Health Committee on June 15th, 2011

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

It is seven minutes for the first round and thereafter five minutes shall be--

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

--five minutes shall be allotted to each questioner in the second and subsequent rounds of questioning.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

That sounds good.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Basically, it is seven minutes per person in the first round and five minutes after that. Is that what you're referring to, Dr. Carrie? Yes.

Dr. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I don't know if I have the right piece of paper, but it's my understanding that there is a suggestion of four minutes in subsequent rounds instead of five minutes.

However, the concept that the Liberals would have only one question out of eleven questions does not seem to be at all fair. In many other committees, when the NDP had only one person on the committee, the NDP were allowed far more rounds than just one. It doesn't seem to me to be appropriate or fair at all to give the Liberals just one question out of eleven.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Monsieur Morin.

[Dany Morin, NDP, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Nowhere in the French version does it say “seven minutes”; it says either “ten minutes” or “five minutes”. So there is a small translation problem. I just want to make sure that all our francophone colleagues can be on the same page.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you for letting us know that.

Is there any further discussion on this?

All in favour of seven minutes for the first round of questioning and thereafter five minutes for each questioner in the second and subsequent rounds of questions? Could we have a show of hands?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Now we'll go to the speaking order, that the order of questions for the first round of questioning be as follows.

There was a suggestion that I'm going to bring forward. The order of questions for the first round of questioning should be as follows: Conservative, NDP, Conservative, Liberal. The questioning during the second round should alternate between the government members and the 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 should repeat the pattern of the first two at the discretion of the chair.

Is there discussion?

Ms. Davies.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I didn't get all that you said, but one thing that jumped out at me is that again in every committee I've ever been on it seems to me that the opposition goes first in the questioning. So I'm not sure why it's switching over to the government. That's been a long-standing practice. There would still be the same number of questions, but they would begin with an opposition member. I can't think of a committee in which it didn't happen that way.

Can you hand that out? It seems kind of odd that we're setting rules about making sure we distribute motions so people don't get surprised, yet we're kind of rushing through the very basic rules of the committee. I actually want to go back to one of the earlier ones we did for which you were obviously reading from some written proposal that we haven't seen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

There's no written proposal other than my notes that I'm reading from.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I heard the parliamentary secretary say that he had a---

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

We had a written proposal.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

On this we do, but not on what the chair just read regarding the speaking order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

This is up for discussion right now.

Dr. Fry, do you have some comments on it too?

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I support Ms. Davies on the concept that the opposition always spoke first and the government was always the last on the round. But I also want to bring forward the idea that out of a round in which you have 11 questioners, the Liberal Party has only one question in all of the 11. In the past in all committees, even when there were majority governments, I note that the NDP always had one person on the committee and that the NDP certainly had more than one round. One round doesn't allow for someone to ask the perfect question. I would like to suggest that this be a lot more equitable, because this is totally weighted in favour of just one question for the Liberals. We never did that when the NDP were in that position. It seems to me that we shouldn't be doing this kind of punitive and unfair practice.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I think I may have a solution. As Madam Davies said, why don't we start the first round with NDP, Conservative, Liberal, Conservative? Then 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, Liberal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Madam Sellah.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

First of all, I would like to remind you that it's Dr. Sellah.

Second, Madam Chair, I wanted to draw your attention, to the fact that the document I have before me does not reflect what you are saying. This French document even mentions the Bloc Québécois. I am really confused. I am not able to follow what is happening with the time allotted to opening remarks and the questioning of witnesses. Could we have a properly written document?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

Yes, just to clarify, you have the routine proceedings from the last committee. That's what the clerk distributed to you. Now we're having an open discussion to see what we're going to do for this committee. This is used as a guideline just to help us out. The clerk distributes that at the beginning of the committee just to help us out, to kind of remind us what we had at the last committee. There are no Bloc members on this committee.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Okay. I was just trying to follow you in English, and what I was reading in French did not really match what you were saying. That's why I was reading that...

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Well, I'm glad you asked that question, then.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

It's not a big deal. It's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

So the last recommendation from Dr. Carrie was NDP first, Conservative second, Liberal third, and then Conservative. The second round was Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, NDP, Conservative, Liberal.

Correct?

Is there further discussion?

Ms. Davies.