The Speaker of the B.C. legislature has taken steps to restrict the length of questions and answers in the assembly's question period which, at 15 minutes, is already the shortest in the Commonwealth.

The New Democratic Party Opposition said it was stunned by the new limits, which Speaker Claude Richmond, a Liberal, imposed Thursday without consulting them.

The new rules limit questions to one minute, with a supplementary question limited to 30 seconds, and any subsequent supplementary to 20 seconds, if the Speaker allows one.

B.C. Speaker Claude Richmond (courtesy B.C. Legislature)

Answers will have to follow the same time guidelines.

Deputy government house leader Barry Penner said the Liberals were not given advance notice of the rule change either.

Richmond said the rules would allow more than three people to ask questions during the short question period.

The Speaker said that with an election coming in May, "emotions and adrenaline are running high" in the legislature. And he cited Wednesday's raucous question period, the first of the new session, as an example of what he wants to avoid.

NDP house leader Joy MacPhail said it will be more difficult to hold the government to account. She wonders who's afraid of her three-member caucus.

"All of a sudden there are brand new rules that never existed for question period before, no notice, no heads up, no consultation from the Speaker's office, and I need to know why," she said. "I need to understand why he did what he did and why he related it to an election. It was his party that brought in a fixed election date."