I appreciate the generous assistance of the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest and his suggestions. I must say he is correct when he says the Minister of Health was consistent in going overtime, but I think the Speaker was consistent in cutting her off. I appreciate the fact that the questions that were asked were ones that the minister had lengthy answers to and that she wanted to go on obviously at greater length. However there are rules.
The problem today it seemed to me was the noise. I had to interrupt the proceedings so frequently to try to get some order so I could hear the minister and other members asking their questions because of the constant noise in the chamber. I would not accuse the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest of uttering a single word during question period, but there was noise certainly from his end of the chamber and it made it almost impossible for the Chair to hear.
When the Chair stands up and delays things by appealing for order and urging hon. members to assist the Chair, as the hon. member is doing with his shoe at the moment, I know that while the assistance is appreciated it does take a lot of time away from questions.
To answer one other point the hon. member made, yes it is true that parties do lose questions but I assure the hon. member that had we completed the list today the two members who would have had a question were one from the Bloc Quebecois and one from the government. Therefore it was not just the opposition that lost out, the government missed a question, and I know the member was bitterly disappointed, and the hon. member for the Bloc Quebecois was completely disappointed to have missed her opportunity to pose a question.
While we might have gotten a few extras in, which I am sure would have included members from the hon. member's party, if not the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest himself, in the circumstances we did reasonably well considering the brouhaha.
I can only say that if hon. members would cooperate with the Chair and be quiet during question period, as they were for example during the hon. member for Lanark--Carleton's question, we would have gotten through the thing in record time and would have had a lot of extras as well, which of course is the Chair's preference in these matters, if the Chair can have a preference in any matter.
I thank the hon. member for his intervention. I am sure his colleagues will all pay close attention to his suggestion that we all stay quiet, which I know is really at the bottom of his remarks.