National Defence Committee on Feb. 18th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

It's an amended PROC, with an extra Liberal in round two.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

I think it doesn't respect the principle that all of us get a chance to speak once, and I don't think it's very fair to all of you as members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Is there any more discussion on this?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Can we just get clarification on it again? I know you've just read it out, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Do you want me to go through it again?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Yes, please.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Okay.

The first round is for seven minutes, starting with Liberals, seven; Conservatives, seven; NDP, seven; Liberals, seven.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

You're following what was in PROC, correct?

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Yes, for round one. Then round two is a little bit different, with a third option for Liberals speaking. I'll read it.

Round two would be Liberals, five; Conservatives, five; Liberals, five; Conservatives, five; Liberals five; and NDP, three.

Then I would also recommend that we repeat this until we run out of time, meaning that when we're done with round two, we go back to the speaking order of round one until we're out of time.

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

What are the numbers for round three, then? Is it the same speaking order, but for three minutes?

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

No, on round three we go back to....

Go ahead, James.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Just as a suggestion, Mr. Chair, in the past, round three always depended on time, and we divided that time evenly as best we could among the three parties until we ran out of time. If there were 15 minutes left, it would be five minutes each, and if there were 12 minutes, it would be four minutes each, but we left it to the discretion of the chair to determine what the third round would be.

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Couldn't we just leave the third round to the discretion of the chair on an ongoing basis and not have it in print?

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

It's nice to have flexibility.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Yes, I'm happy doing that if everyone else is agreeable to that.

[Jean Rioux, Liberal, Saint-Jean, QC]

We are talking about 56 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

It's 28 and 28.

Mr. Garrison.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

I'm going to make the obvious point for the grace of the electors that we're establishing the precedent of giving one member of the committee less time, and any of you could end up in that position. I think we're establishing a bad precedent for the future by having a different amount of time per party in the round.

I obviously can't carry the day, but I can't support the motion as it's written.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

As was mentioned earlier, this is still much more generous than it was last time around.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Your total time would be 10 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Go ahead.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

With respect, the third party is larger than it was the last time around—

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Hence, you're getting more time.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

—by 30%.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

My point is, we're trying to be cordial and give everybody an opportunity. I think this is a great first step forward.