I'm not suggesting that the government is acting in bad faith here. I think the PROC protocol is an improvement over the original proposal. It's just that traditionally, the opposition does lead questioning. That is in recognition of the fact that the House of Commons is a place where governments in general are held to account and that's why the official opposition normally leads questioning on most committees. It doesn't upset the number of minutes each party is going to be eligible to receive; it simply changes the order in which they receive them.
I know that government members will want to protect their speaking time—I have no problem with that—understandably so. But the tone and tenure of a committee is set by the opening round of questioning, and if the purpose of such committees is to hold government to account, then I think we should allow the official opposition to open the questioning. As I said, that is the normal practice across standing committees, and as Mr. Christopherson stated earlier, I think it would be a show of good faith and would be consistent with the government's stated desire to improve transparency and accountability if they would allow my amendment to stand.
I think, by some of their facial expressions, some of them are being slowly convinced, though not entirely yet.