Good afternoon,

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice long weekend.

For reasons well known - Inflation, the price of oil, the war in Ukraine, interest rate hikes by central banks and supply chain problems in several economic sectors – 2022 continues to be a difficult year. Since the beginning of the year, the NASDAQ is down almost 27%, the S&P 500 is down almost 17%, the TSX is down more than 4% and the Canadian bond market is also down sharply (the S&P Canada Aggregate Bond Index is down -9.23% and the FTSE Canada Universe Bond Index is down -10.18%).

While 2022 continues to be challenging, it is important to step back to gain context of the holdings and strategy of your portfolio and how it aligns with your investment goals. When we invest in a company, it's because we think their sales and profits are going to increase - not over the last quarter or year, but over the next decade. It's important to evaluate our various metrics and companies over the long term as this tends to isolate the short-term noise and focus on the fundamental strengths of a company.

came across two charts over the weekend that I wanted to pass along to reiterate our view of why we continue to own good quality companies and why we advocate holding these companies through challenging markets. These two charts are as follows and groups the annual returns for the S&P500 and S&P/TSX Composite.

As one can see, staying invested in the market increases the chances of making money for the simple reason that the U.S. stock market and the Canadian stock market have had a positive year +/- 74% of the time since 1920’s. In years where we see big drawn downs, we typically see big gains the following year that get us back on track to reaching your target return.

In summary, we remain calm as we hold good, quality investments. Every company in our portfolio has a resilient business model, competitive positioning, and displays margin defensibility. While challenging and tough to endure, the ups and downs are an integral part of the financial markets and, in the long run, allow for portfolio growth. After three positive years, we have a decline in performance. It is not pleasant but our companies are resilient

Please continue to call us to discuss your financial plan and investment strategy. Our entire team is well positioned to take care of your portfolios and guide them to their destination. We can also be available to speak with any friends or family members who made need reassurance during these times.

We look forward to hearing from you,

Devin