I would cite for the right hon. member the guidelines I was following that are set out in Marleau and Montpetit at pages 378 and 379. They are ones that in my experience in the House have been fairly strictly observed for many years. The guidelines state:
During “Statements by Ministers”, Ministers are expected to make brief and factual statements on government policy or announcements of national interest. Only Members speaking on behalf of parties recognized by the House are permitted to speak in response to a Minister's statement. However, with the unanimous consent of the House, other Members have been allowed to respond. In responding to the statement, Members are not permitted to engage in debate or ask questions of the Minister. The length of each response may not exceed the length of the Minister's statement; Members who exceed this length are interrupted by the Speaker. The rules provide no explicit limitation of time allotted to the Minister or the overall time to be taken for these proceedings, although the duration of the proceedings can be limited at the discretion of the Chair.
I hope the citation helps the right hon. member. I am sorry to have had to interrupt him, but I did enforce the same time rules, I assure him, with respect to the other hon. members who spoke. In fact, I was signalling quite vigorously the hon. member for Crowfoot to indicate that his time had expired, and he sat down before I got up.