GFL Environmental Inc. [GFL] Filings

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

☐  REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

☒  ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

OR

☐  TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

☐  SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of event requiring this shell company report

For the transition period from ________________________ to ________________________

Commission file number 001-39240

GFL ENVIRONMENTAL INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

N/A

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

Ontario

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

100 New Park Place, Suite 500,

Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, L4K 0H9

(Address of principal executive offices)

Patrick Dovigi

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

100 New Park Place, Suite 500,

Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, L4K 0H9

Tel: 905-326-0101

(Name, Telephone, Email and/or Facsimile number and address of Company Contact Person)

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Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

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Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the Annual Report: At December 31, 2020, 314,300,421 subordinate voting shares, 12,062,964 multiple voting shares and 28,571,428 Series A perpetual convertible preferred shares were issued and outstanding.

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☐ Yes  ☒ No

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If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ☐ Yes ☒ No

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Note—checking the box above will not relieve any registrant required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 from their obligations under those sections.

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☒ Yes  ☐ No

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). ☒ Yes  ☐ No

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See the definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

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† The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

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Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

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If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. ☐ Item 17 ☐ Item 18

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If this is an Annual Report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).   ☐ Yes   ☒ No

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GFL Environmental Inc.

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INTRODUCTION

In this Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2020 (referred to herein as the “Annual Report”), all references to “GFL”, “we”, “our”, “us”, “the Company” or similar terms refer to GFL Environmental Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Certain terms used herein are defined in the text and others are included in the glossary of terms. See “Glossary of Terms”.

We publish our consolidated financial statements in Canadian dollars. In this Annual Report, unless otherwise specified, all monetary amounts are in Canadian dollars, all references to “$”, “C$”, “CDN$”, “CAD$”, and “dollars” mean Canadian dollars and all references to “US$” and “USD” mean U.S. dollars.

This Annual Report on Form 20-F contains our audited annual consolidated financial statements and related notes for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Unless indicated otherwise, all information in this Annual Report is stated as of December 31, 2020.

Trademarks and Trade Names

This Annual Report includes certain trademarks, such as “GFL Green For Life”, “Green Today, Green For Life”, “GFL Environmental” and “GFL” which are protected under applicable intellectual property laws and are our property. Solely for convenience, our trademarks and trade names referred to in this Annual Report may appear without the ^(®) or (TM) symbol, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to these trademarks and trade names.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. Forward-looking statements may relate to anticipated events or results and may include information regarding our financial position, business strategy, growth strategies, budgets, operations, financial results, taxes, dividend policy, plans and objectives. Particularly, information regarding our expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities or the markets in which we operate is forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “targets”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “an opportunity exists”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “outlook”, “forecasts”, “projection”, “prospects”, “strategy”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “does not anticipate”, “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might”, “will”, “will be taken”, “occur” or “be achieved”. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts nor assurances of future performance but instead represent management’s expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances.

Forward-looking statements and other forward-looking information contained in this Annual Report are based on our opinions, estimates and assumptions in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we currently believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. Despite a careful process to prepare and review the forward-looking information, there can be no assurance that the underlying opinions, estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Certain assumptions in respect of our ability to build our market share; our ability to retain key personnel; our ability to maintain and expand geographic scope; our ability to continue to grow our revenue and improve operating margins; our ability to maintain good relationships with our customers; our ability to execute on our expansion plans; our ability to execute on additional acquisition opportunities and successfully integrate acquired businesses; our ability to continue investing in infrastructure to support our growth; our ability to obtain and maintain existing financing on acceptable terms; our ability to implement price increases or offset increasing costs; currency exchange and interest rates; the impact of competition; our potential liability, if any, in connection with environmental matters; the changes and trends in our industry or the global economy; and the changes in laws, rules, regulations, and global standards are material factors made in preparing forward-looking information and management’s expectations.

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Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, estimates and assumptions that we considered appropriate and reasonable as of the date such statements are made, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the following risk factors described in greater detail under the heading entitled “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report:

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The opinions, estimates or assumptions referred to above and described in greater detail under “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report should be considered carefully by readers.

These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read with other cautionary statements in this Annual Report. Although we have attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other risk factors not presently known to us or that we presently believe are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made. The forward-looking information contained in this Annual Report represents our expectations as of the date of this Annual Report (or as the date they are otherwise stated to be made) and are subject to change after such date. However, we disclaim any intention or obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable laws.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS

“3.500% 2028 Secured Notes” means our 3.500% USD senior secured notes due March 1, 2028.

“3.750% 2025 Secured Notes” means our 3.750% USD senior secured notes due August 1, 2025.

“4.000% 2028 Notes” means our 4.000% USD senior unsecured notes due August 1, 2028.

“4.250% 2025 Secured Notes” means our 4.250% USD senior secured notes due June 1, 2025.

“5.125% 2026 Secured Notes” means our 5.125% USD senior secured notes due December 15, 2026.

“5.375% 2023 Notes” means our 5.375% USD senior unsecured notes due March 1, 2023.

“5.625% 2022 Notes” means our 5.625% USD senior unsecured notes due May 1, 2022.

“7.000% 2026 Notes” means our 7.000% USD senior unsecured notes due June 1, 2026.

“8.500% 2027 Notes” means our 8.500% USD senior unsecured notes due May 1, 2027.

“Amortizing Note(s)” means the senior amortizing note issued by us due March 15, 2023, which forms a part of each TEU.

“Annual Financial Statements” means our audited annual consolidated financial statements and related notes for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018.

“Annual Report” has the meaning given to it under “Introduction” in this Annual Report.

“Articles” means the articles of amalgamation of the Company.

“BC Partners” means BC Partners Advisors L.P.

“CAGR” means compound annual growth rate.

“CNG” means compressed natural gas.

“Coattail Agreement” means the coattail agreement entered into by the Dovigi Group and a trustee on March 5, 2020.

“Convertible Preferred Shares” means the Series A perpetual convertible preferred shares of the Company issued on October 1, 2020.

“CPI” means consumer price index.

“Credit Agreements” means the Term Facility Credit Agreement and the Revolving Credit Facility Agreement.

“DGCL” means Delaware General Corporation Law.

“Dovigi Group” means Patrick Dovigi, Josaud Holdings Inc., Josaud II Holdings Inc., Sejosa Holdings Inc. and Sejosa II Holdings Inc.

“Exchange Act” has the meaning given to it under “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this Annual Report.

“Fiscal 2018” means the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.

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“Fiscal 2019” means the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

“Fiscal 2020” means the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

“GIC” means Magny Cours Investment Pte Ltd.

“Holdings” means GFL Environmental Holdings Inc.

“HPS” means HPS Investment Partners, LLC.

“HPS Subscription Agreement” means the subscription agreement we entered into on August 12, 2020 with HPS.

“IFRS” means International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

“Investor Rights Agreements” means the investor rights agreements, as amended, restated or replaced from time to time, to which the Investors and certain other persons are party.

“Investors” means BC Partners, Ontario Teachers, GIC and the Dovigi Group.

“IPO” has the meaning given to it under Item 4A. “Information on the Company” — “History and Development of the Company” in this Annual Report.

“Margin Loan Borrowers” means, pursuant to the Margin Loans, entities that are affiliates of, or formed for the benefit of, certain of our shareholders including, without limitation, entities that are affiliates of, or formed for the benefit of, the Investors.

“Margin Loans” means the separate margin loans provided to the Margin Loan Borrowers by certain Canadian chartered banks in connection with the IPO, as amended, restated or replaced from time to time.

“MRFs” means material recovery facilities.

“Notes” means the 4.250% 2025 Secured Notes, the 3.750% 2025 Secured Notes, the 5.125% 2026 Secured Notes, the 8.500% 2027 Notes, the 4.000% 2028 Notes and the 3.500% 2028 Secured Notes.

“NYSE” means the New York Stock Exchange.

“NYSE Listing Rules” means the listing rules of the NYSE.

“OBCA” means the Business Corporations Act (Ontario).

“Ontario Teachers” means Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, collectively with the funds, partnerships, investment vehicles or other entities affiliated therewith or managed, advised or controlled thereby.

“PFAS” means per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

“Purchase Contract(s)” means the prepaid stock purchase contract issued by us, which forms a part of each TEU.

“Recapitalization” has the meaning given to it under Item 4A. “Information on the Company” — “History and Development of the Company” in this Annual Report.

“Registration Rights Agreement” means the registration rights agreement, as amended, restated or replaced from time to time, to which the Registration Rights Investors and certain other persons are party.

“Registration Rights Investors” means BC Partners, Ontario Teachers, GIC, the Dovigi Group and HPS.

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“Revolving Credit Facility” means the facilities available under the Revolving Credit Facility Agreement.

“Revolving Credit Facility Agreement” means the Sixth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, dated as of November 24, 2020, that we entered into with a syndicate of lenders.

“SEC” means the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Securities Act” has the meaning given to it under “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this Annual Report.

“Shares” means our subordinate voting shares and multiple voting shares, and the number of subordinate voting shares issuable upon conversion of the Convertible Preferred Shares.

“Term Facility Credit Agreement” means the Term Facility Credit Agreement, dated as of September 30, 2016 (as amended as of May 31, 2018, November 14, 2018 and December 22, 2020) among us, each of our subsidiaries party thereto, Barclays Bank PLC, as administrative agent, the lenders party thereto and each other party thereto.

“Term Loan Facility” means the U.S. dollar denominated term facility available under the Term Facility Credit Agreement and includes the incremental term facility.

“TEUs” means the 6.00% tangible equity units of the Company.

“TSX” means the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“UMO” means used motor oil.

“Waste Industries” means Wrangler Holdco Corp. and its subsidiaries (dba Waste Industries USA).

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PART I

ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

Not applicable.

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ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

Not applicable.

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ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

[Reserved.]

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We are subject to substantial governmental regulation that will change over time. Failure to comply with these requirements, as well as enforcement actions and litigation arising from an actual or perceived breach of such requirements, could subject us to fines, penalties and judgements, and impose limits on our ability to operate and expand.

We are subject to potential liability and numerous restrictions under environmental and other laws, including those relating to transportation, recycling, treatment, storage and disposal of wastes and hazardous wastes, discharges of pollutants to air and water, and the remediation of contaminated soil, the deposit of remediated or excavated soil at third-party sites, greenhouse gas emissions and the remediation of contaminated surface water and groundwater. These laws and regulations are subject to ongoing changes, not all of which are predictable. The operation of each of our business lines has been and will continue to be subject to regulation, including permitting and related financial assurance requirements, as well as attempts to further regulate our operations. Permits often take years to obtain or renew as a result of numerous hearings and compliance requirements with regard to zoning, environmental and other laws and regulations. These permits are also often subject to resistance from citizen or other groups and other political pressures. Local communities and citizen groups, adjacent landowners or governmental agencies may oppose the issuance or expansion of a permit or approval we may need, allege violations of the permits under which we currently operate or laws or regulations to which we are subject, or seek to impose liability on us for environmental damage. In the past, we have been subject to enforcement actions and certain litigation under applicable environmental laws and regulations that arise in the ordinary course of business. Responding to these challenges has at times increased our costs, required us to make significant capital investments to upgrade our facilities and extended the time associated with establishing disposal, processing, treatment or remediation facilities or expanding their permitted capacity. In addition, failure to receive or maintain regulatory, zoning or other approval, permits or authorizations, may prohibit us from establishing, or cause or contribute to delays for us in, new or expanding capacity at our existing disposal, processing, treatment or soil remediation facilities, including our transfer stations, landfills and organic waste facilities.

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Our landfills, transfer stations, organic waste facilities, liquid waste storage and processing facilities, soil remediation and infrastructure operations are subject to a wide range of air emission, noise, nuisance and land use regulations. If we are not able to comply with these requirements or other environmental laws that apply to a particular facility, or if we operate without the necessary approvals or permits, we could be subject to administrative, civil, and possibly criminal, fines and penalties, and we may be required to expend substantial capital to bring an operation into compliance, to temporarily or permanently discontinue activities, and/or to take corrective actions. Furthermore, our operations could be affected by future laws and regulations that may be more onerous than those that are currently in place or that result in significant fees payable for compliance costs, and there is no assurance that we will be able to pass on the increased costs of compliance to our customers. We may also be affected by legal proceedings commenced by neighbours, local residents or governmental authorities that allege negative impacts from our operations and seek remedies such as damages or injunctions to limit or prohibit our operations or require us to purchase or compensate them for diminution in value of their properties or to incur capital expenditures to mitigate the impact of our operations on their properties.

Regulations directed at third parties may also adversely impact our operations. For example, efforts to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases at landfills could increase the cost of operating our landfills and result in increased charges for disposal of waste or limit the ability of the affected landfills to accept solid waste. While these regulations could affect our own landfills, they could also increase the cost for us to dispose of solid waste at third-party landfills. Similarly, while our exposure generally to the oil and gas sector is limited, any adverse impact of greenhouse gas regulations on the cost of operations of our customers in the oil and gas sector could cause some of our customers to suffer financial difficulties, to reduce their need for our services, and/or ultimately to be unable or unwilling to pay amounts owed to us. These events could have a negative impact on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

In addition, compliance with new PFAS regulations may require our landfills to monitor for PFAS, pretreat leachate, or restrict the disposal of some PFAS-containing wastes. Any such new regulations could increase the cost of our U.S. operations, while also presenting potential business opportunities for PFAS management, treatment and disposal.

We may face liabilities in connection with environmental matters.

We may be liable for any remediation costs or natural resources damages attributable to a release or threatened release of pollutants or hazardous substances that has occurred, or may occur in the future, at our current or former facilities or at third-party facilities to which we send waste or our remediated soils, or any other facilities where we conduct business, including damage to neighbouring properties or residents. We may also be liable for environmental contamination caused by pollutants or hazardous substances whose transportation, treatment or disposal we or companies we acquired, arranged or conducted. Under some laws, such as the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended, we could become jointly and severally liable for such contamination regardless of whether we, or our predecessors, including companies that we acquired, caused the release of pollutants or hazardous substances or are otherwise at fault. There can be no assurance that the cost of such cleanup or that our share of the cost or liability will not exceed our estimates or will not have a material adverse effect on our operations, cash flows and available capital. In addition, environmental insurance coverage for our operations does not cover all of the potential liabilities to which we may be subject and we may not be able to obtain insurance coverage in the future at reasonable expense or at all.

We may also, from time to time, receive notices of violation for failure to comply with environmental laws or become subject to citizen suits as a result of any such noncompliance. There can be no assurance that fines or penalties, or other sanctions associated with such notices or any costs to correct our failure to comply will not be significant to us and impact our results of operations, cash flows and available capital.

It is also possible that government officials responsible for enforcing environmental or applicable federal, provincial, municipal or state laws or regulations or agreements that govern our activities may determine an issue is more serious than we expect, or we may fail to identify or fully appreciate an existing liability before we become legally responsible for addressing it. Some of the legal sanctions to which we could become subject could cause the suspension or revocation of a required permit or authorization; prevent us from, or delay us in, obtaining or renewing permits to operate or expand our facilities; limit (or increase the costs of) our disposal options, including for remediated soils; impose substantial fines or penalties that are comparable to those of criminal sanctions against us or executive officers or employees; or harm our reputation.

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has and could continue to adversely impact our business.

The COVID-19 pandemic has and could continue to adversely impact our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, and cash flows.

The spread of COVID-19 has created a global health crisis that has resulted in widespread disruption to economic activity, both in the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as numerous state, provincial, local and foreign governments, have implemented certain measures to attempt to slow and limit the spread of COVID-19, including increased shelter-in-place and physical distancing orders as well as closure restrictions or requirements. Throughout the latter half of 2020, governments in Canada and the U.S. began to lift these measures and reopen businesses. Later in the third and fourth quarters, several measures were re-introduced primarily in major metropolitan areas. While we have been classified as an “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce” by the Government of Canada and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and as an “Essential Service Provider” by Canadian provinces and the U.S. states in which we operate, there is considerable uncertainty regarding such measures, their duration and potential future measures, all of which may continue to reduce customer demand.

Factors that may influence the impact of COVID-19 on our financial results include the economic consequences and duration of the outbreak, new information that emerges concerning the severity and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, changes to the “essential services” classification and actions taken to contain the outbreak or treat its impact, among others. An extended period of economic disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, access to sources of liquidity and financial condition.

Our financial results for Fiscal 2020 were impacted by the reduction in commercial activity as a result of the various measures taken by the Canadian and U.S. governments in response to COVID-19. Our overall revenue is heavily weighted to our solid waste business, which is our most resilient business line and is also diversified across geographies and customers. The majority of the revenue we generate in our solid waste business is from secondary markets. The solid waste revenue we generate in major metropolitan centres or primary markets is predominately derived from municipal residential contracts. During the latter half of Fiscal 2020, we experienced lower volumes in our solid and liquid waste commercial and industrial collection and post collection businesses due to a decrease in service levels attributable to COVID-19, primarily in the major metropolitan centres that we serve. Our liquid waste business also had lower sales volume of UMO which we believe is a result of the temporary suspension of certain customers’ operations in response to COVID-19. While construction projects in certain jurisdictions have been deemed essential services, due to the protracted duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced lower volumes in our infrastructure and soil remediation business in the latter half of Fiscal 2020. In addition, we experienced an adverse impact on our margins due to the change in revenue mix resulting from fewer low volume high-frequency projects. Due to the rapidly evolving and highly uncertain nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to estimate the full extent of its impact on our on-going business at this time.

We may lose municipal and other contracts through competitive bidding, non-renewal, early termination or as a result of a change of control.

All of our municipal contracts are for a specified term and may be subject to competitive bidding on the expiration of their current terms. We may not be the successful bidder when a municipal contract which we currently hold expires or we may have to submit a bid at lower margins than we currently enjoy in order to retain the contract. In addition, although we intend to bid on additional municipal contracts, we may not always, or ever, be the successful bidder. Furthermore, some of our municipal contracts have change of control provisions, which may allow municipalities to terminate such municipal contracts in certain circumstances. Similar risks may affect contracts that we currently have or that we may be awarded in the future to operate municipally owned assets, such as MRFs, transfer stations or landfills. In our liquid, infrastructure and soil remediation and solid waste businesses, we also have contracts which are tendered with other government agencies and with our commercial or institutional customers to provide our services on a competitive bid basis. We may not be the successful bidder for these contracts. In addition, some of our customers, including municipalities, may terminate their contracts with us before the end of the terms of those contracts.

If we are not able to replace lost revenue resulting from unsuccessful competitive bidding or non-renewal, renegotiation or early termination of existing municipal and other customer contracts, our results of operations, cash flow and financial condition could be adversely affected.

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We operate in the highly competitive environmental services industry and may not be able to compete effectively with others in our business lines.

Some of the markets in which we operate or plan to operate are served by one or more large, international and national companies, as well as by regional and local companies of varying sizes and resources, some of which may have accumulated substantial goodwill in their markets. Some of our competitors may also be better capitalized than we are, have greater name recognition than we do, have access to better equipment than we do, have operations in more jurisdictions than we do, or be able to provide or be willing to bid their services at a lower price than we may be willing to offer. Our inability to compete effectively in securing new or repeat business could hinder our growth or adversely impact our operating results.

Additionally, in our solid waste operations, many cities and municipalities operate their own waste collection and disposal facilities and have competitive advantages not available to private enterprises. We also encounter competition from landfill disposal alternatives, such as recycling and incineration, which benefit from provincial requirements to reduce landfill disposal. In our infrastructure and soil remediation business, we compete with landfills for contaminated soils which may be able to offer lower prices than our soil remediation facilities depending upon their proximity to the source site of the soil. If we are unable to successfully compete against our competitors, our ability to retain existing customers and obtain future business could be adversely affected.

Our financial and operating performance may be affected by the inability in some instances to acquire, lease, expand or renew landfill, organic waste facility, transfer station, liquid waste processing facility and soil remediation facility permits and agreements, or obtain new permits and approvals to build, operate and expand existing facilities. Further, the cost of operation and/or future construction of our existing landfills or organic waste and other facilities may become economically unfeasible, causing us to abandon or cease operations.

Our ability to meet our financial, operating and growth objectives may depend in part on our ability to acquire, lease, expand or renew permits or agreements to operate or use landfills, organic waste facilities, liquid waste processing facilities, soil remediation facilities and clean or remediated soil disposal sites, expand existing landfills and the capacity of our transfer stations, organic waste facilities and soil remediation facilities and develop new landfill, transfer station, organic waste facilities, soil remediation facilities and clean or remediated soil disposal sites. It has become increasingly difficult and expensive to obtain required permits and approvals to build, operate and expand solid waste, soil remediation and liquid waste management facilities, including landfills, transfer stations, soil remediation facilities, clean or remediated soil disposal sites and certain types of organic waste facilities. Obtaining these permits and approvals require numerous hearings and compliance with various zoning, environmental and regulatory laws subject to frequent and unpredictable change in some cases and drawing resistance from citizens, environmental or other groups. Expansions of landfill operations, transfer station permits, soil remediation facilities and processing at our organic waste facilities require GFL to obtain permits, which may impose burdensome terms and conditions that may require us to incur higher capital expenditures than we anticipated and adversely affect our results of operations. Because of these limitations, we may not be able to grow within our existing markets or expand existing landfill sites or the capacity of our transfer stations, organic waste facilities, soil remediation facilities and clean or remediated soil disposal sites or our usage of third-party facilities, in order to support acquisitions and internal growth in our existing markets. In particular, increased volumes would shorten the lives of landfills and with our other facilities could impose limitations on our ability to service the tonnage requirements of our customers. It is also possible that the operation or expansion of existing landfills, organic waste facilities or soil remediation facilities may become economically unfeasible based on management’s assessment of permitting issues, acceptable waste streams, available volumes and operating costs and capital expenditures required to meet permitting requirements, in which case we may abandon expansion plans or abandon or cease operations entirely at a particular facility. Any such decision could result in impairment charges as well as ongoing costs for closure and site remediation, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline. Exhausting or limiting permitted capacity at any of our facilities would also restrict our growth and reduce our financial performance in the market served by the facility because we would be forced to dispose of waste at more distant disposal or processing facilities or at such facilities operated by our competitors, thereby increasing our waste disposal expenses.

In addition, certain permits contain provisions that permit the regulator to require us to suspend our operations if we are unable to meet certain performance conditions imposed upon us in the permit. If we were unable to comply with these conditions for a period of time or at all, we could be required to temporarily or permanently suspend our operations at the impacted facility, which would adversely affect our operating results.

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We have engaged in recent acquisitions and expect to engage in acquisitions in the future, which may pose significant risks and could have an adverse effect on our operations.

We have engaged in recent acquisitions and expect to engage in future acquisitions in order to achieve our growth strategy. Our ability to execute our growth strategy depends in part on our ability to identify and acquire desirable acquisition candidates at a price and on terms acceptable to us and on our ability to successfully integrate acquired operations into our business. If we identify suitable acquisition candidates, we may be unable to successfully negotiate their acquisition at a price or on terms and conditions acceptable to us, including as a result of the limitations imposed by our debt obligations. While we expect we will be able to fund some of our acquisitions and capital expenditures with our existing resources, we will likely require additional financing, including debt, to pursue certain acquisitions. We may not be able to incur additional debt on terms favourable to us or at all.

Our future financial performance depends in part upon our ability to efficiently and effectively combine the operations of acquired businesses into our existing operations and achieve identified cost savings and other synergies. If we are unable to identify and correct operational or financial weaknesses in acquired businesses or to achieve the projected cost savings, our operating results and cash flows could be negatively impacted. The integration of acquired businesses and other assets, including certain of such businesses’ operations and the differences in operational culture of the acquired businesses, may require significant management time and resources, which may distract management’s attention from day-to-day business operations. Management will need to maintain existing customers of the acquired businesses and attract new customers, recruit, retain and effectively manage employees, as well as expand operations and integrate financial control systems. Failure to expand operational and financial systems and controls or to retain and integrate appropriate personnel at a pace consistent with our growth could also adversely affect our operating results. Further, if integration-related expenses and capital expenditure requirements are greater than anticipated, or if we are unable to manage our growth profitably, our financial results and cash flow may decline.

We may be subject to potential liabilities from past and future acquisitions that we may not discover in conducting our due diligence.

Acquired businesses may be subject to environmental, operational, tax and other liabilities and risks that were not identified at the time they were acquired. We have previously acquired, and may in the future acquire, businesses that may have handled and stored, or will handle and store, hazardous or other regulated substances, including petroleum products, at their facilities. These businesses may have released substances into the soil, air, surface water or groundwater which may have impacted the soil, air, surface water or groundwater of neighbouring properties. They may also have transported or disposed of substances, or arranged to have transported, disposed of or treated substances to or at other properties where substances were released into soil, air, surface water or groundwater.

In pursuing acquisitions, we conduct due diligence on the business or assets being acquired and seek detailed representations and warranties respecting the business or assets being acquired and typically obtain indemnification from sellers of the acquired companies or from representation and warranty insurance. Despite such efforts, there can be no assurance that the scope of such indemnification or insurance would adequately cover any liabilities as a result of acquisitions, for reasons due to limited scope, amount or duration, the financial capacity of the party who gave or gives the indemnity or warranty to honour it, among others, or that we will not become subject to undisclosed liabilities as a result of acquisitions. This failure to discover potential liabilities may be due to various factors, such as our failure to accurately assess all of the pre-existing liabilities of the operations acquired or sellers failing to comply with laws. If this occurs, we may be responsible for such liabilities or violations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and in some instances, could negatively impact the public perception of our brand. Depending on the nature of our acquisition of these businesses and other factors, such liabilities could include the cost of cleaning up any contamination and other environmental damages for which the acquired businesses are liable, even if the contamination predated our ownership or operation of the acquired businesses. Further, we are also subject to the risk of fraud on the part of sellers which could, among other things, result in an overstatement of key metrics of the acquired business or in the failure to disclose instances of non-compliance with applicable laws or contracts related to the acquired business which could expose us to governmental investigation, penalties or fines, the risk of termination or renegotiation of such contracts and have a negative impact on the public perception of our brand.

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A portion of our growth and future financial performance depends on our ability to integrate acquired businesses and the success of our acquisitions.

A component of our growth strategy involves achieving economies of scale and operating efficiencies by growing through acquisitions. We may not achieve these goals unless we effectively combine the operations of acquired businesses with our existing operations. In addition, we are not always able to control the timing of our acquisitions. Our inability to complete acquisitions within the time frames that we expect may cause our operating results to be less favourable than expected, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline. Even if we are able to make acquisitions on advantageous terms and are able to integrate them successfully into our operations and organization, some acquisitions may not fulfill our anticipated financial or strategic objectives in a given market due to factors that we cannot control, such as market conditions, market position, competition, customer base, third-party legal challenges or governmental actions. In addition, we may change our strategy with respect to a market or acquired businesses and decide to sell such operations at a loss, or keep those operations and recognize an impairment of goodwill and/or intangible assets.

Competition for acquisition candidates, consolidation within the environmental services industry and economic and market conditions may limit our ability to grow through acquisitions.

We seek to grow through strategic acquisitions in addition to organic growth. Although we have and expect to continue to identify numerous acquisition candidates that we believe may be suitable, we may not be able to acquire them at prices or on terms and conditions favourable to us. Other companies have adopted or may in the future adopt our strategy of acquiring and consolidating regional and local businesses. We expect that increased consolidation in the environmental services industry over the longer term will reduce the number of attractive acquisition candidates. Moreover, general economic conditions and the environment for attractive investments may affect the desire of the owners of acquisition candidates to sell their companies. As a result, we may have fewer acquisition opportunities, and those opportunities may be on less attractive terms than in the past, which could cause a reduction in our rate of growth from acquisitions.

We depend on third-party landfills, MRFs, liquid waste processing facilities and transfer stations and we cannot provide assurance that we will maintain these relationships or continue to access services at current or higher levels.

We do not own or operate all of our landfills, MRFs, liquid waste processing facilities or transfer stations in certain markets in which we operate. As a result, we rely on third-party landfills, MRFs, liquid waste processing facilities or transfer stations to dispose of waste in certain markets and to conduct our operations at profitable levels. If we are unable to access these third-party facilities or if the rates for such third-party facilities increase, it could increase our expenses and reduce profitability.

We cannot provide assurance that we will maintain our relationships or have access to any particular landfill, MRF, liquid waste processing facility or transfer station at current levels. We also cannot provide assurance that third-party landfills, MRFs, liquid waste processing facilities or transfer stations will continue to permit our usage and charge gate rates that generate acceptable margins for us. Negative impacts could also occur in disposal-neutral markets if our existing third-party landfill, MRF, liquid waste processing facility or transfer station operators fail to renew their operating contracts, if the volume of waste disposal increases and we are unable to find capacity for such increase or if such facility operators increase their gate rates. In addition, new contracts for disposal services that we enter into may not have terms similar to those contained in our existing disposal arrangements, in which case our revenue and profitability could decline.

Our access to equity or debt capital markets is not assured.

Our ability to access equity or debt capital markets may be restricted at a time when we would like, or need, to do so. While we expect we will be able to fund acquisitions and capital expenditures with our existing resources, additional financing, including additional debt, to pursue acquisitions will likely be required. However, particularly if market conditions deteriorate, we may be unable to secure additional financing or such additional financing may not be available to us on favourable terms, which could have an impact on our flexibility to pursue additional acquisition opportunities. In addition, disruptions in the capital and credit markets could adversely affect our ability to draw on our Revolving Credit Facility or raise other capital. Our access to funds under the Revolving Credit Facility is dependent on the ability of the banks that are parties to the facility to meet their funding commitments. Those banks may not be able to meet their funding commitments if they experience shortages of capital and liquidity or if they experience excessive volumes of borrowing requests within a short period.

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The cyclical nature of the infrastructure and soil remediation industry may have a significant impact on the level of competition for available projects.

Fluctuating demand cycles are common in the infrastructure industry and can have a significant impact on the level of competition for available projects. As such, fluctuations in the demand for infrastructure services or the ability of the private and/or public sector to fund projects in then-current economic climate could adversely affect the number of projects available in our markets, pricing and our margins and thus our results, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Given the project-based nature of the infrastructure industry, our financial results, similar to others in the industry, may be impacted in any given period by a wide variety of factors beyond our control (as outlined herein) and, as a result, there may be from time to time, significant and unpredictable variations in our quarterly and annual financial results, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

The changes in demand for soil remediation are typically reactive and correspond directly with demand cycles in the infrastructure industry as infrastructure projects generate a significant majority of the demand for soil remediation services.

Increases in labour costs and disposal and related transportation costs could impact our financial results.

Labour is one of our highest costs and increases in labour costs could materially affect our cost structure. If we fail to attract and retain qualified employees, control our labour costs or recover any increased labour costs through increased prices charged to our customers, or otherwise offset such increases with cost savings in other areas, our operating margins could suffer. In addition, we compete with other businesses in our markets for qualified employees. From time to time, the labour supply is limited in some of our markets. A shortage of qualified employees would require us to enhance our wage and benefits packages to compete more effectively for employees, to hire more expensive temporary employees or to contract for services with more expensive third-party providers.

While most of our employees are paid above minimum wage, further increases in the minimum wage could create upward pressure on our labour costs and could have an adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Disposal and related transportation costs are also a significant cost category for us. If we incur increased disposal and related transportation costs and if we are unable to pass these costs on to our customers, our operating results would suffer.

Price increases may not be adequate to offset the impact of increased costs or may cause us to lose customers.

We seek price increases necessary to offset increased costs, to improve operating margins and to obtain adequate returns on our deployed capital. Contractual, general economic, competitive or market-specific conditions may limit our ability to raise prices. As a result of these factors, we may be unable to offset increases in costs, improve operating margins and obtain adequate investment returns through price increases. We may also lose potential and existing customers to lower-price competitors.

Because of our prior acquisitions and future acquisitions we may engage in, our historical operating results may be of limited use in evaluating and predicting our future results.

We have acquired over 140 businesses since our inception in 2007. We expect that we will engage in acquisitions of other businesses from time to time in the future as part of our growth strategy. The operating results of the businesses acquired in Fiscal 2020, Fiscal 2019 and Fiscal 2018 are included in our audited financial statements filed as part of this Annual Report from the respective dates of each such acquisition. Historically, all of our acquisitions have been accounted for using the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with IFRS. Use of this method has resulted in a new valuation of the assets and liabilities of the acquired companies, which has generally led to an increase in asset values. We expect an increase in our depreciation and amortization expense and a reduction in our operating and net income commensurate with such increase. As a result of these acquisitions and any future acquisitions, our historical operating results may be of limited use in evaluating and predicting our future results.

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Our operations in the United States and our financial instruments that are denominated in U.S. dollars could expose us to exchange rate fluctuations that could adversely affect our financial performance and our reported results of operations.

Our operations in the United States are conducted in U.S. dollars and the Notes, the Amortizing Notes and the outstanding borrowings under our Term Loan Facility are denominated in U.S. dollars. Our consolidated financial statements are denominated in Canadian dollars, and to prepare those financial statements we must translate the amounts of the assets, liabilities, net sales, other revenues and expenses of our operations in the United States from U.S. dollars into Canadian dollars using exchange rates for the current period. Fluctuations in the exchange rates that are unfavourable to us would have an adverse effect on our financial performance and reported results of operations.

Further, while we hedge a portion of the Term Loan Facility, we do not hedge the entire amount outstanding under our Term Loan Facility. The currency risks associated with the unhedged portion of the Term Loan Facility are managed with the U.S. dollar denominated cash flows generated from our U.S. operations. If we generate insufficient U.S. dollar denominated cash flows from our U.S. operations, we may be exposed to exchange rate risk with respect to the unhedged portion of the Term Loan Facility.

Our results of operations could be affected by changing prices or market requirements for recyclable materials.

Our results of operations have been and may continue to be affected by changing purchase or resale prices or market requirements for recyclable materials. Our recycling business involves the purchase and sale of recyclable materials, some of which are priced on a commodity basis. The market for recyclable materials, particularly newspaper, corrugated containers, plastics and ferrous and aluminum metals may be adversely affected by price decreases which could negatively impact our operating results. The sale prices of and the demand for recyclable commodities, particularly paper products, are frequently volatile and when they decline, our revenues, operating results and cash flows will be affected, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Foreign import and export regulations imposed on recyclables could impact our ability to export recyclable materials.

The waste management industry is subject to foreign import and export regulations imposed on recyclables that may limit the flow of materials into such countries. The Chinese government strictly enforces regulations that establish limits on non-conforming materials that may be contained in imported wastepaper and plastics and restrict the import of certain other plastic recyclables. In 2017, the Chinese government announced a ban on certain materials, including mixed waste paper and mixed plastics from being included in recyclable material, as well as extremely restrictive quality requirements, effective in 2018, that have been difficult for the waste management industry to achieve. Many other markets, both domestic and foreign, have tightened their quality expectations in respect of recyclable materials as well. In addition, other countries have limited or restricted the import of certain recyclables. Single stream MRFs process a wide range of commingled materials and tend to receive a higher percentage of non-recyclables, which results in increased processing and residual disposal costs to achieve quality standards.

The Chinese government also limits the flow of material into the country by restricting the issuance of required import licenses. The use of restrictions on import licenses to restrict flow into China is expected to continue. In recent years, the U.S. has made substantial changes to foreign trade policy and imposed increases in tariffs on international trade. In response, China has imposed new tariffs on the import of recyclable commodities, including wastepaper, plastics and metals. Currently this does not have a significant impact on our operations, but such restrictions and tariffs may have an impact on our ability to export recyclable materials globally.

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The waste management industry is undergoing fundamental change as traditional waste streams are increasingly viewed as renewable resources and changes in laws and environmental policies may limit the items that enter the waste stream, any of which may adversely impact volumes at our transfer stations and landfills.

The waste management industry has increasingly recognized the value of the waste stream as a renewable resource and new alternatives to landfilling are being developed that seek to maximize the renewable energy and other resource benefits of waste. In addition, environmental initiatives, such as product stewardship and extended producer responsibility, which hold manufacturers or other actors in the product life cycle responsible for the disposal of manufactured goods, may reduce the volume of products that enter the waste stream. Further, there may be changes in the laws that classify currently unregulated residual materials as waste, reclassify items in the waste stream as hazardous or that otherwise prohibit the disposal of certain wastes in our landfills. These alternatives and changes in laws may impact the demand for landfill space, which may affect our ability to operate our landfills and transfer stations at full capacity, as well as the tipping fees and prices that we can charge. As a result, our revenues and operating margins could be adversely affected.

Cities, municipalities, townships and counties in which we own and/or operate landfills may be required to formulate and implement comprehensive plans to reduce or direct the volume of solid waste deposited in landfills through waste planning, composting, recycling or other programs, such as flow control. Some state, provincial and local governments prohibit the disposal of certain types of wastes, such as yard waste, at landfills. Such actions have reduced and may in the future further reduce the volume of waste going to landfills in certain areas, which may affect our ability to operate our landfills at full capacity and could adversely affect our operating results, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Increasing efforts by provinces, states and municipalities to reduce landfill disposal could lead to our landfills operating at a reduced capacity or force us to charge lower rates.

Provinces, states and local governments increasingly have supported the following alternatives to or restrictions on current landfill disposal: (i) reducing waste at the source, including by encouraging or mandating recycling and composting; (ii) prohibiting disposal of certain types of waste at landfills; and (iii) limiting landfill capacity.

Many provinces and states have enacted or are currently considering, laws regarding waste disposal, including: (i) requiring counties, regions, cities and municipalities under their jurisdiction to use waste planning, composting, recycling or other programs to reduce the amount of waste deposited in landfills; and (ii) prohibiting the disposal of food and organic waste, yard waste, tires and other items in landfills. Even where not prohibited by applicable law, some grocery stores and other businesses have chosen or may in the future choose to divert their waste from landfills, while other companies have set zero waste goals and communicated an intention to cease the disposal of any waste at landfills. Although such mandates and initiatives help to protect our environment, these developments may reduce the volume of waste disposed of in landfills in certain areas, which could lead to our landfills operating at less than capacity or force us to charge lower prices for our landfill disposal services.

Changes to patterns regarding disposal of waste could adversely affect our results of operations by reducing the volume of waste available for collection and disposal, thus reducing our earnings.

Waste reduction programs may reduce the volume of solid waste available for collection and disposal in some areas where we operate. Local, state and provincial authorities increasingly mandate recycling and waste reduction at the source and prohibit the disposal of certain types of waste, such as yard and other organic wastes, at landfills where we send waste. Any significant change in regulation or patterns regarding disposal of solid waste would have a material adverse effect on our earnings by reducing the level of demand for our services, resulting in decreased revenue and the earnings we are able to generate. Additionally, regulations establishing extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) are being considered or implemented in the United States and Canada. EPR regulations are designed to place either partial or total responsibility on producers to fund the post-use life cycle of the products they create. Along with the funding responsibility, producers may be required to take over management of local recycling programs by taking back their products from end users or managing the collection operations and recycling processing infrastructure. There is no federal law establishing EPR in the United States or Canada; however, provincial, state and local governments could, and in some cases have, taken steps to implement EPR regulations. If wide-ranging EPR regulations were adopted, they could have a fundamental impact on the waste streams we manage and how we operate our business, including contract terms and pricing.

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While we have expanded and continue to expand our service offerings to include recyclables and organic waste facilities, there can be no assurance that the volume or pricing of such services would offset any loss in revenue from our landfill operations. If we are not successful in expanding our service offerings, growing lines of businesses to service waste streams that do not go to landfills and providing services for customers that wish to reduce waste entirely, then our revenues may decline.

Fuel supply and prices may fluctuate significantly, and we may not be able to pass on cost increases to our customers.

We rely on diesel fuel to run the majority of our collection vehicles in our solid and liquid waste operations and our equipment used in our transfer stations, landfills, organic waste facilities and infrastructure and soil remediation operations. The price and supply of diesel fuel can fluctuate significantly based on international, political and economic circumstances, as well as other factors outside of our control, such as actions by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil and gas producers, regional production patterns, weather conditions, political instability in oil and gas producing regions and environmental concerns. Supply shortages could also substantially increase our operating expenses. Additionally, as fuel prices increase, our direct operating expenses increase and many of our suppliers raise their prices as a means to offset their own rising costs. Our contracts or competitive pressures may limit our ability to pass on, or the timing of our ability to pass on, the increases in fuel costs or the full amount of increases in our fuel costs to our customers. We also use natural gas for the operation of part of our solid waste fleet. Natural gas prices are also subject to fluctuation. We do not currently use derivative instruments to hedge against these fluctuations. To the extent that lower fuel prices result in negative CPI on a year-over-year basis, revenue from municipal contracts that provide for both increases and decreases in amounts payable to us as the contractor may reduce our revenue.

Our operations also require the use of products (such as liners at our landfills), the costs of which may vary with the price of petrochemicals. An increase in the price of petrochemicals could increase the cost of those products, which would increase our operating and capital costs. We are also susceptible to increases in indirect fuel fees from our suppliers.

Selling prices in our UMO business are sensitive to changes in the market price of oil. Reductions in oil prices may affect our UMO collections and our pricing. As the price of oil per barrel drops, refineries may reduce their production in response, resulting in a reduction in the amount of UMO that we sell to these refineries that are UMO customers. This may reduce our revenue.

We require sufficient cash flow to reinvest in our business and achieve our financial strategy.

Our financial strategy depends on our ability to generate sufficient cash flow to reinvest in our existing business, fund internal growth, acquire other environmental service businesses and take other actions to enhance our value. We must also use a portion of our cash flows from operating activities for growth and maintenance capital expenditures, including the maintenance of our existing fleet and facilities, which reduces our flexibility to use such cash flows for other purposes, such as reducing our indebtedness. Our capital expenditures could increase if we make acquisitions or bid on new municipal contracts which may require us to provide new vehicles to service the contracts. We may also be required to make unexpected capital expenditures to respond to changes in governmental requirements which govern our operations, such as stricter emissions requirements applicable to our vehicles or our facilities or more stringent odor control requirements. In addition, if we acquire more landfill assets, we will incur higher capital expenditures because of the more capital-intensive nature of the landfill business. The amount that we spend on capital expenditures may exceed current expectations, which may require us to obtain additional funding for our operations and incur additional indebtedness or impair our ability to grow our business.

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We may be unable to obtain performance or surety bonds, letters of credit or other financial assurances or to maintain adequate insurance coverage.

If we are unable to obtain performance or surety bonds, letters of credit or insurance, we may not be able to enter into additional contracts or retain or obtain necessary operating permits. Each of our collection contracts, municipal contracts, infrastructure contracts, transfer stations, organic facilities or soil remediation or clean or remediated soil site operations and landfill closure and post-closure obligations may require performance or surety bonds, letters of credit or other financial assurance to secure contractual performance or comply with federal, state, provincial or local environmental laws or regulations. We typically satisfy these requirements by posting bonds or letters of credit. Closure bonds are difficult and costly to obtain and are subject to governmental laws or regulations which may change and become increasingly stringent. If we are unable to obtain performance or surety bonds or additional letters of credit in sufficient amounts or at acceptable rates, we could be precluded from entering into additional contracts or obtaining or retaining operating permits for our various permitted facilities. Any future difficulty in obtaining insurance also could impair our ability to secure future contracts that are conditional upon the contractor having adequate insurance coverage. Accordingly, our failure to obtain performance or surety bonds, letters of credit or other financial assurances or to maintain adequate insurance coverage could limit our operations or violate federal, state, provincial, or local requirements, which could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Our business is subject to operational, health and safety and environmental risks, including the risk of personal injury to employees and others.

Provision of environmental services involves risks, such as on- or off-site vehicle or equipment accidents, equipment defects, spills, malfunctions and failures and natural disasters, which could potentially result in releases of hazardous materials, injury or death of employees and others or a need to shut down or reduce operation of our facilities while remedial actions are undertaken. These risks expose us to potential liability, damages, fines or charges for pollution, remediation and other environmental damages, personal injury, loss of life, business interruption and property damage or destruction.

If we were to incur substantial liabilities in excess of any applicable insurance, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

We depend on our key personnel.

Our success depends significantly on the continued individual and collective contributions of our senior, regional and local management teams. The loss of the services of members of these management teams or the inability to hire and retain experienced replacement management personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, to implement and manage our business and operating strategies effectively, we must maintain a high level of efficiency and performance, continue to enhance our operational and management systems, and continue to successfully attract, train, motivate and manage our employees. If we are not successful in these efforts, this may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Any departures of key personnel could also be viewed in a negative light by investors and research analysts, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Our business is and may be adversely affected by natural disasters, weather conditions and seasonality.

Our operating results fluctuate seasonally. Our solid waste and liquid waste operations can be adversely affected by periods of inclement or severe weather, which could increase the volume of waste collected under our existing contracts, delay the collection and disposal of waste, reduce the volume of waste delivered to our disposal sites, delay the construction or expansion of our landfill sites and other facilities or cause us to incur incremental labour, maintenance and equipment costs and penalties under municipal contracts, some or all of which costs we may not be able to recover from our customers. Our facilities located in the Southeastern and Southern United States are especially susceptible to natural disasters such as hurricanes and tropical storms. A significant natural disaster could severely damage or destroy these facilities, disrupting employees and customers, which could, in turn, significantly adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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In our infrastructure and soil remediation business line, our operating revenue is lowest in the first quarter primarily due to lower construction project activity in the winter months as a result of winter weather conditions. High precipitation levels, particularly in the spring, can also adversely impact revenue, particularly in the first and second quarters when project start dates are more likely to be delayed or result in the extension of road load restrictions, negatively impacting the volume of soil at our soil remediation facilities. Weather conditions can also cause delays in the timing of purchases of UMO by asphalt plants engaged in road construction.

In addition, natural disasters, such as winter storms, periods of particularly inclement weather or climate extremes resulting from climate change, may also generally force us to temporarily suspend some of our operations and as a result, may significantly affect our operating results, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Because of these factors, we expect operating income to generally be lower in the winter months. The impact of adverse weather conditions on our operations may also contribute to variability in our interim and annual period to period results of operations.

An economic downturn may have an adverse impact on our operating results and may expose us to credit risk from our customers.

Our business is subject to a number of general economic factors, many of which are out of our control, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. These include recessionary economic cycles and downturns in the business cycles of the industries in which our customers conduct business, as well as downturns in the principal regional economies where our operations are located. A weak economy generally results in a decline in solid and certain liquid waste volumes generated as well as in infrastructure and construction and demolition projects which may reduce the volume of contaminated soil at our soil remediation operations and the volume of liquid waste at our sludge pads which would negatively affect our operating results. Consumer uncertainty and the loss of consumer confidence may decrease overall economic activity and thereby reduce demand for the services we provide. Additionally, the decline in liquid or solid waste volumes may result in increased competitive pricing pressure and increased customer turnover, resulting in lower revenue and increased operating costs.

A challenging economic environment may cause some of our customers to suffer financial difficulties and ultimately to be unable or unwilling to pay amounts owed to us. This could have a negative impact on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

We are increasingly dependent on technology in our operations and, if our technology fails, our business could be adversely affected.

We may experience problems with the operation of our current information technology systems or the technology systems of third parties on which we rely, as well as the development and deployment of new information technology systems, that could adversely affect, or even temporarily disrupt, all or a portion of our operations until resolved. The inability to implement new systems or delays in implementing new systems can also affect our ability to realize projected or expected cost savings. Additionally, any systems failures could impede our ability to timely collect and report financial results and other operating information in accordance with our banking and other contractual commitments and our environmental and other permits.

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A cybersecurity incident could negatively impact our business and our relationships with customers.

We use computers in substantially all aspects of our business operations. We also use mobile devices, social networking and other online activities to connect with our employees and our customers. Such uses give rise to cybersecurity risks, including security breach, espionage, system disruption, theft and inadvertent release of information. Our business involves the storage and transmission of numerous classes of sensitive and/or confidential information and intellectual property, including customers’ personal information, private information about employees and financial and strategic information about us and our customers. We also rely on a payment card industry compliant third party to protect our customers’ credit card information. While we pursue our strategy to grow through acquisitions and to pursue new initiatives that improve our operations and cost structure, we are also expanding and improving our information technologies, resulting in a larger technological presence and corresponding exposure to cybersecurity risk. If we fail to assess and identify cybersecurity risks associated with acquisitions, new initiatives and our information technology systems generally, we may become increasingly vulnerable to such risks. There is no assurance that we will be insulated from claims relating to cyber-attacks or withstand legal challenges in relation to our agreements with third parties. Any failure or perceived failure by us, or our third-party partners on our behalf, to comply with local and foreign laws regarding privacy and data security, as well as contractual commitments in this respect, may result in governmental enforcement actions, fines, or litigation, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. If a significant data breach occurred, our reputation could be materially and adversely affected, confidence among our customers may be diminished, or we may be subject to legal claims, any of which may contribute to the loss of customers and have a material adverse effect on us.

In the current environment, there are numerous and evolving risks to cybersecurity and privacy, including criminal hackers, hacktivists, state-sponsored intrusions, industrial espionage, employee malfeasance and human or technological error. High-profile security breaches at other companies and in government agencies have increased in recent years. While we have implemented measures to prevent security breaches and cyber incidents, our preventive measures and incident response efforts may not be entirely effective. The theft, destruction, loss, misappropriation, release of sensitive and/or confidential information or intellectual property or interference with our information technology systems or the technology systems of third parties on which we rely, could result in business disruption, negative publicity, brand damage, violation of privacy laws, loss of customers, potential liability and competitive disadvantage.

Damage to our reputation or our brand could adversely affect our business.

Developing and maintaining our reputation and our brand are important factors in our relationship with customers, suppliers and others. Our ability to address adverse publicity or other issues, including concerns about service quality, environmental compliance, efficacy or similar matters, real or perceived, could negatively impact sentiments towards us and our services, and our business and financial results could suffer. In addition, any lawsuits, regulatory inquiries or other legal proceedings brought against us, could create negative publicity, which could damage our reputation and competitive position and adversely affect our business and financial condition, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Our business requires us to register as a commercial vehicle operator in the jurisdictions in which we operate and maintain certain standards with respect to the operation of our fleet.

Each of the jurisdictions in which we operate has regulations that govern the operation and safety requirements of our vehicles. For example, the Ministry of Transportation for some Canadian provinces monitors each carrier’s collisions, convictions and fleet inspections and assigns a carrier safety rating based on a pre-determined formula compared with industry performance data. These ratings are important as they determine our ability to operate vehicles in the particular province and may affect our ability to bid on certain municipal and other commercial contracts which require that a bidder have a certain rating at the time of the bid submission. Our failure to maintain the required ratings could adversely affect our results of operations, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

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Increases in insurance costs could reduce our operating margins and reported earnings.

Our operations are subject to risks inherent in an environmental services industry, including potential liability which could result from, among other circumstances, personal injury, environmental claims or property damage. We maintain insurance policies for automobile, general, employers, environmental, products liability, cyber incident, worker’s compensation for our employees in our U.S. operations, directors’ and officers’ fiduciary liability and property insurance. Worker’s compensation insurance for employees of our Canadian operations is covered under various provincial government programs. The availability of, and ability to collect on, insurance coverage is subject to factors beyond our control. In addition, we may become subject to liability hazards in circumstances where we cannot or may elect not to insure (because of high premium costs or other reasons), or for occurrences which exceed maximum coverage under our policies. We also provide group employee health and welfare benefits insurance coverage to our non-unionized employees and unionized employees pursuant to collective bargaining agreements. We have no control over changing conditions and pricing in the insurance marketplace and the cost or availability of various types of insurance may change dramatically in the future. Also, our costs of providing group health coverage may increase based on our claims experience. To the extent these costs cannot be passed on to our customers through rate increases, increases in insurance costs could reduce future profitability. Furthermore, the inability to obtain insurance in the future for certain types of losses may require us to limit the services we provide or the areas in which we operate, thereby reducing our revenue. Lastly, the occurrence of a significant uninsured loss could have a material adverse effect on us. Also, due to the variable condition of the insurance market, we may experience future increases in self-insurance levels as a result of increased retention levels and increased premiums. If we elect to assume more risk for self-insurance through higher retention levels, we may experience more variability in our self-insurance reserves and expense.

Governmental authorities have enacted (and are expected to further enact) climate change requirements that could increase our costs to operate.

Environmental advocacy groups and regulatory agencies in Canada and in the U.S. have been focusing considerable attention on the emissions of greenhouse gases and the link they are understood to have to climate change. As a consequence, governments have enacted (and are expected to further enact) laws and regulations to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through requirements of specific controls, carbon levies, cap and trade programs or other measures. Comprehensive greenhouse gas legislation, including carbon pricing and the imposition of fees, taxes or other costs, could adversely affect our collection, disposal and processing operations as well as the operations of our customers. Changing environmental regulations could require us to take any number of actions, including the purchase of emission allowances or the installation of additional pollution control technology such as methane gas collection systems at landfills, and could make our operations less profitable, which could adversely affect our results of operations, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

We could be subject to significant fines and penalties, and our reputation could be adversely affected, if our businesses, or third parties with whom we have a relationship, fail to comply with U.S., Canadian or foreign anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws or regulations.

It is our policy to comply with all applicable anti-bribery laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act and other applicable local laws of Canada and the United States, and we monitor our local partners’ compliance with such laws as well. In 2016, a former officer of a business that the Company acquired was a subject of an enforcement action under the applicable anti-bribery laws of the acquired business’s jurisdiction. As a result of such enforcement action, this officer was convicted of bribery and sentenced to more than five years in a federal prison. We were not subject to any fines or penalties as result of this enforcement action, nor have we received any fines or penalties regarding any other anti-bribery activities in the past five years. Our reputation may be adversely affected if we were reported to be associated with corrupt practices or if we, our former employees or our local partners fail to comply with such laws. Such damage to our reputation could adversely affect our ability to grow our business. Additionally, violations of such laws could subject us to significant fines and penalties.

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We incur increased expenses as a result of being a public company and our current resources may not be sufficient to fulfill our public company obligations.

We are incurring significant legal, accounting, insurance and other expenses as a result of being a public company, which makes operating our business costly and could cause our results of operations and financial condition to suffer. Compliance with applicable securities laws in the United States and Canada and the rules of the NYSE and TSX substantially increases our expenses, including our legal and accounting costs, and makes some activities more time-consuming and costly. Reporting obligations as a public company and our anticipated growth may strain our financial and management systems, processes and controls, as well as our personnel.

These laws, rules and regulations make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as officers. As a result of the foregoing, we expect a substantial increase in legal, accounting, insurance and certain other expenses in the future, which will negatively impact our financial performance and could cause our results of operations and financial condition to suffer.

Failure to comply with requirements to design, implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.

As a public company, we are subject to reporting and other obligations under applicable U.S. and Canadian securities laws and the rules of the NYSE and the TSX. We have significant requirements for enhanced financial reporting and internal controls. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company. If we are unable to establish or maintain appropriate internal financial reporting controls and procedures, it could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations on a timely basis, result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements and harm our results of operations.

We are required to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”) in the second annual report following the completion of the IPO. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. The rules governing the standards that must be met for our management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing and possible remediation. Testing and maintaining internal controls may divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to our business. In addition, once we become an “accelerated filer” or a “large accelerated filer” (as such terms are defined under the Exchange Act), we must include a registered public accounting firm’s attestation report on our internal control over financial reporting in our annual report on Form 20-F pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

In connection with the implementation of the necessary procedures and practices related to internal control over financial reporting, we may identify deficiencies that we may not be able to remediate in time to meet the deadline imposed by U.S. and/or Canadian securities laws, including pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In addition, we may encounter problems or delays in completing the remediation of any deficiencies identified by our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with the issuance of their attestation report. Our testing, or the subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses which could result in a material misstatement of our annual consolidated financial statements, our interim reports, or disclosures that may not be prevented or detected.

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We do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls over financial reporting will prevent all error and fraud. The inherent limitations include the realities that judgements in decision making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple errors or mistakes. Controls can also be circumvented by individual acts of certain persons, by collusion of two or more people or by management override of the controls. Due to the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and may not be detected in a timely manner or at all. We may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with U.S. and/or Canada securities laws, including, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or our independent registered public accounting firm may not issue an unqualified opinion. If either we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting or our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to provide us with an unqualified opinion, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our subordinate voting shares and make us subject to investigations by the stock exchanges on which our securities are listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources. Failure to accurately report our financial performance on a timely basis could also jeopardize our listing on the NYSE and/or TSX or any other stock exchange on which our subordinate voting shares may be listed. Delisting of our subordinate voting shares on any exchange would reduce the liquidity of the market for our subordinate voting shares, which would reduce the price of and increase the volatility of the market price of our subordinate voting shares.

Efforts by labour unions could divert management attention and adversely affect operating results.

From time to time, labour unions attempt to organize our employees. Negotiating collective bargaining agreements could divert management’s attention, which could adversely affect operating results. Additional groups of employees may seek union representation in the future. As a result of these activities, we may be subject to unfair labour practice charges, complaints and other legal, administrative and arbitral proceedings initiated against us by unions or employees, which could divert management’s attention from our operations, resulting in an adverse impact on our operating results. If we are unable to negotiate acceptable collective bargaining agreements, we may be subject to labour disruptions, such as union-initiated work stoppages or strikes. Depending on the type and duration of any labour disruptions, our operating expenses could increase significantly, which could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. While the majority of our collective agreements contain “no strike” clauses, extended labour disruptions could impact our ability to fulfill our contractual obligations to municipalities and other customers and result in termination of our contracts.

Our accruals for our landfill site closure and post-closure costs and contamination-related costs may be inadequate.

We are required to pay capping, closure and post-closure maintenance costs for all of our owned landfill sites, and in some instances landfill sites that we manage. Our estimates or assumptions concerning future cell development, landfill closure or post-closure costs may turn out to be significantly different from actual results. Our obligations to pay closure or post-closure costs or other contamination-related costs may exceed the amount we have accrued and reserved from funds or reserves established to pay such costs. In addition, subsequent to the completion or closure of a landfill site, we may be liable for unforeseen environmental issues, which could result in our payment of substantial remediation costs. To the extent that such events occur at a landfill, cash expenditures for closure and post-closure could be accelerated, results of operations and cash flow estimates may be adversely affected and the carrying amount of the landfill may be subject to impairment testing, which could adversely affect our financial condition or operating results and could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

Our business may be interrupted by litigation or regulatory or activist action.

We may, in the normal course of business, be subject to judicial, administrative or other third-party proceedings that could interrupt or limit our operations, result in adverse judgements, settlements or fines and create negative publicity. Many of these matters raise difficult and complicated factual and legal issues and are subject to uncertainties and complexities. In addition, individuals or environmental activists could lobby governments to limit the scope of our operations, especially in connection with obtaining new or expanded permits and regulating disposal sites for remediated soils and organic waste processing facilities. The timing of the final resolutions to lawsuits, regulatory inquiries and governmental and other legal proceedings is uncertain. Additionally, the possible outcomes or resolutions to these matters could include adverse judgements, orders or settlements or require us to implement corrective measures or facility modifications, any of which could require substantial payments. Any adverse outcome in such proceedings could adversely affect our operations and financial results, which could cause the price of our subordinate voting shares to decline.

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Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities

The Investors continue to have significant influence over us and decisions that require shareholder approval, and your interests as a shareholder may conflict with the interests of our Investors.

Our multiple voting shares have 10 votes per share and our subordinate voting shares have one vote per share. Collectively, the Dovigi Group holds all of our issued and outstanding multiple voting shares, which represents approximately 3.4% of our total issued and outstanding Shares and approximately 26.3% of the voting power attached to all of the Shares. Each of Sejosa Holdings Inc., Sejosa II Holdings Inc., Josaud Holdings Inc. and Josaud II Holdings Inc. is owned directly or indirectly by Patrick Dovigi, his family members and discretionary trusts settled by family members of Patrick Dovigi.

As of December 31, 2020, the Investors held approximately 63.7% of our total issued and outstanding Shares and approximately 72.3% of the voting power attached to all of the Shares.

The Investors have significant influence over us and decisions that require shareholder approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions. As long as the Investors, or affiliates thereof, own or control at least a majority of the voting power attached to all of the shares, they have the ability to exercise substantial control over all corporate actions requiring shareholder approval, irrespective of how our other shareholders may vote, including the election and removal of directors and the size of our board of directors, any amendment of our Articles or by-laws, or the approval of any significant corporate transaction, including a sale of substantially all of our assets. Even if their ownership falls below 50% of the voting power attached to all of the shares, the Investors, or affiliates thereof, will continue to be able to strongly influence or effectively control our decisions. The Investor Rights Agreements that the Investors have entered into provide the Investors with certain director nomination rights and pre-emptive rights to subscribe for additional subordinate voting shares (or multiple voting shares, as applicable).

Each of our directors and officers owes a fiduciary duty to us and must act honestly and in good faith with a view to our best interests. However, any director and/or officer that is a shareholder, even a controlling shareholder, is entitled to vote its shares in its own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our shareholders generally. The concentration of voting power may have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of our Company, impeding a merger, consolidation, takeover or other business combination involving us or discouraging a potential acquirer from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on the market prices of our subordinate voting shares, the TEUs, the separate Purchase Contracts and the Amortizing Notes. The issuance of stock options and other convertible securities could lead to greater concentration of subordinate voting share ownership among insiders and could lead to dilution of subordinate voting share ownership which could lead to depressed subordinate voting share prices. Furthermore, the conversion of multiple voting shares to subordinate voting shares could lead to dilution of subordinate voting share ownership. We may also take actions that shareholders that are not Investors or party to the Investor Rights Agreements or holders of TEUs do not view as beneficial, which may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition and cause the value of your investment to decline.

Certain Investors have representation on our board of directors. This could lead to conflicts of interest, real or perceived, at the board or management level where the interests of the Investors may differ from other stakeholders. Further, the Investors are in a position to effectively influence our management, and their interests may differ from those of the holders of our subordinate voting shares and holders of the TEUs. If the Investors exercise such rights, a change of control may occur and we will be required to comply with the change of control offer obligations under the indentures governing our Notes, the TEUs and other agreements.

The issuance of additional subordinate voting shares, multiple voting shares or preferred shares, as well as the conversion of Convertible Preferred Shares or the settlement of the Purchase Contracts for subordinate voting shares, may have a dilutive effect on the interests of our shareholders.

The issuance of additional subordinate voting shares, multiple voting shares or preferred shares may have a dilutive effect on the interests of our shareholders. The number of subordinate voting shares, multiple voting shares and preferred shares that we are authorized to issue is unlimited. We may, in our sole discretion, subject to applicable law and the rules of the NYSE and the TSX, issue additional multiple voting shares, subordinate voting shares or preferred shares from time to time (including pursuant to any equity-based compensation plans that may be introduced in the future), and the interests of shareholders may be diluted thereby. In addition, the Convertible Preferred Shares can be converted into subordinate voting shares by the holder at any time at its election and the Purchase Contracts, which form part of the TEUs, will settle for subordinate voting shares. For more information on the Convertible Preferred

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Shares, see the risk factor entitled “Holders of our Convertible Preferred Shares have different rights and privileges than holders of subordinate voting shares”, below.

As a foreign private issuer, we are not subject to certain U.S. securities law disclosure requirements that apply to a domestic U.S. issuer, which may limit the information publicly available to our shareholders. We are also permitted to rely on exemptions from certain governance standards applicable to domestic U.S. issuers.

We are a “foreign private issuer”, as such term is defined in Rule 3b–4 under the Exchange Act. As a foreign private issuer, we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and therefore there may be less publicly available information about us than if we were a domestic U.S. issuer. For example, we are not subject to the proxy rules in the United States and disclosure with respect to our annual meetings is governed by Canadian requirements. In addition, our officers, directors and Investors are exempt from the reporting and short-swing profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and the rules thereunder. Therefore, our shareholders may not know on a timely basis when our officers, directors and Investors purchase or sell our subordinate voting shares. We are not required under the Exchange Act to file reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as domestic U.S. issuers whose securities are registered under the Exchange Act, we are permitted to disclose limited compensation information for our executive officers on an individual basis, and we are generally exempt from filing quarterly reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. Moreover, we are not required to comply with Regulation FD, which restricts the selective disclosure of material non-public information to, among others, broker-dealers and holders of a company’s securities under circumstances in which it is reasonably foreseeable that the holder will trade in the company’s securities on the basis of the information. These exemptions and leniencies reduce the frequency and scope of information and protections to which you may otherwise have been eligible in relation to a domestic U.S. issuer.

We may also take advantage of certain provisions in the NYSE Listing Rules that allow us to follow Canadian law for certain governance matters. Applicable Canadian securities laws encourage, but do not require, that a majority of our board of directors consist of independent directors, that we establish a compensation committee and a nominating committee that is comprised entirely of independent directors, and that the independent directors hold regularly scheduled meetings at which non-independent directors and members of management are not in attendance. Accordingly, in the future, the practices and the responsibilities, as well as composition and independence of our board of directors and its compensation and nominating committees may vary from the requirements of NYSE Listing Rules applicable to domestic U.S. issuers. Although we currently follow the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE and do not avail ourselves of the exemptions afforded to foreign private issuers under the NYSE Listing Rules, to the extent permitted pursuant to the NYSE foreign private issuer exemptions, we may in the future decide to follow Canadian corporate governance practices instead of some or nearly all of the NYSE’s corporate governance requirements applicable to domestic U.S. issuers. Following our “home country” governance practices may provide less protection than is accorded to investors under the NYSE Listing Rules applicable to domestic U.S. issuers. See Item 16G. — “Corporate Governance”.

We may lose foreign private issuer status in the future, which could result in significant additional costs and expenses to us.

We may in the future lose our foreign private issuer status if a majority of our shares are held in the U.S. and we fail to meet the additional requirements necessary to avoid loss of foreign private issuer status, such as if: (1) a majority of our directors or executive officers are U.S. citizens or residents; (2) a majority of our assets are located in the U.S.; or (3) our business is administered principally in the U.S.

Our loss of foreign private issuer status would make U.S. regulatory provisions mandatory. If we lose our foreign private issuer status and decide, or are required, to register as a domestic U.S. issuer, the regulatory and compliance costs to us will be significantly more than the costs incurred as a foreign private issuer. In such event, we would not be eligible to use foreign issuer forms and would be required to file periodic and current reports and registration statements on domestic U.S. issuer forms with the SEC, which are generally more detailed and extensive than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We would also be required to follow U.S. proxy disclosure requirements, including the requirement to disclose more detailed information about the compensation of our senior executive officers. We may also be required to modify certain of our policies to comply with accepted governance practices associated with domestic U.S. issuers. Such conversion and modifications will involve additional costs. In addition, we would lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements on U.S. stock exchanges that are available to foreign private issuers.

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The market price of our subordinate voting shares may be volatile, which could result in substantial losses for investors.

Securities markets worldwide have experienced, and are likely to continue to experience, significant price and volume fluctuations and have become especially volatile due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This market volatility, as well as general economic, market or political conditions, could subject the market price of our subordinate voting shares to wide price fluctuations regardless of our operating performance. Some of the factors that may cause the market price of our subordinate voting shares to fluctuate include:

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Stock markets have historically experienced substantial price and volume fluctuations. Broad market and industry factors may harm the market price of our subordinate voting shares. Hence, the market price of our subordinate voting shares could fluctuate based upon factors that have little or nothing to do with us, and these fluctuations could materially reduce the market price of our subordinate voting shares regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has been instituted against that company. If we were involved in any similar litigation, we could incur substantial costs, our management’s attention and resources could be diverted and it could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

In addition, the market price of the TEUs, the separate Purchase Contracts and the Amortizing Notes may be influenced by yield and interest rates in the capital markets, the time remaining to the mandatory settlement date, our creditworthiness and the occurrence of certain events affecting us that do not result in an adjustment to the minimum settlement rate, maximum settlement rate, reference price and threshold appreciation price, or that result in an adjustment that is not adequate compensation for lost value. In general, as market interest rates rise, notes (such as the Amortizing Notes) bearing interest at a fixed rate generally decline in value because the premium, if any, over market interest rates will decline. We cannot predict the future level of market interest rates. Fluctuations in yield rates in particular may give rise to arbitrage opportunities based upon changes in the relative values of the TEUs, the separate Purchase Contracts, the Amortizing Notes and our subordinate voting shares. Any such arbitrage could, in turn, affect the market prices of our subordinate voting shares, the TEUs, the separate Purchase Contracts and the Amortizing Notes. The market price of our subordinate voting shares could also be affected by possible sales of our subordinate voting shares by investors who view the TEUs and/or separate Purchase Contracts as a more attractive means of equity participation in us and by hedging or arbitrage trading activity that we expect to develop involving the TEUs, the separate Purchase Contracts and our subordinate voting shares. This trading activity could, in turn, affect the market price of the TEUs, the separate Purchase Contracts and the subordinate voting shares.

The subordinate voting shares are equity interests and are subordinate to our existing and future indebtedness and preferred shares.

Our subordinate voting shares are equity interests and do not constitute indebtedness. As such, the subordinate voting shares rank junior to all of our indebtedness and to other non-equity claims against us and our assets available to satisfy claims against us, including in a liquidation. Additionally, holders of our subordinate voting shares are subject to the prior liquidation rights of holders of our Convertible Preferred Shares and the prior dividend and liquidation rights of any other preferred shares, to the extent we issue preferred shares in the future and the preferred shares remain outstanding at that time. Under the terms of our Articles, our board of directors is authorized to issue classes or series of preferred shares and to determine the preferences, limitations and relative rights of preferred shares and to fix the number of shares constituting any series and the designation of such series, without any further vote or action by our shareholders. Our board of directors is also authorized to issue additional debt. Upon liquidation, lenders and holders of our debt securities and preferred shares would receive distributions of our available assets prior to holders of our subordinate voting shares.

Holders of our Convertible Preferred Shares have different rights and privileges than holders of subordinate voting shares.

The issuance of preferred shares, including Convertible Preferred Shares, dilutes the ownership of holders of subordinate voting shares in the Company and may decrease the amount of cash available for distribution of each subordinate voting share. The Convertible Preferred Shares can be converted by the holder at any time at its election. The Company may also require the conversion of the Convertible Preferred Shares at an earlier date in certain circumstances. The preferred shares, including the Convertible Preferred Shares have rights, preferences and privileges that are not held by, and are preferential to the right of, holders of the subordinate voting shares. See Item 10B. — “Additional Information” — “Memorandum and Articles of Association” —”Convertible Preferred Shares”.

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Our level of indebtedness may increase and reduce our financial flexibility.

We are currently indebted under our Credit Agreements and our Notes and we may incur additional indebtedness under the Credit Agreements or otherwise in the future. We are exposed to changes in interest rates on our cash and cash in escrow, bank indebtedness and long-term debt. Debt issued at variable rates exposes us to cash flow interest rate risk. Debt issued at fixed rates exposes us to fair value interest rate risk. Our borrowings, current and future, will require interest payments and need to be repaid or refinanced, could require us to divert funds identified for other purposes to debt service and could create additional cash demands or impair our liquidity position and add financial risk for us. Diverting funds identified for other purposes for debt service may adversely affect our business and growth prospects. If we cannot generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt, we may need to refinance our debt, dispose of assets, reduce or delay expenditures or issue equity to obtain necessary funds. We do not know whether we would be able to take any of these actions on a timely basis, on terms satisfactory to us or at all.

Our level of indebtedness could affect our operations in several ways, including the following:

In addition to our debt service obligations, our operations require material expenditures on a continuing basis. Our ability to make scheduled debt payments, to refinance our obligations with respect to our indebtedness and to fund capital and non-capital expenditures necessary to maintain the condition of our operating assets and properties, as well as our capacity to fund the growth of our business, depends on our financial and operating performance. General economic conditions and financial, business and other factors affect our operations and our future performance. Many of these factors are beyond our control. We may not be able to generate sufficient cash flows to pay the interest on our debt, and future working capital, borrowings or equity financing may not be available to pay or refinance such debt.

We may be unable to maintain our credit rating.

We may be unable to maintain our credit rating or execute our financial strategy. Our ability to execute our financial strategy depends in part on our ability to maintain not less than the current ratings on our debt. Moody’s and S&P have both assigned us non-investment grade credit ratings. The credit rating process is contingent upon a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Our rating may not remain in effect for any given period of time and our rating may be revised or withdrawn entirely by the rating agency in the future if, in its judgement, circumstances so warrant. If we cannot maintain our current rating, our interest expense could increase and our ability to obtain financing on favourable terms may be adversely affected.

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Our ability to pay dividends and to meet our debt obligations depends on the performance of our subsidiaries and the ability to utilize the cash flows from our subsidiaries.

Payment of dividends is dependent on cash flows of the business and is subject to change. The declaration and payment of future dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors, are subject to compliance with applicable law and any contractual provisions, including under the Credit Agreements and other agreements governing our current and future indebtedness, that restrict or limit our ability to pay dividends, and will depend upon, among other factors, our results of operations, financial condition, earnings, capital requirements and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. There can be no assurance that we will be in a position to pay dividends at the same rate (or at all) in the future.

Our subsidiaries conduct a portion of our operations and own a portion of our consolidated assets. Consequently, our ability to pay dividends and meet our debt and other obligations depends on cash flows from our subsidiaries and, in the short term, our ability to raise capital from external sources. In the long term, cash flows from our subsidiaries depend on their ability to generate operating cash flows in excess of their own expenditures, common and preferred stock dividends (if any), and debt or other obligations. Our subsidiaries are separate and distinct legal entities that are not obligated to pay dividends or make loans or distributions to us (whether to enable us to pay dividends on our multiple voting shares and subordinate voting shares, to pay principal and interest on our debt, to settle, repurchase or redeem our debt (including the Amortizing Notes) or other securities (including the Purchase Contracts), or to satisfy our other obligations). In addition, certain of our subsidiaries may be limited in their ability to pay dividends or make loans or distributions to us, including, without limitation, as a result of legislation, regulation, court order, contractual restrictions (including pursuant to our credit facilities) and other restrictions or in times of financial distress. As a result, we may not be able to cause our subsidiaries and other entities to distribute funds or provide loans sufficient to enable us to pay dividends and meet our debt and other obligations.

A significant portion of our total outstanding subordinate voting shares may be sold into the public market in the near future, which could cause the market price of our subordinate voting shares to drop significantly.

As of December 31, 2020, an aggregate principal amount totaling approximately $1,074.6 million was outstanding under the Margin Loans. Each of the Margin Loan Borrowers used the proceeds of its Margin Loan received in connection with the IPO to subscribe for additional shares of Holdings or to make a loan to Holdings, such that Holdings used the proceeds to redeem the 11.000% paid in kind notes of Holdings in full. Each Margin Loan is secured under a security and pledge agreement by a pledge of all of the subordinate voting shares or multiple voting shares held by the relevant Margin Loan Borrower, including those acquired with the proceeds from the Margin Loan (other than those sold by the selling shareholder in the IPO), representing, in aggregate, 211,250,609 subordinate voting shares and 12,062,964 multiple voting shares (67.2% of the number of subordinate voting shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020 and all of the issued and outstanding multiple voting shares). Each Margin Loan has a scheduled maturity of March 5, 2023, other than the Dovigi Group’s Margin Loan, which has a scheduled maturity of December 15, 2022, provided that such scheduled maturity date may be extended in certain circumstances to December 15, 2024.

One or more of the Margin Loan Borrowers may consider it advisable, from time to time, subject to certain requirements under the terms of the Margin Loans, to sell subordinate voting shares in order to finance the repayment of their respective Margin Loans, which number of shares may individually or in the aggregate be significant. In addition, if the price of our subordinate voting shares declines to a level that results in a margin call, absent a repayment of the applicable Margin Loans, the Margin Loan Borrowers would be required to provide additional collateral. In the case of nonpayment at maturity or another event of default (including but not limited to the Margin Loan Borrowers’ inability to satisfy a margin call as described above), the lenders may, in addition to other remedies, exercise their rights under the Margin Loans to foreclose on and sell or cause the sale of the subordinate voting shares and multiple voting shares pledged by a Margin Loan Borrower under a Margin Loan. If subordinate voting shares (including subordinate voting shares issuable upon the conversion of the multiple voting shares) are sold by the Margin Loan Borrowers or by or on behalf of the lenders, such sales could cause our share price to decline.

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Because we are incorporated in Ontario, all or a substantial portion of our assets are located in Canada and some of our directors and officers are resident in Canada, it may be difficult for investors in the United States to enforce civil liabilities against us based solely upon the federal securities laws of the United States. Similarly, it may be difficult for Canadian investors to enforce civil liabilities against our directors and officers residing outside of Canada.

We are a corporation incorporated under the laws of Ontario with our principal place of business in Vaughan, Canada. Some of our directors and officers and the auditors are residents of Canada and all or a substantial portion of our assets and those of such persons are located outside the United States. Consequently, it may be difficult for U.S. investors to effect service of process within the United States upon us or our directors or officers or such auditors who are not residents of the United States, or to realize in the United States upon judgements of courts of the United States predicated upon civil liabilities under the Securities Act. Investors should not assume that Canadian courts: (1) would enforce judgements of U.S. courts obtained in actions against us or such persons predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws or the securities or blue sky laws of any state within the United States or (2) would enforce, in original actions, liabilities against us or such persons predicated upon the U.S. federal securities laws or any such state securities or blue sky laws.

Similarly, some of our directors and officers are residents of countries other than Canada and all or a substantial portion of the assets of such persons are located outside Canada. As a result, it may be difficult for Canadian investors to initiate a lawsuit within Canada against these non-Canadian residents. In addition, it may not be possible for Canadian investors to collect from these non-Canadian residents judgements obtained in courts in Canada predicated on the civil liability provisions of securities legislation of certain of the provinces and territories of Canada. It may also be difficult for Canadian investors to succeed in a lawsuit in the United States, based solely on violations of Canadian securities laws.

We are governed by the corporate laws in Ontario, Canada, which in some cases have a different effect on shareholders than the corporate laws in Delaware, United States.

The material differences between the OBCA and our Articles as compared to the DGCL which may be of most interest to shareholders include the following: (1) for material corporate transactions (such as mergers and amalgamations, other extraordinary corporate transactions and amendments to our Articles), the OBCA generally requires at least a two-thirds majority vote by shareholders, whereas the DGCL generally only requires a majority vote of shareholders for similar material corporate transactions; (2) under the OBCA, shareholders holding 5% or more of our subordinate voting shares in the aggregate can requisition a special meeting at which any matters that can be voted on at our annual meeting can be considered, whereas the DGCL does not give this right; (3) the OBCA requires at least a 50% +1 majority vote by shareholders to pass a resolution for one or more directors to be removed unless otherwise specified in the company’s articles, whereas the DGCL only requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shareholders; however, many public company charters limit removal of directors to a removal for cause; and (4) under the OBCA and our Articles, our authorized share structure can be amended by a special resolution of the shareholders (and a special separate resolution may be required by shareholders of a share class or series whose rights will be prejudiced), whereas under the DGCL, a majority vote by shareholders is generally required to amend a corporation’s certificate of incorporation and a separate class vote may be required to authorize alterations to a corporation’s authorized share structure.

Our Articles and by-laws provide that any derivative actions, actions relating to breach of fiduciary duties and other matters relating to our internal affairs will be required to be litigated in Canada, which could limit your ability to obtain a favourable judicial forum for disputes with us.

We have adopted a forum selection provision that provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Superior Court of Justice of the Province of Ontario, Canada and appellate courts therefrom (or, failing such court, any other “court” as defined in the OBCA, having jurisdiction, and the appellate courts therefrom), will be the sole and exclusive forum for (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (2) any action or proceeding asserting a breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us, or (3) any action or proceeding asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the OBCA or our Articles. Our forum selection provision also provides that our shareholders are deemed to have consented to personal jurisdiction in the Province of Ontario and to service of process on their counsel in any foreign action initiated in violation of our provision. Therefore, it may not be possible for shareholders to litigate any action relating to the foregoing matters outside of the Province of Ontario. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our forum selection provision applies to claims arising under U.S. federal securities laws. In addition, investors cannot waive compliance with U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

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Our forum selection provision seeks to reduce litigation costs and increase outcome predictability by requiring derivative actions and other matters relating to our affairs to be litigated in a single forum. While forum selection clauses in corporate charters and by-laws/articles are becoming more commonplace for public companies in the United States and have been upheld by courts in certain states, a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada has cast some uncertainty as to whether forum selection clauses would be upheld in Canada. Accordingly, it is possible that the validity of our forum selection provision could be challenged and that a court could rule that such provision is inapplicable or unenforceable. If a court were to find our forum selection provision inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions and we may not obtain the benefits of limiting jurisdiction to the courts selected.

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of insurance coverage available to us.

Our by-laws provide for the indemnification of our directors and officers. In addition, we entered into agreements prior to the closing of the IPO to indemnify our directors, executive officers and other employees as determined by our board of directors. Under the terms of the indemnification agreements with our director nominees and each of our directors and officers, we are required to indemnify each of our directors and officers, to the fullest extent permitted by the laws of Ontario, Canada, if the basis of the indemnitee’s involvement was by reason of the fact that the indemnitee is or was a director or officer of the Company or any of its subsidiaries. We must indemnify our officers and directors against all reasonable fees, expenses, charges and other costs of any type or nature whatsoever, including any and all expenses and obligations paid or incurred in connection with investigating, defending, being a witness in, participating in (including on appeal), or preparing to defend, be a witness or participate in any completed, actual, pending or threatened action, suit, claim or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, or establishing or enforcing a right to indemnification under the indemnification agreement. The indemnification agreements also require us, if so requested, to advance within 30 days of such request all reasonable fees, expenses, charges and other costs that such director or officer incurred, provided that such person will return any such advance if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification by us. Any claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of insurance coverage available to us.

Provisions of Canadian law may delay, prevent or make undesirable an acquisition of all or a significant portion of our shares or assets.

The Investment Canada Act subjects direct acquisition of control (as defined therein) of us by a “non-Canadian” (as defined therein) to government review. A reviewable acquisition may not proceed unless the relevant Minister is satisfied that the investment is likely to be of net benefit to Canada. This could prevent or delay a change of control and may eliminate or limit strategic opportunities for shareholders to sell their subordinate voting shares.

Furthermore, acquisitions of our subordinate voting shares may be subject to filing and clearance requirements under the Competition Act (Canada) where certain thresholds are exceeded. This legislation permits the Commissioner of Competition, or Commissioner, to review any acquisition or establishment, directly or indirectly, including through the acquisition of shares, of control over or of a significant interest in us. Otherwise, there are no limitations either under the laws of Canada or Ontario, or in our Articles on the rights of non-Canadians to hold or vote our subordinate voting shares. Any of these provisions may discourage a potential acquirer from proposing or completing a transaction that may have otherwise presented a premium to our shareholders.

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The Amortizing Notes are subject to the prior claims of any secured creditors, and if a default occurs, we may not have sufficient funds to fulfill our obligations under the Amortizing Notes.

The Amortizing Notes are unsecured obligations, ranking equally with our other senior unsecured indebtedness and effectively junior to any existing and future secured indebtedness we may incur. The indenture that governs the Amortizing Notes does not restrict our or our subsidiaries’ ability to incur additional debt (including secured debt) and, if we do incur additional secured debt, our assets securing any such indebtedness will be subject to prior claims by our secured creditors. In the event of the bankruptcy, insolvency, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or other winding up of our Company, our assets that secure debt will be available to pay obligations on the Amortizing Notes only after all debt secured by those assets has been repaid in full. Holders of the Amortizing Notes will participate in any remaining assets ratably with all of our other unsecured and unsubordinated creditors, including trade creditors. If there are not sufficient assets remaining to pay all creditors, then all or a portion of the Amortizing Notes then outstanding would remain unpaid. Additionally, if any portion of the amount payable on the Amortizing Notes upon acceleration is considered by a court to be unearned interest, the court could disallow recovery of any such portion.

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ITEM 4. INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY

We were incorporated in Ontario, Canada as GFL Environmental Inc. on December 19, 2007 under the OBCA, by Patrick Dovigi, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer. We changed our name to GFL Environmental Corporation on February 1, 2011 and became GFL Environmental Inc. on November 3, 2013. On May 31, 2018, GFL Environmental Holdings Inc. (“Holdings”), a predecessor to GFL Environmental Inc., amalgamated with Hulk Acquisition Corp. in connection with the investment in Holdings by certain funds and other entities managed, advised or controlled by or affiliated with BC Partners, an entity affiliated with Ontario Teachers, and affiliates of Patrick Dovigi, our Founder, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer (collectively, the “Recapitalization”).

On March 5, 2020, we completed our initial public offering of 75,000,000 subordinate voting shares and a concurrent public offering of 15,500,000 TEUs for total gross proceeds to us of $2,888.8 million (US$2,168.8 million) (collectively, the “IPO”). In connection with the IPO, GFL Environmental Inc. amalgamated with Holdings and continued as GFL Environmental Inc. In connection with such amalgamation, we amended our Articles to, among other things, create an unlimited number of subordinate voting shares, an unlimited number of multiple voting shares, and an unlimited number of preferred shares. All of the issued and outstanding shares of Holdings were then exchanged for subordinate voting shares and multiple voting shares of the Company.

Our Articles were further amended on September 30, 2020 to create the Convertible Preferred Shares. GFL subsequently amalgamated with certain of its wholly owned subsidiaries on January 1, 2021.

Our subordinate voting shares trade on the NYSE and the TSX under the symbol “GFL” and our TEUs trade on the NYSE under the symbol “GFLU”.

Our fiscal year ends on December 31 of each calendar year. Our Annual Financial Statements as of December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, and for the periods ended December 31, 2018 and May 31, 2018, reflect the periods both prior and subsequent to the Recapitalization. Our fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, which we refer to as “Fiscal 2018”, is presented separately for (i) the predecessor period from January 1, 2018 through May 31, 2018, which we refer to as the “Predecessor 2018 Period”, and (ii) the successor period from June 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018, which we refer to as the “Successor 2018 Period”, with the periods prior to the Recapitalization being labeled as “Predecessor” and the periods subsequent to the Recapitalization being labeled as “Successor”.

Our agent for service of process in the United States is Corporate Creations Network Inc., whose address is 3411 Silverside Road, Tatnall Building, Suite 104, Wilmington, DE 19810.

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Our head and registered office is located at 100 New Park Place, Suite 500, Vaughan, ON, L4K 0H9. Our telephone number at our head and registered office is (905) 326-0101. Our website address is http://gflenv.com. Information contained on, or accessible through, our website is not part of this Annual Report and the inclusion of our website address in this Annual Report is an inactive textual reference. The SEC also maintains a website at http://sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.

For a description of our principal capital expenditures, see Item 4B. “Information on the Company” — “Business Overview”.

We are the fourth largest diversified environmental services company in North America, as measured by revenue and North American operating footprint. We have secured our significant footprint and leadership position in the environmental solutions market through continual innovation, strategic and targeted growth, an inherent commitment to sustainability and investing in our employees and communities.

We operate in the large and stable North American environmental services industry. Key characteristics of our industry include relative recession resistance, high visibility of waste volumes, a stringent regulatory framework, high capital intensity to achieve scale and significant fragmentation which, in turn, has led to strong consolidation activity.

Recognized by our signature fleet of bright green trucks, we offer a robust, integrated and sophisticated approach to meeting all of our customers’ environmental service needs, including the increasing demand for sustainable solutions. Our diversified offerings consist of solid and liquid waste management and infrastructure and soil remediation services, including collection, transportation, transfer, recycling and disposal services for municipal, residential, and commercial and industrial customers. Across our operations, we are supported by more than 15,000 employees.

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Through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, we have built a leading platform with broad geographic reach and scalable capabilities, operating throughout Canada and in 27 states in the United States. The map below shows our strategically-located facility network.

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In each of our markets, our strong competitive position is supported by the significant capital investment that would be required to replicate our valuable network infrastructure and asset base, our productivity from route density that we have developed to date, as well as by the stringent permitting and regulatory compliance requirements to operate a platform of our size.

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Our business is well diversified across business lines, geography and service type, allowing us to maintain strong revenue growth across macroeconomic cycles. We generate 52% of our revenue from our U.S. operations and 48% of our revenue from our Canadian operations. The following chart reflects a breakdown of revenue by business line for each of Fiscal 2020, Fiscal 2019 and Fiscal 2018:

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We intend to continue to leverage our platform to pursue new business opportunities and generate network efficiencies by extending our geographic footprint and increasing regional density across our business lines.

We are led by a team of highly experienced and entrepreneurial executives. Patrick Dovigi, our Founder, Chairman, President and CEO, has led our operations since inception in 2007. Mr. Dovigi and our senior leadership team have instilled a results-oriented, entrepreneurial culture that emphasizes operational excellence, the importance of safety for our employees and creating sustainable solutions that allow our customers and the communities we serve to be “Green For Life”.

We have adopted a decentralized operating structure, giving operational oversight to our regional business leaders. We believe this model is advantageous given the regional and fragmented nature of the markets in which we operate and the relationship-based approach to our acquisition strategy. Furthermore, we believe that our operating structure provides our employees with a greater sense of ownership, which drives the efficiency and profitability of our business and provides us insight into the sustainable solutions and services that matter most to our customers, enhances our return on capital and results in revenue growth. Since inception, our management team has built a platform that we believe positions us well for continued growth, margin expansion and strong free cash flow generation.

We are focused on creating long term value for all of our stakeholders by executing on our growth strategy.

Growth Strategies

We expect to achieve our future growth through a three-pronged strategy of (i) generating strong, stable organic revenue growth, (ii) executing strategic, accretive acquisitions, and (iii) driving operating cost efficiencies across our platform.

Strong, Stable Organic Revenue Growth

We are focused on generating strong, stable organic growth and generating free cash flow by serving our existing customers’ demand for all of the environmental solutions that we offer and by attracting new customers. Our business is well-diversified across business lines, geographies and customers. We believe that our continued success depends on our ability to further enhance and leverage this diversification, a key component of which is our ability to offer our customers a comprehensive service offering across our three business lines. We intend to continue to expand our service offerings into new geographic markets and extend our geographic footprint to increase regional density across our business lines.

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The revenue generated from both our solid and liquid waste management operations in particular is predictable and recurring in nature as a result of the stability of waste generation and the contractual nature of these business lines. We have also historically demonstrated a strong track record of winning renewals or extensions of existing contracts with our municipal customers and winning repeat business with our major infrastructure and soil remediation and liquid waste customers. We also seek price increases necessary to offset increased costs, to improve operating margins and to obtain superior returns on our deployed capital. We believe that we have the ability to continue to grow our revenue and improve operating margins through the implementation of consistent pricing optimization strategies across our platform.

We have a long-standing commitment to investing and developing the increasingly innovative and advanced environmentally- responsible solutions our customers are looking for. As a result, we believe that we are well-positioned to respond to changing customer needs and regulatory demands in order to maintain our success. This includes being able to respond to legal requirements and customer demands for more sustainable solutions including waste diversion from landfill disposal through alternative solutions such as compost processing, soil remediation and resource recovery through recycling, as well as harnessing power generated by landfills.  

Our diversified business model also complements our acquisition strategy. Multiple business lines across different geographies allow us to source acquisitions from a broader pool of potential targets. Maintaining a diversified model is therefore critical to capitalizing on accretive acquisition opportunities and helping to reduce execution and business risk inherent in single-market and single-service offering strategies.

Executing Strategic, Accretive Acquisitions

Our disciplined ability to identify, execute and integrate value-enhancing acquisitions has been a key driver of our growth to date. Since commencing operations in 2007, we have completed over 140 acquisitions. We focus on selectively acquiring premier independent regional operators to create platforms in new markets. We then seek to build scale by making and effectively integrating tuck-in acquisitions that generate meaningful cost synergies by increasing route density and drive margin expansion by leveraging our scalable infrastructure and centralized administrative capabilities. We have a deep and multi-disciplinary team that executes our acquisitions. Such team includes, among others, our Vice President of Corporate Development, our Vice President of Integration, our legal group, corporate development associates, IT professionals, environmental professionals and other support resources.

We have extensive experience in both executing large-scale platform acquisitions and integrating acquired regional businesses into our existing network, expanding their top line revenue and profitability under the GFL banner while maintaining their same high service standards.

While our senior management team is responsible for executing and integrating acquisitions, our decentralized management structure allows us to maintain a robust acquisition pipeline by identifying attractive opportunities at the local market level. We focus on developing relationships with potential vendors over time. Our typical approach to transactions involves engaging internal and/or external specialists and advisors, conducting due diligence, entering into a definitive agreement, closing the transaction and then integrating the acquired business, assets, systems and personnel into our broader operations. We are committed to delivering on the indicative transaction terms we propose to vendors in our letters of intent, including providing a definitive timeline to close. We believe that these core acquisition principles resonate with potential vendors and have enabled us to develop a reputation as an acquirer-of-choice. Additionally, we believe that our entrepreneurial and returns-driven culture is highly attractive to vendors who wish to remain involved in the business after an acquisition has been completed.

Our approach to acquisitions creates meaningful cost synergies by increasing route density and collection volumes, and drives margin expansion by leveraging our scalable infrastructure and centralized administrative capabilities. In addition, successful execution of acquisitions opens new markets to us and provides us with new opportunities to realize cross-selling opportunities.

Driving Operating Cost Efficiencies

In each of our geographic markets, our strong competitive position is supported by and depends on the significant capital investment required to replicate our network infrastructure and asset base, as well as by stringent permitting and regulatory compliance requirements. As we execute on our growth strategies, we intend to continue to leverage our scalable network to attract and retain customers across multiple service lines, realize operational efficiencies that drive operating margin expansion, and realize procurement and cost synergies.

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It is also key that we continue to leverage our scalable capabilities to drive operating margin expansion and realize cost synergies. This includes using the capacity of our existing facilities, technology processes and people to support future growth and provide economies of scale, as well as increasing route density and servicing new contract wins with our existing network of assets and fleet to enhance the profitability of each of our business lines.

Our success also depends on our ability to continue to make strategic investments in our business, including substantial capital investments in our facilities, technology processes and administrative capabilities to support our future growth. Our ability to improve our operating margins and our selling, general and administrative expense margins by maintaining strong discipline in our cost structure and regularly reviewing our practices to manage expenses and increase efficiency will also impact our operating results.

Principal Capital Expenditures

Our capital expenditures for Fiscal 2020, Fiscal 2019 and Fiscal 2018 amounted to $412.3 million, $437.0 million and $210 million, respectively. Our principal capital expenditures over the past three years have been related to investments in our facilities, technology processes and administrative capabilities in both Canada and the United States. We have funded our capital expenditures with our existing resources. Please see Item 4D. “Information on the Company” — “Property, Plants and Equipment” and Item 5B. “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” — “Liquidity and Capital Resources”.

Our Operations

Solid Waste

As of December 31, 2020, we had 195 collection operations, 150 owned or managed solid waste transfer stations, 88 owned or managed landfills, 28 MRFs and 15 organic facilities. Our broad network of solid waste facilities underpins our ability to compete in markets with different disposal dynamics and profitably manage the solid waste volumes that we control. In some markets, we create and maintain vertically integrated operations through which we manage our customers’ waste streams from collection to transfer to disposal. By internalizing waste in those markets where we have vertically integrated operations, we are able to deliver high quality customer service and benefit from a stable and predictable revenue stream while maximizing profitability and cash flow from our operations. In disposal neutral markets, or markets with excess landfill capacity, we leverage our control of the substantial solid waste volumes from our collection and transfer stations to negotiate competitive disposal and pricing terms with third party disposal facilities.

Collection Services

Our collection services are provided to customers under (i) municipal collection contracts, (ii) residential subscription agreements, and (iii) commercial customer service agreements.

Municipal contracts generally provide for curbside collection services for all or a portion of the households within a municipality and/or collection services for all municipal facilities within the municipality or designated portion thereof. Municipal contracts are typically awarded on a competitive bid basis for a term ranging from three to 10 years often with additional one-or two-year renewal terms at the option of the municipality, with subsequent terms being negotiated or rebid. In Canada, municipal contracts typically direct collected waste and recyclables to a municipal disposal facility or a municipally designated facility. In our U.S. operations, municipal contracts typically provide us with final disposal optionality, giving us control of solid waste collected through these contracts. Under residential subscription agreements, we collect various waste streams from residents in one or more areas of a municipality under contract with each resident or with the municipality which gives us the exclusive right to provide collection services to those residents.

The fees we charge under our municipal and residential collection contracts are based on a volume, per household, per service or per lift basis. Certain of our municipal collection contracts include annual price adjustment clauses often tied to changes in an underlying base index such as a CPI and adjustments for fuel costs. We also expect to expand the use of waste-related indices for purposes of the annual price adjustment clauses in these contracts.

Some of these adjustments may only result in price increases while others permit both increases and decreases, in each case, based on the relevant index.

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Our solid waste commercial service contracts that provide for recurring services typically have three to five year terms with automatic renewals, volume-based pricing and CPI or adjustments based on other waste-related indices, fuel and other adjustments. The fees we charge under our commercial services contracts are determined by a variety of factors, including collection frequency, type of service, type and volume or weight of waste, and type of equipment and containers furnished.

The revenue generated through our collection services is predictable and recurring given the longer term nature of our contracts.

Transfer Services

We have a strategically-located network of owned and managed solid waste transfer stations which allows us to consolidate waste received at these facilities from our own collection operations as well as from third-party solid waste collectors for transport to landfills or other disposal sites. We typically control the ultimate disposal location of the waste volumes received at our transfer stations.

In order to develop, own or operate a transfer station, we are required to go through a stringent governmental review processes to obtain one or more permits. Obtaining these permits is difficult, time consuming and expensive.

Our large network of transfer stations enables us to compete in markets with different disposal dynamics and profitably manage the waste volumes that we control. We are able to internalize significant costs by using our own transfer stations for our collection operations and retaining disposal fees that we would otherwise pay to third parties. Our transfer stations also allow us to consolidate our collected volumes in order to reduce our transportation costs to landfills or other disposal sites.

Our transfer stations generate revenue through tipping fees paid to us by third party haulers and waste generators, including many of our collection operation’s competitors, who use our transfer station facilities due to their proximity to the locations from which waste is collected. The tipping fees we charge are generally based on the weight or volume of the waste received at our transfer stations. We also operate transfer stations for municipal owners under a variety of compensation arrangements, including fixed fee arrangements or on a tonnage or other basis.

Landfill, Material Recovery and Organic Processing Services

Our owned landfills generate tipping fees paid to us by municipalities and third-party haulers and waste generators. Our managed landfills in Canada and the United States are under fixed term operating or life-of-site agreements. Under these agreements, the municipality that owns the landfill usually also owns the permit and we provide operations at the landfill, ranging from all daily landfill operations to supervising municipal workers in the conduct of day-to-day operations at the landfill, for a contracted term. In addition, by the terms of these agreements, the municipal property owner, rather than GFL, is generally responsible for final capping, closure and post-closure obligations.

MRFs are specialized facilities that receive, separate and prepare recyclable materials. We offer residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers’ recovery services for a variety of recyclable materials, including fiber/old corrugated cardboard, mixed papers, glass bottles as well as certain plastics and ferrous/non-ferrous metal. Revenue from our MRF operations is largely generated from the processing fees charged to third parties based on the volume of materials received at our facilities. We also generate revenue from the sale of recyclable materials to third parties.

Residential single-stream programs have greatly increased recycling volumes in North America. Single-stream recycling is possible through the use of various artificial intelligence and optical sorting technologies installed at MRFs. We have invested in upgrades to our Denver MRF to create a “next-generation” recycling facility that employs state-of-the-art technology, including robotics, elliptical fiber separation, and optical sorting, to extract items that are recyclable. Our Winnipeg MRF was awarded the National Waste & Recycling Association 2020 Recycling Facility of the Year. The facility includes a fully automated sorting robot that uses sensors to distinguish recyclable materials at ultra-high speed. This artificially intelligent system is one of only a few in service across North America with the capacity to learn, collect data and establish recycling patterns.

Organics facilities recycle organic waste to produce a high quality compost product, fertilizers and other soil supplements. Our organic facilities help communities reduce their overall greenhouse gas footprint by keeping organic waste out of landfills and by generating a compost product from recycled rather than virgin materials.

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Infrastructure and Soil Remediation

Our infrastructure and soil remediation operations are currently concentrated in Southern Ontario and the Northeastern United States, in addition to a facility in California. In this business line, we excavate and transport clean and contaminated soils and remediate and dispose of contaminated and remediated soils. In Canada, we also offer complementary demolition, excavation, shoring and civil services. Soil remediation facilities remediate contaminated soils otherwise destined for landfill disposal for reuse in construction and development projects. As of December 31, 2020, we had 11 soil remediation facilities within our network.

Revenue from our soil remediation operations primarily consists of fees for the excavation and remediation of contaminated soils. Fees are based on the volume of soil being remediated and are typically generated pursuant to short-term, project-specific contracts. We also generate revenue in our infrastructure operations from excavation work which is charged on a per tonne basis, as well as revenue from demolition, infrastructure installation and shoring work that is charged on a project basis. Amounts relating to contract assets are balances due from customers under construction contracts that arise when we receive payments from customers in line with a series of performance related milestones. In our infrastructure business, our work is largely project-based, often involving large multi-year infrastructure projects, such as subway or other large-scale transit expansion projects.

Liquid Waste

In our liquid waste operations, we collect, manage, transport, process and dispose of industrial and commercial liquid wastes, including contaminated waste water, and we resell liquid waste products including UMO and downstream by-products. Our locations also include tank farms where we collect, temporarily store and/or consolidate waste streams for more cost-effective and efficient transportation to end users or to final recycling, treatment or disposal locations. Wherever possible, collected liquid waste (including UMO) is recycled and recovered for reuse, through provincial stewardship programs in Canada. The scale of our operations and breadth of our liquid waste services also allow us to cross-sell solid waste services to our liquid waste customers and liquid waste services to our infrastructure and soil remediation customers in those markets where we operate these lines of business. We also provide a broad range of both regularly scheduled and on-call industrial waste management services, including emergency response services. Revenue in our liquid waste operations is generated from fees charged to customers on a per service, volume and/or hourly basis as well as the sale of UMO and downstream by-products. As of December 31, 2020, we had 75 liquid waste collection, processing or storage facilities.

Customers

We have a large and diverse customer base. Our municipal customer base includes, among others, investment grade-rated municipalities such as the City of Toronto, the City of Hamilton and the City of Vancouver, in Canada and in the United States, the City of Raleigh, the City of Denver and the City of Atlanta, school boards, hospitals and other governmental agencies. Our commercial and industrial customers include large commercial property owners or managers, construction companies, entertainment and recreational facilities and small businesses, such as restaurants. We believe that the breadth of our customer relationships, long-term contracts and high renewal rates provide us with a high degree of revenue and margin stability and visibility.

Management Information and Technology Systems

We have implemented robust infrastructure and information technology systems. We have made significant investments in new technology and in the innovation of existing management and operating processes, including a robust environmental management system that was developed based on the commitments of our Sustainability Policy to track both regulatory compliance and various performance measures. These investments reflect our commitment to providing sustainable environmental solutions for our customers that are also value-enhancing initiatives for our business.

We have core management information systems in place and believe they are scalable to support our future growth plans. This includes our enterprise resource planning system, which connects our accounting and planning functions across our network of facilities and operations. In addition, we have invested in fleet maintenance management and route optimization software systems, as well as in-cab telematics, in order to continually assess and improve our fleet and route management processes, as well as drive performance across our markets and business lines. A focus on fleet optimization and driving performance not only leads to cost savings but also to reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions and improved safety performance.

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Built on the foundation of the commitments contained in our Sustainability Policy, we have also developed and implemented a centrally coordinated Environmental Management System (“EMS”) based upon the principles of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies Compliance Focused EMS. We use our EMS to consistently monitor and ensure environmental compliance and issue management across our operations.  Our EMS is executed at the business line, facility and regional levels through well-defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and is supported by subject matter experts that provide visible leadership and responsibility for tracking and influencing environmental policies and best management practices, as well as assisting operations with identifying and interpreting regulatory requirements

Employee Engagement and Health & Safety

We recognize that we are only as successful as the people we have on our team. Our hard-working, diverse, talented and innovative employees have underpinned our success. Our employees’ hard work, dedication and the pride they show in our business are why we are able to deliver on our promise to meet our customers’ environmental solutions needs safely and efficiently.

We live out our vision of investing in our employees and our communities by developing and maintaining programs that ensure a diverse and safe workforce including through our Safe for Life, health and safety program, that reflects our commitment to supporting a safe environment for our employees as a core part of our business strategy. Safe for Life recognizes that our employees are our greatest asset and our strongest resource in assessing, correcting and executing safe practices. Our commitment to safety extends from our strict regulatory compliance to our wide range of training, coaching and supervision that is based on our internal responsibility system that is designed to ensure that all employees make safe execution of their jobs their first priority by  (i) conducting regular inspections and audits designed to conform adherence to corporate policies and applicable regulations, (ii) documenting standard operating procedures and safe work practices that are used to prevent injuries and illnesses, (iii) engaging communication technologies that centralize corporate data and simplify processes to promote compliance, and (iv) developing a safety culture through regular, timely, job- and task-specific training. We employ technology, including electronic in-cab devices and software compliance tools as part of our Safe for Life system as a tool to enhance daily interactions and supervision. We have been recognized by several health and safety organizations, such as the Infrastructure Health & Safety Association, as well as receiving Certificates of Recognition from the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland issued to companies that provide evidence of their ongoing commitment to safety in the workplace.

We are also fully committed to having a diverse workforce including a diverse leadership team. Forty percent (40%) of our executive leadership team are women and we are implementing programs, through our Women in Waste initiative that we launched in 2019, to increase the participation of women in both hourly and salary roles and to support their training and development within GFL.

Government Regulation

Our operations are subject to a broad range of federal, provincial, state and local laws and regulations in the provinces, states or municipalities in Canada and the U.S. in which we operate. These laws and regulations include requirements to obtain permits, licenses or other governmental authorizations before engaging in various aspects of our operations or as our operations change. Some of these requirements govern our operations at our facilities, the services we perform at our customers’ facilities, as well as the transport of wastes from our own or our customers’ facilities to our own or third party facilities, including, limitations of the types or volume of waste materials that we are authorized to transport, receive, store, treat, recycle or dispose and obligations to investigate, clean-up or take other corrective actions  related to any unauthorized release of regulated materials into the environment. Compliance with this broad range of regulatory requirements requires us to incur both capital and operating expenditures, can be costly and in some instances, difficult to achieve. If we violate any of these laws or regulations, we may be subject to civil or potentially criminal prosecution which may result in the imposition of fines and penalties, some of which may be significant, additional restrictions or limitations on our facilities or operations as well as to the denial or revocation of permits, licenses or authorizations that we require to operate our business. While we believe that our internal management systems are configured to keep our operations in material compliance with applicable federal, state, provincial and local laws, permits, orders and regulations, and that our current operating and capital budgets are adequate to address future compliance  costs, there can be no assurance in this regard. We also anticipate that, given the nature of our business, there will continue to be increased regulation, legislation and regulatory enforcement actions related to our operations. We attempt to anticipate future regulatory requirements and to plan accordingly to remain in compliance with all applicable regulatory frameworks.

In 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, governmental authorities in some of the jurisdictions in which we operate imposed new regulations and orders governing the health and safety of our employees. These regulations in some jurisdictions in which

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we operate also impacted our customers by requiring the temporary shut down or reduction in the permitted scope of many non-essential businesses, including restaurants, bars, gyms, movie theatres and other entertainment or recreational venues.

Canadian Environmental Regulations

Our Canadian operations are primarily regulated by provincial environmental and health and safety legislation, which varies from province-to-province across Canada. Generally, across our business lines, any activity that poses a risk of discharge or release of any material designated as a “contaminant” into the environment requires appropriate provincial permits as well as compliance with applicable, and frequently changing, federal and provincial environmental legislation and regulations. These include provincial legislation that governs discharges into the air or water and include requirements to avoid, reduce and/or clean up substances or wastes discharged into the environment. Our operations are also regulated by municipal by-laws regarding zoning, land use, air emissions, noise, nuisance, wastewater discharge and fill importation.

In several provinces in which we operate, there has been an increasing focus on regulation which encourages or mandates recycling and waste reduction by consumers as well as by certain industrial, commercial, and institutional waste generators. These regulations include laws which prohibit or financially penalize the disposal in landfill of certain types of wastes, such as food and yard waste, tires, batteries, electrical and electronic equipment and certain construction and demolition materials.

In 2020, Ontario introduced for comment a proposed regulation, which if passed, would introduce an EPR regime, starting in 2023. EPR regulations are designed to place either partial or total responsibility on producers to fund the post-use life cycle of the products they create. Along with the funding responsibility, producers may be required to take over management of local recycling programs by taking back their products from end users or managing the collection operations and recycling processing infrastructure. An EPR regime has been in place in British Columbia since 2014. In May of 2020, GFL commenced a 5-year contract with Recycle BC, the association of producers responsible for residential packaging and paper recycling in the province, to process recyclables across British Columbia. GFL expects that other provinces in Canada in which we operate may also adopt EPR legislation in the future.

Federal statutes in Canada also govern certain aspects of our operations, including greenhouse gas emissions from our facilities and the cross border transport of certain kinds of waste between Canada and the U.S. and between provinces in Canada. For example, some of our operations are subject to federal legislation including the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and regulations, particularly the Export and Import of Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Recyclable Material Regulations, the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act and the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and regulations.

The expansion or establishment of certain waste management projects in Canada, including landfills, may also be subject to provincial and/or federal environmental assessment requirements.

All of our business lines are subject to periodic environmental reporting and permitting requirements. Our infrastructure and soil remediation operations are subject to various regulations and standards, including those regulating the permitted levels of contaminants in soil and the disposal of contaminated soil. Our solid and liquid waste operations are subject to extensive governmental regulation of the collection, transportation, processing, storage and disposal of waste, including matters such as the reporting of spills and discharges of contaminants, standards for the operation of waste management systems, transfer stations, landfills, organic waste facilities and storage and processing facilities and prescribed systems for monitoring specified wastes, as well as requirements to post financial assurances to secure closure and post-closure obligations of our facilities.

Remediation of contamination in connection with our business is primarily regulated by provincial environmental laws. While each province has its own regulatory regime, remediation orders can generally be issued on a joint and several liability basis to persons who caused or permitted the discharge of a contaminant, persons who owned the discharged substance, as well as current and past owners of lands or the source of the contamination and persons who have or have had charge, management or control over lands or the source of the contamination, regardless of fault.

In our solid waste and soil remediation operations, we are required to possess appropriate permits in order to collect waste and to conduct operations at our transfer stations, landfills, organic waste facilities and soil remediation facilities. In some jurisdictions, MRFs also require permits to operate. The final disposal of clean and remediated soil is also typically subject to control under municipal fill and site alteration by-laws. In the liquid waste industry, the collection, transport, processing and disposal of liquid waste requires appropriate permitting. The generation and movement of liquid and hazardous wastes are also subject to provincial generator registration

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