Thank you very much for the question.
I'm going to break it down into pieces. I think there was a question around the council and how that will operate. There was a question around the independence of the boards, and a question around consultation. There was your first question of why it was set up as an independent commission and why it would no longer be required to be a stand-alone agency.
Again, back in 1988, when WHMIS was established—I wasn't around at the time—there was, I think, a fair amount of concern from industry around how confidential business information would be handled and whether or not Health Canada or another department, I think it was consumer and corporate affairs at the time under the labour program, had the ability to keep that information separate and safe. I think there were also issues around how industry could ensure that the appeals process was being kept separate.
I'll leave it at that, and if you have other questions, I can come back to you with further background on it.
With regard to the new ministerial advisory council, Health Canada has a public document on external advisory bodies that sets out our policy for how external advisory bodies are handled. We would be establishing the council using those same criteria, but very much based on what currently exists in the current council. I think both Shannon and Rita have indicated that the legislation indicates that the membership would be made up of the same kinds of representation. Again, we'd look for nominations to those councils. The council members themselves would vote on the chair, as they currently do under the current council.
One change with respect to the council is that currently the council's ability to provide information is limited to specific issues such as advice on the appeals process, advice on fees. Within the scope of the legislation, we're indicating that the new ministerial advisory council could provide information or advice on any aspect of the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act. There's a bit of a change in the scope in terms of their ability to provide wider advice.