While Mr. Lemieux may be correct in saying that every MP would have the same amount of time, certainly not every party would have the same amount of time. This would mean that the Conservatives would have 30 minutes, the NDP would have 20 minutes, and the Liberals would have only five minutes.
I consider myself a strong contributing member of the committee. I always have. I think I've always been fair in my approach to the questioning. I've not tried to use a witness to—how should I say it?—serve partisan reasons. I know that used to happen sometimes in this committee, but I've tried not to do that and I think I've succeeded.
I come from a university town. We have the University of Guelph, the agricultural college. I inform myself of issues through access to the people at that university so that I can help this committee in my questioning, as opposed to hindering it.
Only because I know that I'll likely be given only one opportunity at committee to question, I would prefer that it be kept at seven minutes as in the past. The convention was a first round of seven minutes. The Conservatives will have seven minutes as well, and so will the NDP.
I would just ask the chair to make sure that people honour the time constraints, both with their presentations and their questioning.