Environment Committee on June 21st, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you.

(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

Rounds of questioning: that the witnesses from any one organization shall be allowed ten minutes to make their opening statement. During the questioning of witnesses, there shall be allocated seven minutes for the first round of questioning and thereafter five minutes shall be allocated to each questioner in the second and subsequent rounds of questioning.

That is moved by Ms. Rempel.

(Motion agreed to)

The last is speaking order: the order of questions for the first round of questioning shall be as follows: Conservative, NDP, Conservative, Liberal. Questioning during the second round shall alternate between the government members and opposition members in the following fashion: Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, based on the principle that each committee member should have a full opportunity to question the witnesses. If time permits, further rounds shall repeat the pattern of the first two at the discretion of the chair.

If we do the math, every person would have an opportunity for a question before anybody would have a second opportunity, being 12 members.

You've moved this. Now we'll have a discussion.

Ms. Leslie.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you.

I sat on the ethics committee last week, and we had a lengthy discussion about speaking order, as you can imagine. We talked about the fact that yes, everybody should get one shot before they get a second round, if you're looking at it through the lens of each person having the ability to ask questions. But we know it doesn't break down by person, it breaks down by party. We talked at length about the fact that in fairness there are many occasions when you want to ask a follow-up because of evidence that has come out during questioning. In fairness, it makes sense to have a second round for the Liberals.

I believe it was also at the government operations committee as well as the ethics committee that the order they adopted was first round, at seven minutes, New Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, Conservative. At second round, at five minutes, the order they adopted was New Democrat, Conservative, New Democrat, Conservative, New Democrat, Conservative, Conservative, Liberal. I certainly support the idea of the Liberals getting a round in the five-minute round.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

So you're making an amendment?

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

We have an amendment to the motion on the floor.

If you're speaking to the amendment, Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Yes. I just want to sound a note of caution that I haven't done the math to work out how much time is going to be required, but essentially the amendment extends the time for questioning. I'm more comfortable with leaving that to the discretion of the chair, as the original provides. I don't feel really strongly about it, but I have a bit of caution on it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Ms. Leslie.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Sorry, I made a mistake. You're right. I'm willing to stand corrected, but I think I made a mistake. I had one too many Conservatives. It would go N, C, N, C, N, C, L. I'm pretty sure that's what they adopted. Again, I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

That is your motion now?

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Yes. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

You've clarified your motion.

Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

I'm afraid I like that even less, because I don't see any particular reason why a Conservative member should have to lose his or her place in favour of giving a Liberal a second shot at it. I would definitely not support that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Any further discussion on the amendment?

Ms. Duncan.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to thank Ms. Leslie. That's really fair, open, and decent.

I'll just go back to some statistics from earlier Parliaments. I'd like to present an argument. If we look back to the last majority Parliament, which was from 2000 to 2004, the speaking allotment per cycle was 12 minutes, 12 minutes, 12 minutes, 12 minutes, 12 minutes, across the board. Everyone got 20% of the time. In fairness, I would like to support Ms. Leslie and I would ask that this be recognized.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Is there any other discussion on the amendment?

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

I have a comment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Yes, Mr. Lunney.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

While I appreciate the spirit of what you're trying to accomplish here, during that 37th Parliament I don't think that was universal at all the committees. It might have been at some, but certainly at the health committee and fisheries, which I was serving on, the formula was somewhat different. It was ten minutes and went from there.

Nevertheless, I think there's room for accommodation here, and from my perspective the request is a reasonable one.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

I'll just remind all members to make their comments or questions through the chair and not to another member.

We have Ms. Duncan and Mr. Woodworth.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would thank Mr. Lunney for recognizing the fairness in this. Just to be clear, it was actually the committee on national defence and veterans affairs where it was even across the board.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Maybe things went a little too fast for my slow mind. Could I have the revised order that Ms. Leslie was proposing? What I thought I heard was a substitution cutting off a Conservative in order to make room for a Liberal. If I could just have it again from the chair, that would be good, the first and second rounds that are being proposed in this amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

This is referring to the second round, and Ms. Leslie can--

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Mr. Chair, there's no alteration to the first round.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

I'm going to refer to Ms. Leslie to clarify her motion.