Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this particular juncture, costs and efficiency of the functioning of the board are the greatest concerns we have. For every additional person we put on a board, the costs continue to go up. It's a factor in this particular situation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In this particular case, the indication is that you can only have one representative who has the ability to vote in the divisional education council meetings. That's what it says. You can have other representatives. I think you may be getting into questioning about the chairmanship. Maybe I'm pre-empting the honourable Member. That is how it reads right now.

I can advise the honourable Member that it's certainly not our intention. I think it's a legal interpretation. As long as they recognize those factors and the responsibilities, nobody is going to be chasing after them.

If I could ask Ms. Joyce to answer, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. They could establish a commission or a board, where the numbers warrant. In other words, there is a criteria where numbers have to be considered as part of the basis on which we move from one category of comite to a conseil to a commission. But that's already been determined.

What we are trying to do here is to make it permissive that two or more can get together and form a commission. It can be a territorial organization, or it can be one that's located in a particular community, depending on the numbers and the circumstances. The conseil would have delegated authority on behalf and through the district education authority, but they must clearly have responsibility for managing the programs and the facilities in which they are involved in delivering programs. That is very clear. Thank you.

The conseils, so there's no confusion, are committees. In the case of a board, where there are French parents who have rights to have their children educated in French, there is the ability to set up a council within a district, or within a board. It is basically a subgroup of a board. From the councils where you have two or more, you can combine them to form a commission. The commission is basically the board, a board. They will have the authorities that would normally be extended to boards, such as the Keewatin Divisional Board of Education. They would have those types of authorities with regard to the education of their children. So that's the basis on which they would work.

I must say that the conseil would also have the authority to manage the affairs of their French programming and the facilities in which their children are educated, but that would be dealt with through regulations.

Certainly, Mr. Chairman, if they were able to have those school situations where they had the numbers, they would be eligible for that. In the case of two communities working together, it was our intent to enable those scenarios to occur, to be more supportive rather than restrictive. The interpretation might have gone the other way, but that is certainly not our intention.

Maybe I will ask Ms. Joyce to add further clarification on this, but if there was a situation where they had more students, based on their responsibility, they would have more than once school under them and, therefore, would have more than one conseil. So, that would be taken care of in that situation. I would ask Ms. Joyce to additionally clarify this matter, for the information of the honourable Member, Mr. Chairman.

The amendment removes section (1)(b), the ability to create themselves, and then adds the clarification on liability. That's what it does.