Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Given the fact that the committee is composed of members of Parliament, and that as elected officials, public office-holders, it is our responsibility to carry out our business here at this committee.... This is what this is about.
I'm not necessarily averse...and I understand the rationale that Mr. Stoffer put forward for having 15 minutes, but in reality, is 10 minutes with a subsequent 50 minutes of questions and answers less valuable than 15 minutes followed by 45 minutes of questions and answers? Given the fact that our role as parliamentarians is to be here to defend the interests of our constituents and to bring forward issues pertaining to our constituency, if we did that, it would provide less opportunity for us to do our work as parliamentarians, although it would provide more opportunity for the presenters.
So I'm still a little conflicted on that. I think that my time as a member of Parliament here may be less respected in that particular case, so I have a little bit of an issue with that. I'd like to see it stay at 10 minutes.
What I do recall from the last session of Parliament is that as a member of this committee, there were several times when I had questions and I had no opportunity in a one-hour session to bring my question or concern forward to the witnesses. That is because of the current structure of the speaking order and rounds of questioning. Now, I'm just as elected to this House of Commons as every other member of this committee, and I take great umbrage...as a matter of fact, I would almost take it to the point of a question of privilege. If we don't change the speaking order to reflect an opportunity for every member of this committee to have an opportunity to question a witness, when other members have three opportunities or two opportunities to question a witness, I think it will impact on my ability to operate on this committee as a member of Parliament. And I do believe it would pose a legitimate question of privilege, my parliamentary privilege as a member of this committee to fulfill my obligations and my duties to this committee, and we need to be very careful about that.
So we can talk about minutes if we want to work out something that is reflective and works for everybody. But I do think we seriously need to take a look at this, because every member of this committee is equal--or should be equal or have equal opportunity to ask questions of a witness.