The committee could recommend to the House that the establishment of a new item on the order paper, entitled "Standing Committee Statements", to precede "Oral Questions". This item could be treated in much the same manner as "Ministers' Statements" with an overall time limit or like "Members' Statements" with a time limit for each statement and a limit of one statement per day for each committee.
Administratively and procedurally, there would also be a requirement to produce all Chair's statements as committee reports in writing, to be numbered accordingly. The approval of the text by the committee will also be necessary and no departure from the text would then be permitted.
Given the anticipated usage of such an item and the proposed time limits, this option would not be likely to impact significantly on television coverage of question period, Mr. Speaker.
No other parliamentary jurisdiction has, or contemplates having, such an item included in the routine order of business in the House.
In addition, committee members debated at length the procedural and practical dilemmas that this option could present in terms of the non-partisan nature of our consensus system of government. It was decided then that this would not be the preferred option to recommend to the Assembly.