When we had the last minority government there was considerably more debate, because it hadn't happened for a long time. This is a fairly sophisticated formula to give equal time based on the proportion of members in the House and therefore members on the committee. In the first round of questioning, essentially each party will get five minutes, and you can divide that as you like.
We would start with the official opposition for five minutes, go to the Bloc Québécois for five minutes, then to the NDP for five minutes, and then a government member would have five minutes.
In the second round, you would go back to the Liberals for five minutes, to the Bloc Québécois for five minutes, then to the government for five minutes. The NDP would miss that round.
Then in the third round, it would just be the Liberals for five minutes and then the government for five minutes.
Then we'd go to a fourth round and we'd go back to the same as the first round, and each party would get five minutes.
I know it's tough when you're the only one on the committee, but I think in fairness this is how.... I know it took a long time to come to that format last time, and we felt it was fair to everybody to come to that determination. But we're open for debate.
Yes, Mr. Harris.