Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm happy to speak to this motion. I think the motion needs an amendment that says witnesses be given up to 10 minutes.
I noticed something else that I think needs to be addressed. The motion goes on to say, “that, at the discretion of the Chair, during the questioning of witnesses, there be allocated six minutes for the first questioner”.
I would like to see you given discretion over the witnesses' 10 minutes, not over the six minutes that is given to the speakers. I don't think it's the intention of these routine motions to have you determine whether the Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Bloc and New Democrats get six minutes in our first round.
I think there might be a punctuation error. It should say, “that witnesses be given up to 10 minutes for their opening statement at the discretion of the chair”, and then a semicolon. Then it should say, “during the questioning of witnesses, there be allocated six minutes for the first questioner of each party as follows”.
You'll notice that in the second round, there is no discretion—which, by the way, is where you actually do exercise discretion occasionally—where it says the “order...be as follows”. We know that in the second round, you sometimes have to reduce our questioning time proportionally, which is fine. I don't even think we have to say “discretion”, because you've always asked for permission and we always give it to you.
I think we should straighten out that problem in the first round, because the six minutes is certainly not at your discretion. The six minutes should be set down as what it is for each of the parties.