Fisheries Committee on Feb. 5th, 2014

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

What is the decision? Is there going to be a vote, or how are they going to decide?

I mean, quite simply, if I'm removed from the second round, I have one round and then I'm done. That is not fair.

I don't want to get into addressing what happened previously. I've seen a lot of changes around here, but I can tell you one thing. Being fair didn't hurt me any, and I've always been fair, to the best of my ability.

I'm not sucking around, or crying. All I'm telling you is that I want it to be fair. There are times when....

Now we have to decide. I think if you take me out of the second round, then I come for the first 10 minutes and that's it.

Mr. Chair, you've chaired most of the committees since you've come here, and there are not many times we've gone to the third round. The odd time you might have two minutes for each or something, but as you just said.... So it would look bad.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. MacAulay.

Is there anything further on this?

You asked what the decision was, but there has been no decision at this point in time. Sorry, I meant to say that. There has been no decision. It's still in the discussion stage here. That's where we are.

The only thing there has been agreement on so far has been the first round moving to 10 minutes per, and the changes in the speaking order. That's the only thing that's been agreed to so far.

Is there anything further?

Mr. Kamp.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

One other thing we could consider if Mr. MacAulay successfully pleads his case, and I use the word “plead” advisedly, is that perhaps we could change the order of the second round so the Liberal comes last in the round. If we run out of time, Mr. MacAulay doesn't get his final five minutes and if we have the time, he gets it.

I'm not in favour of keeping the second round the way it is, because I think Mr. Chisholm is right. We scramble around on this side—we have five questioners—so everyone will have five minutes. Mr. MacAulay will get at least 10. He's asking for a guaranteed 15. Nobody on this side will get that much exposure to our witness, not even close.

Yes, he's right that historically that's been the way. It used to be that the NDP held that position. The reason was that nobody had the power to change it. When we had minority governments, we discussed it every time to see if maybe we thought the order was fair to all the parties, but we didn't have the votes to carry the day. This has been raised by the NDP.

I think it is a valid question. We've now gone from 12 members to 10 members, so does the speaking order still make sense? I'm not sure how we resolve this, Mr. Chair. You haven't told us yet how this is going to be resolved.

We're not in favour of the status quo. At the very most I think we would be prepared to offer keeping the Liberal in the second round but at the end of the second round, the long second round as usual.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

To clarify, Mr. Kamp, earlier you suggested removing the last Conservative, so you suggest putting the last Conservative back in and the Liberal at the end of that round.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

I think we would put the last Conservative in the Liberal spot, and move the Liberal down into the last Conservative spot.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Okay.

The suggestion by Mr. Kamp is that the order in a second round would be NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, Conservative, and Liberal if there is time.

Is that correct, Mr. Kamp?

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Yes, it could be something like that.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

That achieves the same thing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

In that scenario, Mr. MacAulay, you would go from currently having 12 minutes to having 15—

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

If I got the last five.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

If there is time, you would get an extra five.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

What happens? Is the first round shortened?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

No, the first round is lengthened. You will get 10 minutes in the first round, the Conservatives will get 20, the NDP will get 10, and the Liberals will get 10. In the second round the NDP will get 10, the Conservatives will get 15, and you will get five at the end if there is time.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I'm getting short on trips.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

You're going up in time by three minutes from what you currently have and you move one slot.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

It's the best I'm going to get out of it anyhow.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

You move one slot. The order changes by one. You can get five extra minutes or you could get two fewer.

Does that make sense?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Do we have agreement on that?

Here's what I'm asking. In the second round the suggestion is, it's five minutes, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, Conservative, Liberal if time allows. It's hard to write that in a routine motion, but it would be an agreement here that Mr. MacAulay would be at the end.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

The Conservatives would have two consecutive rounds. They'd have a double round.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Yes.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

That gets all the members in for at least one questioning timeframe before you get your extra, if time allows.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

That's a big change.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Yes, I agree.

By comparison with the total time we are presently using, we are potentially increasing by three minutes or decreasing by two.