Good morning. Today, we’re looking at the two forces shaping the future of GFL Environmental Inc., one of Canada’s largest companies.
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Big business and bad blood
For the better part of two years, GFL Environmental Inc. has straddled two worlds. One – the familiar, business-as-usual undertakings of being one of North America’s top waste-management companies – was underscored yesterday in a $5.4-billion-acquisition of Calgary-based Secure Waste Infrastructure Corp.
The other has played out across job sites and residential streets, where a series of shootings, arsons and other attacks have targeted GFL facilities and the homes of executives connected to the company.
On Thursday, police arrested the owner of a Toronto-based excavating and shoring firm who has had a history of disputes with firms tied to GFL, later alleging he was behind the September, 2024, shootings at the homes of GFL chief executive Patrick Dovigi and Ted Manziaris, who works with the company’s sister construction business.
The arrest and the acquisition, announced just a few days apart, show the two forces shaping one of Canada’s largest companies at once: a business built by acquiring competitors and expanding into new markets, and a dispute in an industry defined by consolidation at the top and fragmentation below, in which thousands of smaller firms compete with industry giants for regional contracts.
That charges have been laid against a competitor is another twist in a saga that has roiled some of Toronto’s most affluent neighbourhoods, rattled the publicly traded company and shaken its top executives, Globe and Mail reporters Robyn Doolittle and Tim Kiladze revealed in a recent investigation.
The growth of garbage
Waste is big business. In North America, GFL has a market value north of $20-billion and annual revenue of roughly $8-billion, placing it among four top operators that together are worth more than $200-billion.
The company has grown through a series of more than 270 acquisitions across Canada and the United States, impressing investors with steady revenue even as GFL has more recently raised concerns about its debt-heavy approach to buying smaller companies.
Yesterday, after the deal was announced, analysts pressed GFL executives about the rationale for the deal, questioning the price tag and how it fits into the company’s core waste-management business.
The company’s stock ended down about 10 per cent on the day, but it’s up more than 100 per cent since its 2020 listing, and roughly 25 per cent per cent since its 2024 lows – in part because of moves aimed at reducing the amount it owed lenders.
On Sept. 29, 2024, Dovigi was a few months away from the sale of a majority stake in the company’s environmental services division to pay down a chunk of that debt when a gunman opened fire on his home in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood.
Private security guards patrol outside the home of GIP executive Paul Borrelli in Woodbridge, Ont., where a gunman opened fire on March 25.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
A timeline of attacks
Police have linked at least a dozen incidents since mid-2024, including shootings, suspected arsons and vandalism directed at properties, equipment and individuals connected to GFL and its sister construction company, Green Infrastructure Partners Inc., but have not made charges beyond those made last week.
The first attack was reported just after midnight on June 1, 2024, when a gunman entered a yard owned by GIP and fired into a maintenance building, striking the front door, windows and two vehicles.
In the weeks that followed, dump trucks were set ablaze and equipment at a road construction site was burned.
After the September, 2024, shootings directed at the executives’ homes, a GFL office building in north Toronto was found with its front entrance shattered and marked by bullet holes.
Last month, a GFL waste-hauling facility was hit by gunfire twice in the same week — and the homes of two more executives connected to GFL were targeted in back-to-back assaults.
Enter Astro Excavating
In the early 2020s, GFL and Astro Excavating Inc. had a working relationship that was, at minimum, functional and at times mutually beneficial. Astro operated on construction projects across the Greater Toronto Area and, in some cases, used GFL facilities to dispose of contaminated soil.
That connection began to fray in late 2023, when disputes emerged over contracts, hiring and business dealings. Multiple points of friction eventually spilled into a series of messages from Astro founder Ilan Philosophe to executives connected to GFL and GIP, some of them taunting, vulgar and, at times, threatening, Doolittle and Kiladze reported.
In April, 2025, Philosophe was charged with criminal harassment related to those communications. In subsequent interviews with The Globe, he said he regretted the messages and denied any involvement in the attacks that followed.
Now, about a year later, Philosophe is facing charges of discharging a firearm and conspiracy in connection with the September, 2024, shootings.
His lawyer has said the defence will review the evidence and respond in court. The investigation is continuing.
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Morning update
Global stocks rebounded as investors bet on a resolution to the Middle East war even as the U.S. blocked Iran’s ports after the collapse of peace talks at the weekend.
Wall Street futures were in positive territory while awaiting March producer price data and a fresh round of corporate earnings. TSX futures followed sentiment higher.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.64 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.1 per cent, Germany’s DAX rose 0.92 per cent and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.58 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 2.43 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.82 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 72.68 U.S. cents.