I know there were some concerns raised about how this process would function. We wanted to keep it very simple, so imagine a two-hour meeting at which we would have perhaps five witnesses who could testify for seven minutes, and then we could use 11 MP slots of seven minutes each for questioning. The very last slot, a 12th slot, would be for a series of questions from the public.
By the way, for those less familiar with the committee, we rely on the clerks all the time to provide non-partisan information and to weed out, as Jason and others have concerned themselves with, anything repetitive or hyperpartisan in nature. They do it all the time, and do an incredible job, and have for many years.
In terms of it being radical, if one looks at the etymology, to go to the roots of the issue, we as legislators ask Canadians to embrace change all the time. We propose new laws. In elections we consistently ask Canadians to vote one way, vote another way, or think about issues in a different way, so far be it from us not to consider doing things differently as well. I would say that PROC would be welcome to come and study us and see how this example goes to see if it would work at the defence and transport committees.
In terms of the cost and benefit, if we were to try it for five or 10 meetings and the questions were difficult to vet or there weren't any questions coming from Canadians, which I would find hard to believe, or if, for whatever reasons, committee members didn't feel that it was working to our benefit or to the benefit of the study, then we would abandon the exercise. However, in terms of the benefit, it could potentially open up a new avenue for us with questions we weren't contemplating.
The setting of the example at this committee is fine. As Mr. Kenney said—and we are all open to this—I'll commit to posing at least one question that has come in through social media every day to @nathancullen. I think we should be welcoming those, not just in our personal work as committee members but also in how this committee goes about this issue, because this is not ours; this entire conversation belongs to Canadians. Why wouldn't we take an opportunity, a low-risk opportunity, to open the door a little bit further to Canadians who wish to participate?
As Elizabeth said, electoral reform on July 21 might not light up the airwaves of CBC—although maybe it would on CPAC—but we want to be able to engage people through all means possible, particularly if there's very little downside, and on this I see very little downside. Certainly I take my role as a legislator very seriously, and I know my responsibilities in terms of voting on, considering, and passing legislation.