Health Committee on June 15th, 2011

[The Clerk]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Okay.

Yes, Mr. Williamson.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Just as a point of clarification, although I'm sure it's in the notes, when a witness appears, is there a timeline? I can calculate the numbers for all these speakers, but in the last line it says if time permits.

Is it 90 minutes? Is it an hour per witness?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

We usually give them five minutes, if I recall correctly.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

But this says if time permits, further rounds shall repeat the pattern of the first two at the discretion of the chair. If you decide you want to hear another round.... Is that...?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

It depends on the time that's left. Let's say we get through the witnesses really quickly and there is still time. We'll say, let's do another round, if the committee so.... Sometimes you kind of run out of questions. Sometimes the committee says, no, we've heard enough, let's proceed. That's why it says “at the discretion of the chair”.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I take my cues from you guys.

Ms. Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

When I look at what we've set out here, depending on the number of witnesses we have, we've suggested that they be allowed 10 minutes to make their opening statements. If we were to have three witnesses appear, that's 30 minutes. Given the first round, four speakers--that's 28--we really will only have time in the second hour for six speakers at five minutes each.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

That's a very good comment. We take it depending on how many witnesses are there. Sometimes it's not prudent to do it that way. There have been times when the committee has said, look, we need this and this, and there have been a lot of witnesses, so we've cut it down to three. We make that agreement depending on the topic and depending on who is available. Sometimes we have witnesses who can come on one day and not the other day.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

What I'm suggesting is that we should determine how many speakers make a round, because we have seven listed in the first proposal and eight listed in the second.

What is a round of speaking? Is it an hour?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

No. The first round is the four: NDP, Conservatives, and Liberals. That's your first round. Then you go into your second round.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

So what is the second round? How many speakers would make up a second round? Eight?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Eight.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

So your first round is four, because it's longer, and your second round is eight.

Good question. Thank you.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I have written.... I saw six in the second round.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Eight. I guess you have written it incorrectly, Dr. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I probably have, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You stand to be corrected--good--and it's my pleasure to do that.

We've had a lot of discussion on that. Going over it again, I'm going to put this forward: first round is NDP, Conservative, Liberal, Conservative; second round is NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, Conservative, Liberal.

That is what I'm asking whether you will all accept now.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

There is one other thing. I'm wondering about next week.

Dr. Carrie, could you...?

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Before you do that, could I just go back to number 2, the subcommittee? I know we voted on it, but it happened very quickly.

Usually those subcommittees, sometimes called steering committees, are meant to be a process whereby you try to arrive at a consensus. The way we have it right now we actually have three Conservatives, one NDP, and one Liberal. The way it was proposed on the sheet was basically the chair, the two vice-chairs, and the parliamentary secretary. If you couldn't arrive at a consensus, then it presumably would come back to the committee. I do feel we've kind of changed that, and I wonder if we could review that. I don't know why it has to be three Conservatives. Basically you have a clear majority on the steering committee, which kind of undermines the idea of a consensus.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Well, first of all, I want to ask the will of the committee. You make a good point. We need to decide whether we're going to open this up again, because it was voted on and we passed this motion.

You made some good points on number 2. Thank you, Ms. Davies.

Is it the will of the committee to open up number 2 again?

It's defeated.

Is there any other discussion?

Yes.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Maybe I could just point out, though, that everything goes back to the main committee anyway.