Waste Connections, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Waste Connections second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Friday, August 7, 2020. I would now like to turn the conference over to Worthing Jackman, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to this conference call to discuss our second quarter results, the current operating environment, and our outlook for Q3 in the full year. I'm joined this morning by Mary Anne Whitney, our CFO. As noted in our earnings release, strong operational execution and continued recovery in solid waste volumes drove better than expected results in the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin for solid waste collection, transfer, and disposal expanded year-over-year in spite of significant COVID-19-related costs incurred in the quarter. In fact, the reported year-over-year margin decline in the period was entirely attributable to reduced EMP waste activity. Its underlying solid waste margin expansion more than offset over $20 million in incremental COVID-related costs, primarily related to frontline supplemental wages and the margin dilutive impact of acquisitions in the quarter. At the onset, we believe that our preparedness and execution during this pandemic will leave us better positioned when we emerge from it. Although only in the early stages of a recovery, we already are pleased to provide our outlook for the full year above the preliminary expectations we had communicated in May. Before we get into much more detail, let me turn the call over to Mary Anne for our forward look and disclaimer and other housekeeping items.

Thank you, Worthing, and good morning. The discussion during today's call includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Actual results could differ materially from those made in such forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed both in the cautionary statement including in our August 6th earnings release and in greater detail in Waste Connections' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Securities Commission's or similar regulatory authorities in Canada. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there may be additional risks of which we are not presently aware or that we currently believe are immaterial, which could have an adverse impact on our business. We make no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may change after today's dates. On the call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures such as adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income attributable to Waste Connections on both the dollar basis and per diluted share, and adjusted pretash flow. Please refer to our earnings releases for reconciliation of such non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure. Management uses certain non-GAAP measures to evaluate and monitor the ongoing financial performance of our operations. Other companies may calculate these non-GAAP measures differently. I will now turn the call back over to Ward.