Mr. Chair, going back to the amount of time that witnesses have, when we discussed the routine motions, as a committee, we settled on 10 minutes. I think you're quite right that when we start to make exceptions, people who are outside those exceptions then start asking questions. What's wrong with them? They have important things to say. How come they don't have 30 minutes? Why don't they have 45 minutes? They have a PowerPoint deck or a thick briefing that they'd like to personally brief you on.
I'd bring up two points, Chair.
The first point is the one that you mentioned. As members of Parliament, we're expected to be prepared for committee, and that means reading briefing material. We have this report--thank you, Mr. Atamanenko, for distributing it to us earlier--and we have to read it and understand it. Ten minutes is ample time for a witness to highlight the key elements of a report or a presentation. I think it allows more time for dialogue, which is really what the committee is all about. It's us having a dialogue with the witnesses and having fruitful communication.
There is nothing to prevent a member such as Mr. Atamanenko saying to the chair that he has seven minutes and would like the witness to run through a section of the report. The committee would benefit from a better personal explanation from the witness, and the witness would have seven minutes of elaborating on a particular aspect of the report. Other members could follow suit, if that's what they want to do. But if another member would rather enter into a dialogue and have questions back and forth, the format is there.
I have a concern that some of the topics we want to discuss are difficult subject matters. Witnesses will have strong opinions and will want 45 minutes. It's not what we decided on as a committee. There is nothing to prevent members from asking for elaboration on any segment of any presentation, if that's how they want to use their time, but I am very much against making exceptions. Why are we giving a special nod to this witness and not to the 10 witnesses over here? I think it's a bad precedent. I understand there'll be a presentation.
Let's keep them to 10 minutes like everybody else. It's fair and it's equal. The important part is that it's equal. All witnesses should be treated in the same way when they arrive here in front of this committee.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.