All those in favour of the amendment?
(Amendment negatived)
We're back to the main motion.
Mr. McTeague calls the question on the main motion.
(Motion agreed to)
Thank you very much, everyone.
Members, there is one more procedural motion we have to deal with. There is a routine motion being distributed. It's in both official languages. It's with respect to witnesses' expenses. This should have been done at our first meeting. It will be handed out.
This relates to witnesses' expenses, and it states:
That, if requested, reasonable travel, accommodation and living expenses be reimbursed to witnesses, not exceeding two representatives per organization; and that, in exceptional circumstances, payment for more representatives be made at the discretion of the Chair.
This is a routine motion proposed by Mr. Lapierre.
(Motion agreed to)
Does everyone have a copy of the operational budget before them?
This is the operational budget request. The period is May 29 to June 30. The amount requested is $15,200. My understanding is that because of the amount being below a certain amount, we do not require liaison committee approval, but we do need the approval of this committee.
It's proposed by Mr. Lapierre.
(Motion agreed to)
I believe I only have one other issue and then we can take a break until 11 o'clock.
This is mainly dealing with the questioning of witnesses. Concerning the allocation of time and who speaks in what order, I think there is some confusion on the committee as to who speaks in what order. The clerk has drawn up a very good sheet as to who speaks when and what is the allocation of time. I'll be passing that out so we know exactly when a Liberal has the floor, when a Bloc Québécois has the floor, when the NDP has the floor, when a Conservative has the floor, and when the independent has the floor. It's all allocated here.
This was agreed to at the first meeting by the committee. This was just the clerk putting into effect what the committee had directed him to do. This is the procedure I am following. I think there was some question as to why I was going to certain parties ahead of others in certain rounds. This clarifies that.
If there are any questions on this, please contact me or the clerk, but this was the schedule we all agreed to at the first meeting.
The other issue I do want to raise is in terms of the questioning of witnesses. I think we've had maybe two MPs stay within the allotted time, so this is a challenge, and especially when the minister is here it will be a challenge because we obviously want to have as many people question the minister or other witnesses.
The first round is six minutes. That was at the will of the committee. We rarely go under nine minutes for the first round.
I'd like members to discipline themselves. It is hard for me to do so, and it's hard for me to cut off a witness. If members take five minutes and give one minute to the witness, I don't feel it's fair to cut the witness off after a minute. What I'm recommending is that the members spend no longer than half the allotted time for the question, allow the witness the other half the time, and then at that point I'll cut it off to try to be fair to all members and all parties.
I'm asking you to discipline yourselves. We'll see how that goes. But if need be, I will step in and try to enforce time limits when appropriate.
That's all I had before the committee. If there's nothing else, let's have 15 minutes for coffee, some doughnuts, and a group hug, and we'll get started at 11.