Fortis Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Carol and I will be your conference operator today. Welcome to the Fortis third quarter 2020 conference call and webcast. During the call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. There will be a question and answer session following the presentation. At that time, those with questions should press star followed by one on their telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Stephanie Amaymo. Please go ahead, Ms. Amaymo.

Thanks, Carol, and good morning, everyone. And welcome to Fortis' third quarter 2020 results conference call. I'm joined by Barry Perry, President and CEO, David Hutchins, COO, Jocelyn Perry, Executive VP and CFO, other members of the senior management team as well as CEOs from certain subsidiaries. Before I begin today's call, I want to remind you that the discussion will include forward-looking information, which is subject to the cautionary statement contained in the supporting slideshow. Actual results can differ materially from the forecast projections included in the forward-looking information presented today. All non-GAAP financial measures referenced in our prepared remarks are reconciled to the related U.S. GAAP financial measures in our third quarter 2020 MD&A. Also, unless otherwise specified, all financial information references in Canadian dollars. With that, I will turn the call over to Barry.

Thank you, Stephanie, and good morning, everyone. If you participated in our virtual five-year Outlook conference call last month, you know it was a busy third quarter for Fortis. Key highlights from our September 23rd call included the announcement of my retirement as President and CEO at the end of this year, and David Hutchinson's appointment as President and CEO effective January 1st, 2021. We also rolled out our new five-year capital plan, announced a fourth quarter 2020 dividend increase, and extended our 6% average annual dividend growth target through 2025. On the sustainability front, we announced a corporate-wide target to reduce our carbon emissions by 75% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels. Maintaining safe operations remains our priority. Our September year-to-date safety results were strong, with incidents tracking in excess of 30% below our three-year average. When you consider that historically we performed better than the industry averages, it's encouraging knowing we continue to improve our safety performance during the pandemic while working on our largest capital program in history. Operationally, our teams have worked diligently to deliver reliable service in 2020. Notably, in August, the ITC team responded to restore transmission service following the historic windstorm in Iowa. As a result, approximately 1,200 miles of lines were damaged by the storm, ranging from mild damage to towers laying on the ground. In response, the ITC team mobilized nearly 800 utility workers to rebuild the grid safely and quickly. I'm proud of our teams across the organization as they continue to deliver safe and reliable service, positioning Fortis to finish the year strong. With that said, let me hand the call over to David Hutchins for an operational update and more detail on our new five-year outlook.