North American Construction Group Ltd

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the North American Construction Group earnings call. For the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity for the analysts, shareholders, and bondholders to ask questions. The media may monitor this call in a listen-only mode. They are free to quote any member of the management, but they are asked not to quote remarks from any participant without the participant's permission. The company wishes to confirm that today's comments contain forward-looking information, and the actual results could differ materially from a conclusion, forecast, or projection contained in a forward-looking information. Certain material factors or assumptions were applied in drawing conclusions or in making forecasts or projections that are reflected in the forward-looking information. Additional information about those material factors is contained in the company's most recent management discussion and analysis, which is available on CDAR and EDGAR, as well as on the company's website at nacg.ca. I will now turn the conference over to Jason Winstra, CFO.

Thanks, Peter. Good morning, everyone. Joe Lambert, our President and CEO, is on the call here with us, but unfortunately is dealing with a rib injury, and therefore will be saving his energy for the Q&A session. He's asked that I deliver these prepared remarks, which we have shortened up a bit this quarter, given the one speaker approach. I'll start out with safety, then give a brief overview of the quarter, and then close out with our expectations for Q4 and a few subject areas for 2022 before Joe and I take any questions you may have. Slide four is our safety performance. Our recordable injury rate remains flat as we are again generally at our pre-pandemic workforce level, but need to continue to work in finding ways to engage our management and workforce to improve processes and practices and consequently lower the rate. We have put in additional training and effort into our green hand program as our headcount growth generally comes with less experienced operators. This is nothing new to us, but reinforces our need for training teams and ingraining our safety culture into all facets of the business. Our one word overview of the quarter would be transitional. Operational performance at all our sites was particularly strong and conditions were fairly steady throughout the three months. The macro factors outside of our control remain present and continue to hamper our top line potential, but we will uphold all safety and risk mitigation protocols for as long as it takes. Our oil sands work transition between different mine sites as Q3 experienced major fleet remobilization to commence recent project wins. Although we suffer a bit of utilization loss during these transitions, these fleets are now set up for, at a minimum, a couple years of 24-7 work. Speaking of transition and regarding these recent wins, it can be noted that we transitioned the majority of this work to our Miccosu joint venture, which is a win-win. For us, the producers in the region, and of course the Miccosukee First Nation. Our infrastructure, external maintenance and work in other resource areas are also transitioning. The Fargo Moorhead project reached financial close and is transitioning to project commencement and a more operational focus. The team at the Northern Ontario Gold Mine has transitioned to peak levels and our external maintenance program is transitioning to much higher capacities with the main shop expansion being completed on time and on budget, and now moving directly into a further expansion of our component rebuild facility. The financial review begins on slide 10. We have changed things up slightly this quarter, and moving forward, we'll be disclosing what we have termed as total combined revenues. For those of you that have followed us over the past few years, you'll know that the impact of our joint ventures has grown from zero in Q3 2018, only three short years ago, to what we see today, where in Q3 2021, approximately 35% of combined gross profit came from our share of the various joint ventures. Given the number of stakeholders involved, these joint ventures are incredibly complex in nature. But as we state in our Q3 financial report, our goal is to simplify our disclosure for the readers of these financials. Our intention is for reported revenue to reflect our wholly owned entities with all other revenue and gross profit flowing through equity earnings. For clarity, we have restated our results to ensure all comparables are accurate. So with all that said, total combined revenue for the quarter of $209 million was $90 million or 72% ahead of last year's Q3, which again is proving to be a difficult quarter to compare against for the pandemic reasons we are all aware of. The $209 million is actually a quarterly record for us as it slightly beat out the pre-pandemic quarter of Q1 2020. That said, Revenue came in generally as expected as the quarter enjoyed consistent operating conditions. Revenue achieved in the quarter was not driven by one specific factor, but by the broad listing of mine sites and business lines, which all continue to trend in the right direction. The Millennium, Curl, and Syncrude mines have maintained their demand recovery trends, and we continue to witness firsthand the long-term resiliency of the oil sands region. The remobilized fleet at the Ford Hills mine had a full quarter of operations, and we remain very excited to be back on that site as they ramp up to full production. Traditionally, utilization of our fleet in the summer months is lower than Q1 and Q4, but the 52% operating utilization achieved in Q3 was impacted by the real-world difficulties of workforce shortages, which we continue to experience. Revenue from our joint ventures of $43 million was an obvious record, beating last quarter's record by 20%, and was primarily driven by achieving full capacity at the gold mine in northern Ontario. Combined gross profit of 15.6% is a noticeable improvement from the Q2 equivalent margin of 12.4%, despite a decrease in support from the wage subsidy program. We are encouraged by the margins achieved in Q3, and they are trending in the right direction. Even as we continue to face pressure from additional costs, we need to incur related to isolation and quarantine protocols. We estimate that these factors decrease gross margin around $3 million, primarily due to workforce vacancies, but also the additional direct costs we incur. Moving to slide 11. Adjusted EBITDA of $47.5 million was up 28% for Q3 on the revenue factors mentioned already. The margin of 22.7%, which reflects total combined revenue, is a strong achievement across many business lines and indicative of where we see ourselves as trending in the right direction, but with improvements still possible. Included in EBITDA is direct general and administrative expenses in the quarter of $7.1 million, equivalent to 4.3% of revenue. This spending percentage is consistent with expectation and the slight uptick in expense relates to the G&A spending in Australia of DGI trading. Our low G&A rate continues to be achieved through cost discipline and strict attention paid to discretionary and non-essential spending. Going from EBITDA to EBIT, we expense depreciation equivalent to 11.2% of revenue, which reflected the depreciation rate of our entire business. When looking at just the wholly owned entities and our heavy equipment fleet, which many of you are used to us talking about, the depreciation percentage for the quarter was 13% and reflected an effective use of our fleet this quarter. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter of 50 cents was driven by $24.1 million from adjusted EBIT net of interest and taxes. Interest specifically continues to hold, posting a 4.3% rate and a $4.5 million cash expense in the quarter. We continue to benefit from both posted bank rates as well as competitive rates in equipment financing. Moving to slide 12, I'll summarize our cash flow. Net cash provided by operations of $32 million was produced by the business and includes the impact of non-cash balances that aren't immediately apparent. Given the neutral working capital result in the quarter, the difference between this figure and EBITDA, besides of course interest, is the accumulation of cash in our joint ventures which typically declare dividends in Q4. Sustaining maintenance capital of $19.8 million was dedicated to the maintenance of the existing fleet in anticipation of what we see as being a very busy winter season. Moving to our balance sheet on slide 13, liquidity of $190 million reflects our strong liquidity position this year as we benefit from the issuance of $75 million of convertible debentures early in June. On a trailing 12-month basis, our senior leverage ratio, as calculated by our credit facility, is now at 1.6 times. Net debt levels remain consistent over the three months as the free cash flow generated in the quarter was used for the initial cash acquisition costs to purchase DGI trading. On slide 14, we have provided our current debt composition, which is conveniently split into three primary buckets being our credit facility, equipment financing, and convertible debentures. With the extension now out to October 2024 and the strength of our current leverage ratios, we have no near-term financing decisions on our plate at the moment. Moving along to slide 16, you will see our Q4 priorities. This slide provides insight into the immediate objectives that we are currently focused on, and you will see them coming up again as they relate to our 2022 outlook. On slide 17, we have provided our guidance for 2021. Of note, and of course, is an increases to EBITDA and EPS, which are primarily driven by our expectations of the Fargo-Moorhead project now that it has officially reached financial close. The initial quarter of this complex project is challenging to forecast, and this is reflected in the ranges we have provided. Furthermore, given the cash distribution profile of the two joint ventures managing that project, we have left the free cash flow range constant. We couldn't be more excited about the prospects for this project, but it is difficult to estimate the exact cash timing of how the joint ventures will distribute cash. Looking out to 2022, on slide 19, we have started with our equipment utilization chart. This is such a critical KPI for us and one that we'll track closely for 2022. As was mentioned earlier, we had strong demand, but fleet mobilization and some opportune pre-winter maintenance items made the Q2 to Q3 gains quite modest. We fully expect pre-pandemic levels going forward and being more closely following our longer-term trend line. Slide 20 highlights the major milestone win of the infrastructure project in our Red River Alliance with Axiona and Chacon Invenui. As the largest infrastructure project in company history, we have, of course, identified the success of this project as critical to our longer-term goals. We have prioritized the manning, planning, fleet management, and procurement work with the goal of a smooth project start when we commence earthworks in the spring. We have mentioned previously that we can leverage projects like this. The flood diversion project here in Alberta, the Springbank Reservoir project in Calgary to be more specific, is an example of this. We are pleased to say our partnership with the same Quebec company we were bidding the Quebec mining projects with has qualified to bid on Springbank and we are looking forward to submitting a competitive bid early next year. On slide 21, we reiterate and show the progress of our diversification strategy. As we've consistently messaged, we expect to grow diversification while growing and supporting our long-term oil sands clients with high utilization of our large fleet while at the same time improving the utilization of smaller fleet outside the oil sands region. Slide 22 is self-explanatory and we would note that the increasing awards are coming with longer terms and create a multiplying effect on backlog. Slide 23 highlights our robust bid pipeline. Two tenders we would highlight are again the Springbank Reservoir Project which after many years of starts and stops is now moving forward with RFP for submittal. And the other is a return of one of the Quebec mining contracts which we originally thought we had lost. We have re-tendered this project with our same Quebec partners and are looking forward to seeing the outcome. Slide 24 highlights some of our operational ESG initiatives. As you can see, we are putting a major focus on the emission side of our business. Solar power, idle reduction, machine monitoring are all areas we can get quick, tangible emission reductions with existing technology. Longer term, we are looking at alternative fuels, electric vehicles, and hybrids for emission reduction. We established fleet fuel measurement processes here in 2021 and will set baselines and targets for our 2022 program. On slide 25, we highlight our continued push for a more diversified workforce. We have great training and development programs and can teach safety and proficiency in all areas of our business. Slide 26, highlights the growth in our Indigenous partnerships. This structure continues to grow in the mining industry as it's a win-win for all parties. There is a direct correlation between our partnerships' top-line growth and the benefits received by the Indigenous communities they represent. Lastly, but certainly not least, is our quantitative 2022 outlook. contained on slide 27. We believe this slide, again, albeit quantitatively, illustrates the success we have achieved by sticking with our strategy and our commitment to be the safe, low-cost, sustainable contractor. The outlook is predicated on operational excellence and we couldn't be more excited heading into what we consider to be a landmark year for NACG. As Joe mentioned in his letter to shareholders, and while we all knew we were part of building something very impressive, the ability for us to project out earnings in the range of 215 to 255 is the result of a decade's worth of steady momentum. We fully understand the need to execute, but feel confident that we have the people, the projects, the contracts, and the equipment in place to do so. I will now hand the call back to Peter for the Q&A session.

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star 1 on your touchstone phone. Again, that is star 1. If you wish to withdraw your question, you can press the pound sign. Once you have completed your questions and would like to return to the queue, please press star 1 again. After a brief pause, we will begin the Q&A session. And your first question will come from Tim Monacello with ATB Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Morning, Tim. I'm just wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on the guidance range for 2022. What What type of scenarios do you contemplate when you think about the lower end and also the higher end?

I'd say more than anything else it's utilization on the smaller end of our fleet where we have less commitment. Almost all of our, you know, plus 150 ton trucks are committed. So it's really that stuff and some are works that may or may not have more materials and And lastly, I'd say our joint ventures and our partnerships and their opportunities to grow.

Okay. Do you need to gain any new work to get to that higher end? Or is it just all about sort of efficiencies then?

It's newer work, but it's more work that doesn't get committed to until spring typically for the lower utilized end of our fleet, which sits in the summer. more so than winter. So, you know, I think from now through March or April, we're, you know, I think 90 plus percent booked on what we plan versus what we have in that outlook. And, you know, the opportunity is getting more and better utilization than historical in, in summer or other works. So for achieving what we have, we certainly don't need any more. But if there's other opportunities to come, we'll, We'll certainly assess them as they come to.

OK. Guidance for 2021 was up. Looks like you guys are expecting a pretty strong Q4. I imagine some of that has to do with revenue being earned on the Fargo-Moorhead project. Is there anything else going into Q4 that's making it look super strong?

The MOB and DMOB we saw impacting us in Q3, has set us up well on the jobs for winter. There's no significant MOB or DMOB happening in Q4. So often we would have MOBs and DMOBs happening in November between jobs, between summer and winter jobs. And so I think that's the primary driver.

Okay, got it. And last one for me here. You mentioned in the MDNA just some impacts from COVID-related, I guess, isolations, I would assume, which impacted your labor availability in Q3. Is that mitigating in Q4 to what extent? And could you speak just a little bit about the labor market year that you're looking at currently and what you're expecting in 2022?

I guess we continue to expect the COVID protocols to loosen. Our impacts in Q3 were more related to direct cases as there's more vaccinated people. So, you know, vaccinated people didn't have to, if they were not symptomatic, they weren't quarantining for 14 days like you would have seen in Q2 or before. And, you know, we fully expect as there's more vaccinations going forward, we're going to see less impact on the COVID protocols. And what was the second question again, Tim?

Just around labor markets.

Yeah, I think we're still feeling some impact. We've always had issues with the heavy equipment technicians. We are seeing difficulties ramping up. I, again, think it's mostly because of the travel restrictions. And, you know, this isn't anything unusual for us in oil sands. given the, you know, booms of previous times, this is areas where our training and recruiting is set up for. So we do expect some impacts in Q4, but it's nothing we're not used to mitigating.

Okay. Do you think there's any risk to Q1 activity levels around just being able to staff equipment?

No, you know, whatever we get rolling in, Here in Q4, we'll continue going through the Q1 side. So, you know, whatever impacts we have on the recruiting side, we'll know pretty soon. And I think, you know, generally we've been able to mitigate those in the past, and I think once you get them there, they're there, right?

Okay. Appreciate the details. I'll turn it back. No worries.

And your next question will come from Brian Fast with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning, guys. I just wanted to get your sense on how the structure of, I guess, the multiple use and multiple service agreements have changed over time, specifically whether you're seeing the desire for those contracts to be longer-term commitments than you've seen in the past.

Well, what I'd say is that, Brian, the... The base contracts are exactly the same. The awards within them, you know, this is going back about four or five years ago where we really got the first long-term overburden commitment awarded under an MSA. And, you know, I believe that client's seen the value in that, and we're seeing that expand. So what used to be a five-year MSA that might get a, six-month or a one-year overburden award underneath it, you know, now gets a two-year overburden award or longer because they want that fleet committed.

Okay, that's good color.

Big driver in our backlog too, Brian. That's, you know, in my notes there where I was talking about the multiplying effect, it's not just getting the award, it's getting longer-term ones.

Right, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And then just on telematics, just on the strategy going forward there and really how could this impact the margin profile longer term?

Yeah, I mean, we've got about, I think, 70 units of 150 planned for year-end and then ultimately upwards of potentially 800 of our fleet in. And, you know, from ESG to operating costs, Telemetry is a pretty exciting area. It's just early days. I'd like to be able to get some reporting out and show you what the real-life impacts of these are, but being able to monitor your idle, being able to trigger automatic machine actions instead of operator or mechanic actions, being able to monitor the components and the characteristics of a failure before it happens, and identify those things are, you know, all areas that help extend component lines, improve operations. There's also many areas of the reporting side of telematics, be it, you know, just the GPS or the tonnage reports or the cycle times from an operating perspective that are advantageous. So, you know, ESG, operating efficiency, maintenance, component costs, it's got a lot of different areas that can drive the, opportunities for us in.

Okay, thanks.

That's it for me. Thanks, Brian.

Your next question will come from Maxim Saitkev with National Bank Financial. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning, gentlemen.

Morning, Max.

Joan, I hope you feel better. So a couple of questions for me. In terms of when we think about the winter work visibility in the oil sands, do you mind maybe just comparing how that outlook right now is stacking versus 2019, so pre-pandemic? Are we back to basically to normal, or how should we think about that bucket?

I would, as far as this winter, yeah, I would absolutely say we're back to pre-pandemic. And normals being that 2019, which was a significant area of growth and opportunity for us. It's definitely a fully booked order for winter, I'd say.

Okay, that's good to hear. And then overall, in terms of the bid pipeline, do you mind maybe talking outside of oil sands, how that pipeline compares to maybe now versus nine months ago, if it's possible? Sure.

Yeah, you know, we're seeing a bit more infrastructure, certainly the Springbank Dam one. We don't see a high frequency of the infrastructure jobs, so it's great to see it. You know, if we have one or two at a time, it's great. I'd say we're still seeing a lot of different commodity areas. Recently I've heard, you know, areas of U.S. mining that are inquiring, early stages mining, But, you know, it's an extremely strong commodity market. So from gold to iron ore to coal to whatever, you know, I think we'll continue to see bid opportunities. I'd say the pipeline is probably at or slightly higher than what it was nine months ago just because of that. And we report kind of a combined us and Nuna because we actually bid things together in that pipeline. And so, you know, I think it's extremely strong and not just from a size standpoint, but from a diversification standpoint, I think it will give us great opportunities. This is typically a slow time now, kind of now between now and early spring, other than possibly the Spring Bank Dam one. There's not a lot of awards that happen there, but we do still expect a significant bidding activity during that time frame.

Right. Okay. No, that's super helpful. And then just maybe a couple of cleanup questions for Jason, if I may. Jason, in terms of the Fargo Moorhead, in relation to, I know that you're not commenting on sort of cashflow dynamics specifically, but because it's, you know, a P3 project, how should we think about sort of the investment on working capital on your side and then kind of the milestones? Do you mind maybe just kind of working through the mechanics there if it's possible?

Yeah. So the way it's financed is, There will be no working capital required of the joint venture partner, so it won't affect us from a working capital perspective. Where you'll see it accumulate is that investment in affiliates and on the balance sheet, but really what that means is as we book earnings, the cash may not come with it. It might be delayed, but that's where the delay would happen. The tricky part for year-end is on December 31st, we'll have to determine a percentage of completion, particularly for the CJV, which is the construction JV, and that's where we see some uncertainty and we're not exactly sure where that will get assessed. However, whatever percentage of completion is determined, that's how much net income we would report as adjusted EPS.

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you so much. And then I wanted to ask you about the rebuild activity that you perform for third parties. I presume given some of the OEM constraints right now that should be very robust business, do you mind maybe commenting if you have enough parts to be able to undertake all this work?

Yeah, you know, we haven't had any issues so far, Max. There is some hints of some shipping and cost going higher, especially sea transport. And we have seen with certain vendors certain items that seem to be on back order longer than normal. I don't think we've seen anything systematic. Certainly we've been doing quite a few second life rebuilds and have a few in the shop right now. We're doing more for our partnership as a first priority in our Manal partnership, but we're also doing quite a few for customers and clients in the oil sands, and we've done a few for outside oil sands. We'll get some of those numbers in front of you here pretty quick because I think it's a really exciting time because we are approaching, I don't know if you remember, but when we first built the office and shop, I talked about an ability to generate about 30 million of external maintenance out of there. And then obviously we've had a few things like COVID interrupt that. And I think we're going to be very close to that level this year, and I think we're going to have opportunity to exceed that next year. And certainly in the expansion of our remanufacturing side, you know, and looking at bringing some hydraulic components into there, you know, it's because we've got great demand on our own side. and increasing demand from external. So we've done a lot more track frames, a lot more rebuilds for external maintenance than we have in quite a while.

Okay, that's helpful. And actually, I just want to follow up, if I may, in terms of the shipping cost. Will this be impacting DGI's business, or is that a pass-through on a client basis?

It's predominantly a pass-through. I think one thing it'll do, it'll just drive us to look for sourcing closer to... to your customers. So, you know, if DGI has a Canadian customer, they're going to try and source equipment in Canada. If they've got an Australian customer, they're going to try and source in Australia because it's mostly the overseas shipping side that's the most problematic.

Right. Okay, that's super helpful. Thank you so much. That's it for me.

No worries, Max. Thanks.

Your next question will come from Aaron McNeil with TD Securities. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Morning, Aaron. In the context of your guidance, you obviously speak to capital allocation priorities in 2021, but you kind of leave it blank in 2022. So I guess I would just ask how you rank the usual suspects, like organic growth, capital acquisitions, debt reduction, and CIDD. or dividend increases. Any updated thoughts there?

We're going to have those discussions predominantly with our board in our next board meeting where we go through our strategy. And part of what we talked about, this being a transitional quarter, it's kind of pushed that off. Typically, we would be having some of those discussions now and be presenting them. And I think we've just pushed it off to the new year. So I really wouldn't want to comment until I've had those conversations. You know, I think you've seen our typical allocations, and we just try and make efficient capital use. So depending upon what share price is and things like that, it can change. So, you know, I wouldn't want to comment because I want to be able to have those strategy discussions with our board.

Sure. That's understandable. And so just on Fargo-Moorhead, now that you're sort of getting started, could you share any or first impressions on potential operational challenges or maybe not challenges, but differences relative to the core business or things you might have to change operationally?

You know, we've got guys on site. We're manning up there. Barry's been down there, our VP of operations. We've actually tested some equipment in some of the areas just to see how the The material behaves, you know, I don't expect from the earthwork side of things anything unusual. This is very similar work to what we do. This is building earthen dams in soft underfoot conditions, which we have many years and many millions of cubic meters of experience in. You know, it's the workforce, and I think we're going to continue to see, you know, especially with increasing demand for people on equipment operators and such. But I think, again, most of that's anticipated. And I think with a long-term job like this, it's going to be very desirable positions to work at.

Understood. Then maybe just in the context of all the global supply chain challenges, could you give us an update on DGI? Presumably, I'd assume that they'd be getting a lot more inbounds now than they typically did in the past?

They've had great demand side. I think there is some challenges coming up on shipping, and it's going to be on cost and availability. And like I said, I think it changes where they try and source equipment. So, you know, when you had two assets, one in Canada and one in Australia, you know, the one in Canada might have been worth more even with the shipping than the one in Australia, but now it isn't. because of the shipping costs. They're very in touch with this marketplace in both the asset value and the transportation and logistics costs. I fully expect them to adapt. They've been extremely good at adapting. I'm amazed what they've been able to achieve without being able to leave their home state, as I mentioned in our shareholder letter. If they're stuck trying to source things from One area requiring shipping to another could be an issue, but I don't think that's going to be the issue. And I think between them and us and our own contacts and knowledge of the marketplace, I think we'll be just fine in getting back to normal levels of business, which they're already at, actually. Understood. Well, I'll leave it there.

Thanks. No worries. Take care.

Again, if you would like to ask a question, you may press star one on your touchstone phone. And your next question will come from John Gibson with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Morning, guys. Sorry if I missed this, but just when you look at the Springbank bid, can you give any sense, like, is it similar to the Fargo Moorhead in terms of size and scope? And if the project does go ahead, do you have much sense in the way of timings?

It's a much smaller scope, John. You know, I think it was announced publicly with a number to it that was in the $400 million area, but, you know, it's a smaller job. We would expect it to be submitted, you know, and awarded before summer. And, you know, we'll update as we go. So we picked a partner, our partner being the... same guys we partnered with in Quebec because they're extremely strong in rolled concrete. And so we think between our skills and theirs, it will be a very strong team. The other thing that's different, I would say, is there's not a short listing of bidders. So there's somewhere in the neighborhood of seven or eight teams that I believe are pre-qualified, and they'll go all the way through to the bidding. So it is a lot more – and it's not been shortened down to three or four teams like we'd see in some of those larger jobs. Anything else you want to know about that? I certainly take a stab at it.

That's great, thanks. Second one, on the Quebec gold line that came back in your business pipeline, I know you referenced a $100 million and also a $300 million contract. Can you disclose which one that came back in your bid pipeline? This was a smaller one. Any update on the larger one?

It was not awarded to us. It was awarded, but we still aren't positive it was awarded at the same scope. It looked like it might have been awarded as a continuation to a local contractor and doing an assessment for self-mining. I'm just guessing at that, John, but I'm not positive it was awarded as the full term and scope is what we tendered.

Okay, fair enough. Thanks. And last one for me, I'll ask this, I guess, different than the way Aaron pitched it, I guess. When you look at the dividend, I realize your multiple is probably still not where you want it to be, although we've seen a bit of an expansion along with the stock run late. I guess, your guidance, your free cash flow looks are very positive. I guess, what would you need to see in order to implement a higher dividend?

I don't think we'd have to see much, John. I think really we need to have that conversation with our board. I think we need to get out of this transitional timeframe and get into a more predictable environment as far as COVID. And so, you know, I don't, I think we need to have the discussion, and I think it's an area that we'll have a great amount of consideration and contemplation.

Okay, great. Appreciate it. Nice to see the stock respond this morning as well, so congrats.

Thanks. Thanks, John.

This concludes the Q&A section of the call. I will now pass the call over to Joe Lumberg, President and CEO, for closing comments.

Thanks, Peter, and my thanks to you all for joining us today and for your continued interest in our growth and diversification journey. I'm very excited about where we're going and our opportunities to advance our business in 2022 in what we all hope and expect will be a much healthier and more stable environment. Thanks again.

Thank you, everyone. This concludes the North American Construction Group Q3 2021 conference call.