Thanks, Marie-Pierre.
We'd also like to flag for the committee that we organize the work along four lines of inquiry, which is the term used in our terms of reference. You can think of the lines of inquiry as our priorities. Our four priorities, or lines of inquiry, were oil and gas, transportation, buildings, and governance. The Net-Zero Advisory Body worked on these priorities throughout the past summer and fall.
As members of the committee are likely aware, in November, 2021, we also received a letter from the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Natural Resources, in which they jointly tasked us as an advisory body to give advice on key guiding principles that the government could use to inform their development of quantitative five-year targets for emissions reductions in the oil and gas sector.
We accepted this task considering that it aligned completely with the act that brought us into being and our terms of reference.
Also, as engagement is central to our mandate, we reached out to sector and scientific experts, to decision-makers, broadly to Canadians, business and industry, as well as to different types of other organizations and associations, including those representing workers and indigenous peoples, to inform our development of guiding principles.
During this engagement, we participated in discussions and briefings with industry leaders, labour groups, indigenous representatives and environmental experts. We received over 1,200 comments and submissions, including from provinces and territories, and we hosted seven round tables with nearly 60 participating organizations.
This engagement took place across all four of our advisory body lines of inquiry, but most submissions reflected on Canada's broader pathways to get to net zero and the implications for the energy sector, specifically the oil and gas industry. This engagement will inform our submission to the Government of Canada, which will be taken into account as the government develops its 2030 emissions reduction plan as required under the act. The Net-Zero Advisory Body is in the process of finalizing its advice for the emissions reduction plan, including guiding principles for setting quantitative emissions reduction targets.
We'd be pleased to share our final advice with members of the committee at the earliest opportunity.
Marie-Pierre and I, on behalf of the whole NZAB are pleased to have been invited to meet with you and look forward to contributing to your deliberations.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.