Thank you very much, Chair.
I too want to thank the witnesses and welcome the new members joining us today.
Before I ask questions, I want to correct my NDP colleague. He said in the previous rounds that we are killing the planet. We can't kill the planet. The planet will still be here. It's the next generations that we have to worry about, and he probably would agree with me.
That leads to my observation here today. It's fascinating to talk about what happened or has happened in the last eight years, but what's even more fascinating is that my Conservative colleagues on this committee are still having this policy debate.
The Paris Agreement happened many years ago. I recognize the need for a just transition for the workforce. In November 2016, as noted here in the report, the federal government announced that it would be amending its existing coal-fired electricity regulation to accelerate the phase-out of traditional coal-fired electricity in Canada. I know that predominantly four provinces are affected.
As I go through the report, I read that Alberta and Saskatchewan are accelerating the phasing-out of coal-fired generation and in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick it will probably be a few years before that kicks in. That makes me wonder, in terms of phasing out coal and transiting the workforce, which one is the horse and which one is the carriage, because if it takes a few years for a certain province to phase out coal generation, the workers are still there.
I'm not arguing with the fact that we need to build a framework and have a governance structure to help these workers to transition and help these communities transition. They are very much included in the whole plan. As I was going through the report—
By the way, I just want to confirm something with the commissioner.
In the last eight years, is this the first audit you have done on the just transition?