Yes, let me just speak to it for a second.
The change in numbers in the House obviously is reflected in the committee. The difference in this particular committee as opposed to the last committee is that there is one more on the government side and one less on the opposition side. The speaking order then reflects the new distribution of the House and of the committee.
What all of this essentially says is that each member will have an opportunity to ask a question before any member has a chance to speak twice. Essentially we'd begin, as we have in the past, with the Liberals asking questions for seven minutes, followed by the Bloc for seven minutes, probably by the NDP for seven minutes, and probably the government party for seven minutes.
In the next round, if it's again at five minutes, it would be the Bloc for five minutes and then the Conservatives for five minutes. That would give everyone in the opposition a chance to speak--well, except for one Liberal, but it still leaves three Conservatives.
The next round would just be a Liberal and then a Conservative until we have heard from each member. We would alternate government and opposition until each member has been heard. But because now there are five Conservative members, at one point we'll have Conservative, Conservative at the end so that each person has a chance to ask a five-minute question. Then we'll revert back to the start again, should there be time.
That's essentially how it is. I have done the numbers and worked the percentages and the fairness and all of that. It really does, in my view, reflect a fairness in that each person has an opportunity to ask one question before any member gets to ask two questions. The only difference is that the first round of questioning for each party will allow seven minutes, and subsequent rounds will be five minutes.
So I'll state the motion on the order of questions and then open it to debate: in the first round it shall be Liberal, Bloc, NDP, Conservative; questions during the second round shall alternate between opposition members and government members--Liberal, Conservative, Bloc, Conservative, Liberal, Conservative, Conservative--based on the principle that each committee member should have a full opportunity to question the witnesses. If time permits, further rounds shall repeat the pattern of the first two, at the discretion of the chair.
Can I have a mover for that motion?
Mr. Cannis moves the motion--