Well, Mr. Chair, the standard format for committees is that when the minister and senior officials appear there is a fairly wide-ranging depth of possibility of questions. I would agree with you that if we were in clause-by-clause, we would be restricting the questions to a very limited range. But generally speaking, certainly in the seven years I've been here, when we're at a point where there are more general questions, and that's certainly what happens around the appearance of a minister, there's some scope for questions.
On November 1st, 2011. See this statement in context.