Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at its core, Bill 51 is about making it easier for people to participate in local decision-making. It is about removing unnecessary barriers to voting and making elections more straightforward, both for voters and for those responsible for running them. This bill gives district education authorities the same options that municipalities already have, facilitating alignment of administration where elections are run together. It does not require DEAs to use these tools, to be clear, but certainly gives them the flexibility to do so where it makes sense. This is especially important in communities where efforts are already underway to coordinate municipal and district education authorities' elections. Ultimately, this bill is about improving access, reducing administrative burden, and supporting voter turnout. So it modernizes the system in a simple and practical way while still allowing each district education authority to choose what works best for their community. So I look forward to working with my colleagues to move this important and simple amendment through the House. This is definitely an opportunity for the Assembly to quickly resolve a legislative barrier standing in the way of our education authorities, and I thank my colleagues for their support in bringing it forward.
And if I may, Mr. Speaker, I just want to put a little shout-out to our unsung heroes of our legislative process, the legislative drafters and the various staff working day and night in the background to help keep our system moving forward. I dearly appreciate their work.
And last but not least, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to thank the school boards for bringing this idea forward and encouraging MLAs to make this change. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.