Hello, esteemed committee members. My name is Geoff Morphy. I am the president and CEO of Bitfarms.
Bitfarms was started just over five years ago. Today we are one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies in the world. Our operations are headquartered in Brossard, Quebec. Between Brossard and Sherbrooke, we operate seven specialized computing facilities, as well as several others outside Canada. We currently employ 108 highly trained Canadians, and that number is growing. The average age of our Canadian employees is 33. In Canada, we use over 99% renewable power.
Directly and indirectly, we've added considerable value to the Canadian economy. We pay corporate and other taxes; we have spent almost half a billion dollars on our Canadians operations through investments in construction, materials and equipment; and we generate much-needed revenue for smaller locally owned hydro companies and their municipal owners. In this way, municipalities can better fund maintenance to improve local grid reliability, and our payments help to balance municipal budgets.
Bitfarms is proud of its Canadian foundation, and we are committed to growing our Canadian operations. I look forward to our upcoming discussion.
I turn now to my colleague, Mr. Bennett.