Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As always, you showed wisdom in dealing with a point of order. You are absolutely right. The amendment put forward by Mr. Aubin is the seventh attempt at compromise by those on this side of the table. We have had discussions, made proposals and listened carefully to the government members. And after seven tries, the government is saying it wants to reject any attempt at a compromise. That bothers us, to be sure, because the Standing Committee on Official Languages has always been a forum where partisan politics took a back seat. I have been on this committee seven years and have always felt that the concerns of my colleagues were rooted in the country's official languages principles.
First, I want to respond to Mr. Bélanger's comment. I think there was a misunderstanding. I just want to point out, through the chair, that we are talking about the strong presence of official language minorities in the country—the French-speaking minority across Canada and the English-speaking minority in Quebec. There are approximately 120 ridings today. The New Democrats represent 59 ridings in Quebec, the ridings of Acadie—Bathurst, Ottawa-Centre and, of course, northern Ontario. I need not go into the details, but the same goes for the riding of Timmins—James Bay to Sudbury, and for the ridings around Windsor, the riding of Welland and the regions of Toronto, represented by Mr. Harris.
We have a strong presence and representation in regions where language minorities live. That is why this committee is so important to the official opposition. I know it is also important to the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, but we must find some middle ground. For three meetings, a week now, we have been making proposals, and every time we have come up against a flat-out refusal to find some middle ground, to reach a compromise. That is not only sad, but also unfortunate. We truly care about official languages, about this committee and about the order of precedence. They are important to us.
With that in mind, we proposed solutions. We want to uphold certain principles. As Mr. Bélanger clearly explained, we have a principle of giving the third party an opportunity to speak in every round. We support that principle, just as we support the government side's principle of giving every member an opportunity to speak. We also feel it is important not to push the official opposition out of the debate and questioning for a half-hour. That is why we offered up a compromise. I did not ask my colleagues how they felt, but I certainly do not like being absent from the debate for 21 minutes. But we are willing to accept that because we feel that the proposal giving the government side two opportunities to speak during the first round, with seven minutes for each questioner, also adheres to an important principle, one we support.
Even under Mr. Aubin's proposal, we are absent from the debate for more than 20 minutes. During televised hearings, we are entitled to speak first and then we are missing in action for more than 20 minutes. And yet we are prepared to accept that for the sake of the committee. We have proposed several compromises. The responses from the government side are really starting to disappoint me. This could have been resolved two days ago. Mr. Bélanger made some concessions, and we did the same, of course. Mr. Aubin's proposal is not perfect, but we have agreed to be silent for 20 minutes.
This is probably not a perfect solution from the government's perspective either. Mr. Aubin already mentioned that, and I agree with him.
Frankly, we have a responsibility for official languages, and we must come to an agreement. We have 20 minutes to do it. I think we should adopt Mr. Aubin's suggestion, even though it's not quite to our liking, far from it, in fact. But I would say it is the most acceptable of the proposals. I know it isn't to Mr. Bélanger's liking either, because it gives him a lot less than what the NDP had in the previous committee, but he is willing to go along with it to reach a compromise.
Mr. Chair, we are asking the members on the government side to make a small concession as well, so that we can move forward.