Ruling
May 14, 2014
Committees of the Whole: speaking time
Hon. Andrew Scheer
Speaker of the House
Ruling Text
The Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole:
The Chair certainly appreciates the reminder from the hon.
Member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley in terms of how to manage this process. I looked at the clock for the past several questions. The hon.
Member's question took 30 seconds and the answer was 46 seconds. The question was 26 seconds and the answer again was 46 seconds. The next question was 15 seconds followed by an answer of 40 seconds.
If the Member thinks that the Chair should take a strict legalistic approach to this, very often a question can be asked in 10 or 15 seconds. I think all hon.
Members would agree that it is difficult to give an answer to that question in that period of time. Certainly the Chair has on many occasions reminded Members when they are giving very lengthy answers and appear to be just trying to use up the clock that it is inappropriate to do that, but when a question is 20 or 30 seconds and the answer is 30 or 40 seconds, that certainly is within acceptable limits.
Edit Metadata
Holding
"Answer times that are slightly longer than the question times are considered acceptable and do not warrant intervention from the Chair unless they are excessively lengthy."
AI Summary
The Chair ruled that answer times of 30-40 seconds are acceptable for questions of 20-30 seconds in a Committee of the Whole.
AI Analysis
- Outcome
- Denied
- Tone
- Educational
- Procedural Stage
- Committee of the Whole
- Significance
Low
High