Mr. Chair, thank you.

Before I begin my remarks, I'd like to thank my counterpart for the land acknowledgement to begin the meeting today, which we also acknowledge.

Thank you and good afternoon to everyone.

Mr. Chair, our bank, CIBC, traces its roots back to 1867. Since Confederation, we've been an integral part of helping Canadians achieve their ambitions. In our early days, as the Canadian Bank of Commerce, we helped capital flow to Canadian business owners who had aspirations to build our nation. Over the years, we've played a key role in enabling growth and prosperity for families and businesses across our country.

Today we have more than 1,000 banking centres in Canada. Our team, over 48,000 strong, operates with a single purpose, which is to help make your ambitions a reality. That's true for our clients. It's also true for the millions of Canadians who hold an investment in our bank, either directly by holding shares or indirectly through mutual funds and pension plans.

In addition, we're making significant investments to support communities across our country. In 2022, we announced a goal to contribute $800 million over the next decade to community investment initiatives.

Over our long history, we have consistently addressed key issues facing our stakeholders and climate change is no exception. Climate change is a critical global issue of our time. It's one that requires significant coordinated effort to drive change and achieve a more sustainable future for all.

Our bank recognizes that we have a role to play in enabling solutions. We also recognize that natural resources, including oil and gas, play a critical role in Canada's economic foundation and that Canada has a key role to play as a responsible provider of energy to the world—today and through the transition to a lower-carbon future.

We work alongside our clients in these industries to help them achieve their sustainability goals. We provide capital and financial advice to help make innovative energy solutions possible, and we're a leading provider of financing for the renewable energy sector. Our commitment to a more sustainable future includes our stated ambition to achieve net-zero GHG emissions associated with our operational and financing activities by 2050. This ambition is integrated into our business activities.

We also actively engage with our stakeholders to understand their perspectives, just as we're doing today, and to ensure that we're listening, learning and taking into account a wide range of views. We disclose our progress publicly, as in our recent climate report.

We are making progress toward many of the goals we have put in place, including interim targets related to emissions intensity in specific carbon-intensive sectors and mobilizing sustainable finance towards our $300-billion goal by 2030 in support of environmental and social outcomes. This disclosure also enables productive dialogue with our stakeholders on climate-related issues.

We've built accountability into the process. Our ESG index, which includes climate-related goals, forms 10% of our business performance factor at our bank, which impacts compensation across our CIBC team.

It's important to acknowledge that indigenous communities are also central in resource development. The road to net zero involves indigenous lands. CIBC is dedicated to providing tailored and accessible financial services to first nations, Inuit and Métis clients in Canada. We take an active role in partnering with our indigenous clients at the national and local levels. We're proud that, just recently, we received the indigenous reconciliation award as part of the 2024 employment equity achievement awards organized by the Minister of Labour and Seniors.

Within our capital markets business, renewables and energy transition growth are one of our top strategic initiatives, and our team invests significant time and resources in helping companies in this space to grow and achieve scale.

Across our bank, we recognize that climate change is a defining issue of our time. As we've done at our bank since 1867, we're actively supporting the outcomes we all want for the future.

We have a clear ambition and comprehensive disclosures, and we are making progress in helping clients transition their businesses to a low-carbon future.

We acknowledge that there's more work to be done. I believe banks play a vital role as enablers in creating a more sustainable and inclusive future. We're committed to playing our part at CIBC.

Thank you.