Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have a very brief statement and then I'll entertain questions. My name is Mark McCombs. I'm legal counsel from the Department of Justice and the head of HRSDC legal services. I'm accompanied by Christian Beaulieu. He's senior counsel in our legal services and head of our legal services social programs group.
I appreciate the opportunity to attend the committee this morning and to respond to any questions you may have. By way of information for the committee, I should mention that my appearance today follows the long-standing tradition of this House that the Department of Justice, in accordance with its mandate, doesn't provide legal advice to Parliament. That is the role of the law clerk. However, Mr. Beaulieu and I will be able to provide technical explanations to the committee on the bill itself, without giving legal advice, and answer questions.
I understand that the committee may have some questions surrounding the use of the federal spending power and how that works. Mr. Beaulieu and I are quite able to answer that. We're quite pleased to talk about the law in that area.