I'm concerned about two things. Like other committee members, I believe it would be major slight on our part not to receive the Russian delegation. If we don't meet with the delegation this time around, the opportunity will not likely come again. The delegates have travelled a long way and meeting them is a matter of international courtesy, etiquette and protocol.
Given the importance of the issue and the questions we want to put to Commissioner Zaccardelli, one hour isn't much time, in my view. I think we need to schedule at least two hours for our meeting with Commissioner Zaccardelli, even if it means meeting the minister at a later date.
May I remind you of some comments I've made each time we follow the committee rules of procedure. In my opinion, the time allotted to question witnesses should include only the time taken to ask questions, not the time taken by the witnesses to respond. The person that came to mind when I made this suggestion was Commissioner Zaccardelli who has truly mastered the art of taking 10 minutes to answer a simple question, using up in the process all of the time allotted to a member for questions and comments.
I understand your decision to abide by existing procedural rules. However, the report is quite lengthy, 1,400 pages long, if I'm not mistaken, and it raises a number of issues. Therefore, I think we should plan for a two-hour meeting.