It may be fair enough from the perspective of the Conservative Party, but it's not fair enough in terms of the committee as a whole, I would suggest. In fact, I even have some concerns about Ms. Whelan's proposal. I've sat on a number of committees over the years I've been here, and there has always been a recognition that in the first round of questioning, particularly when you have a minister....
Frankly, I don't have a problem with Ms. Whelan's proposition if we're talking about witnesses who are appearing before the committee generally from civil society, government witnesses, and so on. But when we're talking about a minister, there's an understanding that the opposition has their first round with the minister--and we have a number of former ministers here--because there's a recognition that government members, frankly, have more access to ministers. So perhaps the understanding could be that, subject to ministers' appearances, in which case there would be the initial round, down the opposition side, with the time that.... Of course, five minutes is not enough with a minister. You need at least ten.
In any event, I would just suggest to Ms. Whelan that subject to that one amendment, with the clear understanding that this is not about the Conservative Party having more time than other opposition parties...because I haven't sat on another committee in this House where this has happened. For some reason, in this committee, perhaps because of historical precedence or whatever, the Conservative Party gets twice as much time on the first round as do other opposition parties. My friends on the government side will recognize that this is....
No, but in terms of the way the committees function, on that first round, in every committee except this one, there is equal time given to opposition members. If Ms. Whelan's proposal is that we would start with the Conservatives, then to the Liberals, then to the Bloc, then to the Liberals, back again, and to the NDP, subject to ministerial appearance, with equal time, I wouldn't have a problem with that.