CEO LETTER – September 2019

Firstly I apologize for the gap in issuing you a letter – time seems to have slipped away from me these last many months.

We joke that every 3 months around here, feels like a year, and I must agree with that statement today as I write this letter. Admittedly today’s letter was triggered in part by recent events; as you are aware I lost my father early this month in a senseless tragedy. This loss has taken me off track a little and as always what brings me back to center, is focusing my thoughts towards “My Why” statement.

“To Inspire, Support, Coach and Care for others, whilst collaborating to bring forward positive behaviours into the world “
12 years ago, I lost a very close friend, and it was this tragedy that was paramount in me losing my identity at the time, which in turn took me awhile to find balance in my life again; through that often challenging journey, I was able to find many learnings which helped me find my identify again, or maybe for the first time!! In the end, I was able to summarize my purpose in words through “My Why” statement. These simple few words rolled together provides context around the strings that keep me balanced and those that ensure I am able to be the best ‘me’.

It reminds me that when I truly focus my efforts onto others and their personal and professional well being, by sharing a positive outlook on all matters, we can and will achieve whatever we strive for, together.

I appreciate all your condolences and blessings, you have shown me again how deeply we care for each other, I offer you another heartfelt, Thank You!

As for the Steel River Group of companies, we have spent the last several months focused on our internal ecosystem model. Ensuring we had our unique incubator program initialized and finalizing all our management systems across all business units. We are enormously proud of the deep pool of key people that believed in our model and mission enough to join us over this past year.

Steel River Solutions recently completed a major pipeline project and based on our set KPI’s we can now look back and confirm it was a huge success on all fronts. SRS is positioned to continue bringing our values and One Team approach to our client partners, which includes the introduction of our newly formed partnership with SICIM Italy.

Steel River Water and Steel River Equipment are currently in a rapid growth phase due to recent internal and external demand. Again, with the introduction of key individuals in recent months, both groups can now take complete advantage of the opportunities afforded to us.

Steel River Group remains deeply proud of, and committed to, our ownership stake within Backwoods Energy. Backwoods continues to show its amazing stand-alone growth profile and boundless potential.

We also launched our matting division this past year and Makwa Access Solutions is working within our Ecosystem to supply matts to clients & alliance partners.
Steel River will now begin focusing our efforts towards supporting our newly formed Steel River Infrastructure & Civil Division, that will see us expand services throughout our ecosystems, as well as within other regions of Canada.

In the weeks to come we will be announcing our alignment with select Indigenous communities and look forward to supporting our new friends within our ecosystem.
Giving back was a keen focus for us this year as well, with a committed partnership with Calgary’s Stardale Women’s Group, supporting teenage Indigenous women, as well as, further increasing our involvement with the Boys and Girls club of Alberta. We are proud of supporting youth in sports and we continued our commitment to Dexter Seitz, who achieve astonishing success in 2019. Alan Spoonhunter also has great aspiration for 2020 basketball season as he returns to Edge School for elite athletic-based academic program.

Due to Steel River’s ongoing success we had to relook at our equity solution in order to keep on pace with our growth profile and or alignment in our vision. We decided to repurchase our equity position from Centerfire Group and are now in search of a more compatible long-term equity solution, a group or someone that shares in our vision and can truly support our growth.

We have continued to assemble a group of likeminded, kind individuals under a culture of respect, trust, collaboration and accountability, supporting our families and all relationships within our ecosystem.

Sincerely your CEO,

Trent Fequet