Evidence of meeting #1 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was first.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
What I would see happening...and this is before we come to the speaking order.
I know Mr. MacAulay is going to get wound up when I say this, but that's okay.
At the end of the day, this is how I would see this playing out. The first round would start with the official opposition, the NDP, for seven minutes. It would come back to the Conservatives for a seven-minute round. It would go to Mr. MacAulay and the Liberals for a seven-minute round. Then it would come back to the Conservatives for a seven-minute round. That would be round one.
Round two would start with the NDP again, as the official opposition--these would all be five-minute rounds--and it would go NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative until we got to the last two slots; we could go Conservative, Liberal, if we get to then, but I could put in a Liberal slot before the last Conservative slot as well.
So I would see it going back and forth between the opposition and the government until all members have been exhausted. And hopefully that would happen.
Well, “exhausted” might not be a good word: “expired”.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
First, I would like Mike to repeat it. But if I understand it correctly, basically after the first round it's the elimination of the third party.
Liberal
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
No. We've talked about it in every session of Parliament. What I've seen in a lot of the other committees is that it's a question of whether all members who are duly elected get an opportunity to question the witnesses. I know we can do some things on splitting time, but as I said, with five-minute rounds you don't get much of an opportunity to do that. You might get a little bit of an opportunity to do it in the first seven-minute round.
But for Lawrence I will repeat it. The first round would be NDP, Conservative, Liberal, Conservative. And then it would go NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, which would exhaust the NDP members. And then it would be Liberal, Conservative.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
Yes, but it would have to be into the next day for a Liberal to get up, and that's just not fair.
Conservative
Maurice Vellacott Conservative Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, SK
In the proposal, for example, it goes back to the NDP. That's assuming that if Fin asked the question on the first round, then it's Ryan or Rosane or Jonathan, and likewise then it comes back to us. So if you decline, you'd have to decline all along the line, I guess. So if no other Conservatives have questions, then it jumps back to the NDP. We're talking about a different member each time. It's not like another Conservative, in the second round, grabbing the spot, or an NDP member. It's a different person from that party speaking each time. Is that correct?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rodney Weston
I believe what Mr. Allen is proposing is parties, not individuals.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Just for clarification, though, to Lawrence's point, by making the first round a little bit shorter at seven minutes, that also means that in a two-hour meeting where you have maybe two or three witnesses at the most, there would be approximately 68 minutes of questioning to get through everybody, which means the Liberals would get two cracks in that hour and 10 minutes or hour and 15 minutes.
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
So you have the NDP, Conservative, Liberal, and then it's back to the Conservatives on the first round.
Conservative
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
And then you have the NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, and then--
Conservative
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Well, it will if we get 68 minutes. There are 68 minutes of questioning, so say 75 minutes--