There are two issues I'd like to raise. Ms. May will cover one with regard to the allocation of time and how we find a balance between witnesses and the amount of time MPs get to ask questions.
I have a motion that is not just about the timing, Chair. It is an innovation that the committee might consider today.
We've been talking a great deal about how to make what we do here as open and accessible as possible to the public. One of the ideas brought forward by someone online was to allow some access to the public for that same engagement that we have as MPs and to do that with technology. It's possible. I have some language for this, Chair. I'll read it out first, and then perhaps we can distribute it for the committee's consideration:
That the committee allot the equivalent of one MP speaking spot per meeting to hear questions directly from Canadians at each meeting with witnesses; that the committee receive questions from Canadians via the committee's email address and the Twitter hashtag #yourvotecda; and that questions be reviewed and selected by the clerk of the committee and posed to the witnesses by the chair.
Just to explain what I'm proposing, prior to a meeting we have witnesses testify for a certain amount of time. Canadians who are tuning in to this conversation about how we are adapting and evolving our democracy will be able to email directly through the clerk's office. We have the technology, obviously, to be able to see what Canadians are asking. We would take one of the slots normally allocated for a member of Parliament to ask questions. The clerk, we trust, is a non-partisan actor in this place who is able to vet and offer up three or perhaps four questions, which you, Chair, would then read to the witnesses to allow Canadians direct access to those experts and to be able to engage people in a much more forthright way than simply doing that always through their member of Parliament or the members who happen to be sitting at this committee.
I have the exact text of this motion if you'd like me to distribute it, or however you'd like to proceed.