Ontario Premier Doug says he doesn’t have concerns about waste collection giant GFL Environmental relocating its executive headquarters from Vaughan to Florida, a move the company said is motivated by stock market opportunities.
On Wednesday, GFL announced it would relocate its headquarters to Miami Beach to balance equity opportunities, adding it remained committed to having a major Ontario footprint.
“Consistent with our desire to access a wider global investor base across both passive and active strategies, the relocation of our executive headquarters broadens our eligibility for participation in U.S. equity indices while preserving our eligibility for inclusion in Canadian equity indices,” Patrick Dovigi, the founder and CEO of GFL, said in a statement.
“We expect this approach to gaining broader index inclusion will increase GFL’s visibility with investors and ultimately drive a wider shareholder base.”
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Ford, who has railed against Crown Royal for months over its decision to close a 200-worker plant in southwestern Ontario, said Dovigi had called him. He said the move wouldn’t impact Ontario jobs and therefore wasn’t a concern.
“They’re still going to be employing thousands and thousands of people here,” the premier said. “They’re a global company.”
GFL provides solid waste management services in Canada and 18 U.S. states. The U.S. represents more than two-thirds of its revenue.
The company has been contracted by Circular Materials to provide recycling collection in places like Toronto and Peel Region after a transition to privately-funded and operated blue bin collection in Ontario.
Across the province, at the beginning of the year, recycling moved from the umbrella of local governments to a non-profit group — Circular Materials — organized by private sector companies like Costco, Loblaw and McDonald’s after changes to provincial law.
The move shifts responsibility for recycling from municipalities to the companies whose products create packaging, but its launch was far from smooth.
Ford briefly suggested he might tell Circular Materials to pick a new contractor after the launch struggles, but a few days later, he backed away from the idea and said teething issues were normal for new systems.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Sabahat Khan noted GFL will maintain its TSX listing and incorporation in Canada, which means the company remains eligible to be added to indexes such as the TSX60.
“Russell indexes are ‘rules-based’ processes, implying that GFL is likely to be added at the next rebalance, which is expected to be in June,” Khan wrote in a report.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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