Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I can help out on this. The section that was referred to, section 2 of this bill, would clarify the legal capacity of a municipality to enter into a lease for a quarry outside its municipal boundary, just as

they presently have the authority to run a garbage dump or a sewage lagoon outside their municipal boundary, if necessary.

However, the decision as to whether the municipality would end up leasing the quarry site or any other body would depend on who is administering the land. In the case of Fort Simpson, for example, the Commissioner is administering the land and any land application for a quarry outside of the municipality would be reviewed by all the parties who are affected and, presumably, the community would advise who should be leasing it.

At the present time, there is some uncertainty whether one option would be for the municipality to be able to do that. In the context of common law, any person or party should be able to enter into a lease, such as another corporation and so on. But a municipality draws its authority from the act, so we want to make it explicit that the municipality also has this option, if it chose to do that. They are not the only party that could possibly lease a quarry, by any means.