Waste Connections, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Waste Connections second quarter 2022 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 Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022. I would now like to turn the conference over to Worthing Jackman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Perfect. Thank you, Operator, and good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to this conference call to discuss our second quarter results and increased outlook for 2022 and to provide a detailed outlook for the third quarter. I'm joined this morning by Marianne Whitney, our CFO. As noted in our earnings release, accelerating solid waste pricing and E&P waste activity drove a top to bottom beat in the second quarter. Solid waste pricing growth of 8.8% in Q2 enabled us to overcome increased inflationary pressures during the period and deliver adjusted EBITDA margin in line with our outlook and flat year over year excluding the margin dilutive impact from acquisitions completed since the prior year period. Our outperformance in the first half of 2022, expected further sequential increases in solid waste pricing growth, continuing strength in E&P waste activity, and acquisitions closed year-to-date positioned us to increase our full-year outlook for revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted free cash flow, and provide another reflection of our culture of accountability in a challenging operating environment. As anticipated, acquisition activity is pacing well above average. We have signed or closed approximately $470 million in annualized revenues so far this year, and our pipeline remains quite robust. As such, we believe we are well positioned for double-digit revenue growth in 2023, along with margin expansion from continuing solid waste pricing strength and rollover contributions from acquisitions already signed or closed year-to-date. Additional acquisitions expected to close later this year and early next would provide further growth. Before we get into much more detail, let me turn the call over to Marianne for our forward-looking 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 included in our August 2nd earnings release and in greater detail in Waste Connections filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Securities Commissions 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 date. 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 free cash flow. Please refer to our earnings releases for a reconciliation of such non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures. 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 Worthen.