Evidence of meeting #2 for Public Safety and National Security in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was clerk.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
So how do we do it?
If we vote on this and it is defeated, does that mean we're reverting to the one we had previously? Is that the assumption I can make?
4:10 p.m.
An hon.member
I would think so.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
All those in favour of the motion we have before us, that two working days shall be required for a motion to be considered by the committee, and that period of motion be calculated from the time the motion has been distributed to members of the committee, please signify.
(Motion negatived)
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Therefore, we will revert to the one we agreed to in the last session of Parliament. All right.
On rounds of questioning, we really went through this in the last session of Parliament. I believe what we have here is what the practice of this committee was, that at the discretion of the chair the witnesses from any one organization shall be allowed 10 minutes to make their opening statement, and during the questioning of the witnesses there shall be allocated seven minutes for the first round of questioning, and thereafter five minutes shall be allocated to each questioner in the second and subsequent rounds of questioning.
Let's do this one first, the rounds of questioning. First, the witnesses shall have 10 minutes, the first round shall be seven minutes, all of the subsequent rounds shall be five minutes.
Is everybody agreed to that? That's what we did the last time.
Mr. Ménard.
4:10 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
I am telling you now that I will not be making an amendment because the reason I made one previously has been understood. As we have the same chair, who has accommodated the concerns I have raised with a remarkable blend of flexibility and even-handedness, I am ready to be flexible too.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Thank you. I appreciate that.
I presume we're adopting this.
4:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I just want to make this side comment.
If at any time you feel the witness is using up your time, you can indicate that to me, or you can say, “I have some more questions”, and within reasonable bounds of decorum try to suggest to the witness that you would like to ask these questions. You can interrupt or you can somehow have me bring some order to it. I'm open to that.
I think that was your concern.
We have two more motions left. For the speaking order:
The order of questions for the first round of questioning shall be as follows: Liberal, Bloc, NDP, Conservative. Questioning during the subsequent rounds shall be the following: Liberal, Conservative, Bloc, Independent....
Independent? We don't have any independent.... I don't know where that came from. That “independent” shouldn't be there; I don't know how it got in there.
4:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
It continues: “Liberal, Conservative, NDP....”
No, that's not right either. There is an error here. This was not our practice in the last session. I don't know where this comes from.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
No.
Let me propose this to you; I don't see it written down anywhere.
Here I believe is the correct order. Liberals lead off the questioning; then the Bloc Québécois is next; then the NDP. Then it goes over to the government side, then back to the Liberals, then to the Bloc, to the government side, to the Liberals, to the government side, to the Liberals, and it ends with the government.
4:15 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
May I make a suggestion so that everyone understands, Mr. Chair?
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Okay, I have the sheets I was using the last time. This is correct.
4:15 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
The best way for us to understand, I think, would be to list the order of each round vertically on a sheet of paper. Then we would see the progression as we went along.
You have done that? Good. Great minds think alike.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Yes. I agree with your suggestion.
The whole intent of this, and this is what the big discussion in the last session of Parliament was, is that every member get one turn before anybody gets two. In order to accomplish that, we had the Liberal Party leading off, then the Bloc, then the NDP, then the Conservatives. Then we went back to the second Liberal MP, then to the second Bloc member, then over to the Conservatives.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Garry Breitkreuz Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
No, we let the Bloc have their second turn. This is the way we did it, and it worked very well, I thought.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Well, the NDP often got another turn, because somebody would defer to them. This committee worked very well, and the NDP pretty well got all their questions in, I think.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Too many? Well....
Do you agree to adopt the same order that we had in the last session?
4:15 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
