Evidence of meeting #1 for National Defence in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
It was on the principle that...but they got up again in round three.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
That was if we ever got there. They were shut out of round two, they were brought back in round three, and then we repeated one and two until the time expired.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Yes, but I would suggest we adopt the principle that everybody gets a chance at questioning before we head back to round three, which again puts the NDP, Liberals, and Conservatives back in the mix for second questions.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
With member Bezan's suggestion, is it still 50 minutes?
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
I'm not sure why you guys are so tied up on 50 minutes.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
I'm asking because I know what the environment committee did, because I sit on that. I know what PROC's done, and I know what a couple of others have done, but what you're suggesting isn't one I've heard of this year.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Could you could explain to some of us newbies over here how that works as far as total minutes goes?
Conservative
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
That means we're adding three more minutes. I would suggest.... Knowing what this committee has done historically, and the principles, we don't have to have the exact same Standing Orders and routine motions as the other committees.
The principle has always been that everybody brings value to this table. Everybody should have an opportunity to question any witnesses we have and feel that they are a full member of the committee.
What I recommend is that we go with the first round being seven minutes, and then every member gets to ask their second-round questions. In the process you guys have here, one Liberal is not going to get into the second round. To me, that doesn't sound fair either.
I would say the second round should be five minutes, and then we go to the third. That round would start with the NDP, and then we would go back to the other two parties after that, at five minutes.
We will find that we have two hours for questioning unless we put a lot of witnesses at the end of the table. Traditionally there are only a couple of witnesses at a time. They are done after 20 or 25 minutes in making their presentations, and we have an hour and a half for questions.
Liberal
Sherry Romanado Liberal Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC
Can I make a suggestion that perhaps we look at the speaking rotation that was adopted by PROC?
Round one would be a seven-minute round, as you had suggested, member Bezan. It would be Liberals, seven minutes; Conservatives, seven; NDP, seven; and Liberals, seven.
We would then go to round two, where Conservatives have five, Liberals five, Conservatives five, Liberals five, and the NDP three, for a total of 51 minutes. That will allow everyone to have an opportunity to speak in both rounds.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
You would have to have one more Liberal on there, though.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
How about, in the second round, Liberals five, Conservatives five, Liberals five, Conservatives five, Liberals five, NDP three?
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Or we could start the third round with the NDP at five again, and then Liberals and then Conservatives.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
It is quite a bit more generous than what the third party got the last time around. Then we would just repeat that. We would go around until we ran out of time.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Usually what we did on third round—I'll leave this up to your discretion—was that we would go around one more time to each party in five-minute rounds.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
I'll repeat this again, because there are numbers all over the place now. I'll suggest this, so you might have to get your pencils ready.
Round one would be Liberal, seven; two would be Conservative, seven; three would be NDP, seven; four would be Liberal, seven. That would be the end of round one.
Round two would be Liberal five, Conservative five, Liberal five, Conservative five, Liberal five, and NDP three.
Is that a fair...?
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Mr. Chair, I would suggest an amendment be put on the floor to this effect. Then we would vote on that amendment.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
Okay. Do you want to move that?
I'm trying to be cordial here right out of the gate.
Liberal
