to Sweden. It's been a relatively quiet region for WSP recently, but momentum seems to be picking up there. Can you discuss what's driving that? Yeah, we Contradiction to what you were seeing out there. We promoted a new leader actually almost a year ago, a bit more than a year ago. Obviously, it takes time for the leader to you know just to turn the corner and get ready to execute. That leader is a Golder executive, so she is known to us. This was an internal promotion, and we're working closely with Anna-Lena, and she's doing a very good job, an amazing job. We're very committed to the region. We need to remember that the Nordics, WSP is one of the only international firm to have a leadership position in that part of the world. We're very committed to the region. It's an incredible place to do business. Obviously, we all know what's happening in the world right now. We're very focused on this and we're watching the market very closely. At the same time, we know that we have a good business there, and we continue to deliver. I'm sorry. Yes. Great. Thanks. Keep it going, guys. Thank you. Thanks, Fred. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question is from the line of Sabahat Khan from RBC. Please ask your question. Great. Thanks, and good morning. I guess just wanted to get a little bit of color on what you're seeing out there on sort of the pricing discussions that you're having. Presumably, you know, for this last year, maybe into 2023, your backlog does reflect some of the inflation that you've experienced. You know, as you're having discussions about the pipeline beyond sort of 12 months, you know, how are you seeing the pricing trends there? Are they starting to sort of come back to kinda call it normal levels? Just wanna get perspective on that part of the, kind of the outlook. Look, I think our industry is not any different from what we are experiencing globally. I mean, inflation at 7%-8%. I mean, to suggest or to sit here and tell you that it's not having an impact on pricing in an industry, I think would just not be very honest. So obviously, I said that on the last call, inflation is not good news for anybody. There's no good news in times of inflation. Having said all that, WSP, we are able to engage with our client base and are able to negotiate rates that are essentially reflective of the environment in which we operate at the moment. On top of it, we need to remember that, I would say, in excess of 90% of our costs are variable costs. That too is something that we keep in mind and we watch for. I think in order to preserve and defend the margin profile, there are many levers that we need to action, from amendments with clients and negotiation with clients to increase realization, to making sure that, you know, we're very strong in our recruitment process and are leading the way in that regard, and also are frugal in the way we manage the business. I think there's not one single solution for us to increase our margin profile this year. It's many levers, and I think we're fairly focused on all of them at the moment. Okay, great. Then just maybe following up on your last comment there. You know, it sounds like from the commentary, demand is still good. You're still sort of hiring, but how are you sort of balancing the addition of new folks to make sure you have enough versus just maybe not hiring too much? I don't know if the concept of contract work exists for some of the employees, given their what they do, but just wanna get your idea of how you're sort of managing that. Well, depending on which sector you're looking at, absolutely we have contract work. Especially in field work. When the summer season is over, I mean, those contractual workers are going to leave the business, and it's been like that for as long as I remember. Look, this is a balancing act. You don't wanna get ahead of yourself, especially in time of inflation. There's a danger as an organization that you could get ahead of yourself and that you're either hiring too much or increasing your costs too much, especially in the face of a potential recession. We're very focused in making sure that we are filling positions for project-ready work. Obviously, given our track record at recruiting people, we wanna wait to get a clear green light from the clients on backlog projects and self backlog projects before we do anything. We are quite careful about this. Okay, one last quick one. If we can, I know you've got an ERP implementation going on, you've got a new leader in the tech space. Maybe just an update on kind of what part of that ERP process has been completed to date. Sure. Thank you, Sabahat, for that question. It's you know it's a project where first of all, we're building a global platform for all our regions. It's not a regional specific design solution. What we've been working on for the last little while, last year actually, was to design this global template that every region will now use going forward. This is essentially completed. We're now focusing our effort on rolling out this platform in the first region. We're still on plan for rolling out in early 2023. It's going well. The team is excited. We actually have our team from the Canadian rollout in Montreal this week. There's the team also that's starting to get ready for rollout in the U.S. and in the U.K., that's also collaborating that are here in Montreal as well. There's actually a good vibe. It's a lot of hard work. You know, we obviously remain cautious and disciplined on this project. Things are going well, and the dashboard currently is looking good on this project. Sorry, if I could just squeeze in one more, I guess. Would you be bringing the Wood business onto this platform or are they already on a similar platform, the E&I business? We're assessing this. They're on a different platform now. The plan is to roll them in on the new platform as well. Thanks very much. Yeah. Thank you. We are now done with the session for today. Now we'll pass it back to WSP for concluding remarks. Thank you. Thank you so much for attending this call. We look forward to updating you on our 2023 operating plan in Q4 of this year. Again, if you do have any questions related to this quarter or any other questions, please feel free to reach out to Quentin or Alain or myself, offline. Thank you very much, and I wish you a great day. Bye-bye. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.