I recall the exchange we had, Mr. Chan, on debating time. I think I made the point that yes, you could reduce the duration of speeches, but there was a point where you reached a point where it became absurd if you were going to conserve the questions and comments period after speeches. Right now, many, many members split their time and make 10-minute speeches, leaving five minutes for questions and comments. It's a bit hard to imagine a two-minute question and comment period or a one-minute question and comment period. I would just put that out there. I don't think it's an impediment to reducing speaking times. You could have five-minute speeches and five minutes of questions and comments if you wanted. Right now, we have a two-to-one formula for questions and comments. It doesn't have to be that. It could be anything that the committee decides it ought to be.
On days versus hours, there again, that is certainly a possible way of looking at the time of the House. However, I would say that you have to be careful with hours, simply because of the existence of procedural mechanisms that are available and that could come and disrupt that. The perfect example is when something is time-allocated, let's say, and a day is allocated to that final day of debate, say at second reading of a bill. As long as the day starts, it counts, even if it's only two minutes long, whereas if you've allocated four hours to it and a clever opposition decides to do other things leading up to that time, then you won't get it that day. That's the challenge. I'm not saying that it's not insurmountable, but that's the kind of thing you have to consider when looking at that.