proposal to preserve the separate school systems in Quebec and Ontario. The agreement was written into the Constitution to the effect that the condition of education in each colony (or territory) when it entered Confederation would be constitutionally protected after that. Despite the compromise, the debate over separate Catholic schools continued to be an issue in the new country. Manitoba's adoption of a single, secular school system in 1890 resulted in a national political crisis. The Manitoba Schools Question was a political crisis in the 1880s and 1890s, revolving around publicly funded separate schools for Catholics and Protestants in Manitoba. The crisis eventually spread to the national level, becoming one of the critical issues in the federal election of 1896. Due to the close link between religion and language during this period in Canada, the Schools Question represented a deeper issue of French survival as a language and culture in Western Canada. The secular system was upheld, with the guarantee of French instruction later revoked in 1916, leaving English as the only official language in use in the province until it was reinstated in 1985. In the province of Quebec, publicly funded Catholic and Protestant schools were maintained until 1997, when the system was replaced by a linguistic-based secular school system, after passing a constitutional amendment that exempted Quebec from certain conditions of Section 93. Newfoundland and Labrador also operated separate schools for several Christian denominations, including Catholics, prior to 1997. This school system emerged before Newfoundland entered into Confederation in 1949 and continued until 1997 when the province established a secular public system. The absence of Catholic-Protestant tensions in the provinces of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island resulted in no separate school systems emerging in these provinces. Presently, the Ontario Ministry of Education funds 29 English-language Catholic school boards and 8 French-language Catholic school boards (in addition to 31 English-language secular school boards, 4 French-language secular school boards, and one English-language Protestant school board). Originally, most of the province's secular school boards were Protestant-based. However, it was gradually transformed into a secular public system. Public funding of Catholic schools was initially provided only to Grade 10 in Ontario. However, in 1985, it was extended to cover the final three years of secondary education (Grade 11 to Grade 13/OAC). Publicly funded Catholic separate schools are also present in Alberta and Saskatchewan. However, they are not