Fisheries Committee on June 21st, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

I think it would make sense, Mr. Allen, if we broke it into two components, because there are two actual questions here that we need to answer.

On the first component, that being the time for the presenters, if we just stick to that, I think we can all agree on it to begin with. The time for presentations has generally been ten minutes. We ask presenters to keep it to that.

So we'll craft this motion piecemeal. I'll ask for discussion on the presentations at ten minutes. Is there any discussion on that?

Do you want to do it as a separate motion? Is that what you're suggesting here?

Mr. Allen.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

If we are in agreement to break it up, then I'll propose a motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

All right.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Then we'll have something to discuss. In the rounds of questioning, the witnesses from one organization shall be allowed ten minutes to make an opening statement. During the questioning of the 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.

We always get into the question of what constitutes one round, with at least each party having one.... So if we went with the NDP, the Conservatives, the Liberals, and the Conservatives, that would constitute the first round of four, and everybody would have seven minutes. We would start with the official opposition, then go to the Conservatives, then to the Liberal Party, and then back to the Conservatives. That would constitute the first seven-minute round. That is kind of what I was thinking. Then everything else after that would be five minutes.

We can talk about the speaking order as a separate motion, but this is the spirit of what I'm recommending.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

What you're proposing, then, Mr. Allen, is that we have a seven-minute round. There would be ten minutes for the presentations and then the first round would be for seven minutes. Then the order you propose--

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

We can talk about the order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

All right.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

The first round will be for seven minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

You're talking about seven minutes for the first round--

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

And five minutes after that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

--and five minutes for the second round.

[An hon. member]

And subsequent rounds.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

For second and subsequent rounds. Okay.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

I'll read that again.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Sure, if you don't mind.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

It says 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.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

All right. You've heard the motion by Mr. Allen.

On the motion, Mr. Donnelly.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have two questions. One, do we have a limit in terms of the number of presentations that could be made in a committee?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

We haven't had one. The presenters are usually invited by the committee, so I guess at that point in time.... We have had occasions where we've had one presenter and we've had occasions where we've had several presenters. There has never been a limit on it, but that is certainly something we could talk about if you want to propose something.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

It was more that I'm curious to find out. At some point, there are only so many we can fit in at one committee meeting. It would have to spill over to another committee meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

It generally depends upon the topic and I guess the level of detail we are looking for from the presenters.

It has been my experience that just about every presenter who comes before the committee will use up the ten minutes--and then some. So it might not be a bad idea to limit the number of presenters per meeting. That's not a bad idea at all, because we could take up a large part of the meeting just for presentations, and a lot of members would have questions that they wouldn't get to ask if we run out of rounds.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

I don't have a specific proposal in mind in terms of limiting that, but having three or four is probably adequate.

Before moving on, the second question I had is on the time allocation that Mike was suggesting.

You initially suggested two possibilities. One was an even allocation and the other was for ten, ten, and seven.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Yes, ten, ten, seven--something like that.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

I think that would be my preference, to look at that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Weston.