Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, dear colleagues and guests.
It is a pleasure to appear before you today. I first want to say that the comments I am going to make here represent my personal opinion on the situation, and not that of my party.
As you probably know, I gave birth to a little girl right in the middle of the last election. So I experienced pregnancy during the previous Parliament, and balancing work and family life in the context of this new one. As for my family situation, my husband also has shared custody of a school-aged daughter, which makes it difficult for him to join me in Ottawa.
The first point I would like to discuss today is parental leave. In my opinion, it is essential that we have parental leave. Ideally it should last at least six months. I would also like to add that that leave would not mean that an MP would not work. It would rather mean putting in place a series of measures that would allow him or her to work from the riding. This would mean not having to come to Ottawa, and avoiding all the inconvenience involved in that.
To achieve this, the main improvements that need to be put in place would be to establish a mechanism through which members could table various documents remotely, such as briefs on bills resembling the speeches they would have made had they been present, and a mechanism involving existing documents, for instance petitions or private members' bills. The other improvement that would allow members to work from their ridings would be the possibility of voting from a distance.
As voting in person is to me something very important and significant, I do not think that the right to vote remotely or electronically should be given to all members, but only to those who are on parental leave or on long-term sick leave. This could be done by asking the Speaker of the House, who would grant this right for a given period to those who would need it.
As for the possibility of shortening or compressing the work week, or changing the parliamentary calendar in some other way, I want to say that late meetings are extremely problematic for all of the members who have young children. Compressing the work week does not seem like a good solution to me in any way. Moreover, I do not think that Canadians want us to work less. Simply eliminating sitting days does not seem like a good solution either.
As for eliminating Friday sittings, that does not seem like a good idea. You have to understand that the fact of changing the parliamentary calendar will always have positive effects for some and negative effects for others. For instance, if certain members live too far to do the return trip over the weekend, they would not benefit from having Friday sessions eliminated, because they are here in any case. The ideal situation for them would be to sit two or three weeks in a row, stay here during the weekends, and then return to their ridings for periods of two or three weeks. However, this last solution would not be appropriate for those who live closer and want to return to their families. So it is very difficult to find a solution that suits everyone when we look at changing the parliamentary calendar. In addition, eliminating Friday sittings would be to the advantage of the party in power, because it often has to keep a large number of members here in order to avoid losing a vote, for instance, whereas opposition parties can generally have fewer members present on Fridays.
That is why the most logical solution is to see whether we can improve the daily and weekly schedule of House business. As we know that current business and question period are the activities that require the presence of many members, these two activities could be eliminated on Fridays. However, obviously opposition parties would have to be compensated for that concession by extending the other question periods to offset the loss on Fridays.
The creation of a parallel House could probably be interesting if it focused mainly on studying private members' business. This would be advantageous for the members of the opposition. When they are not chosen in the draw, they do not even have the opportunity of speaking on their parliamentary initiatives. If this were to happen, opposition parties might be favourable to changing Friday's schedule in exchange for a longer period devoted to oral questions and the study of private members' bills.
As for House business, holding votes immediately after question period would of course be the ideal solution, since this would avoid our having to leave and return. This would also allow those who do not have far to go to be able to leave earlier in the day and return the next day.
During my pregnancy, the long vote periods were very difficult for me. We need to schedule some short breaks when voting lasts more than two hours so that you can move around if you are pregnant. It would also be a good thing for people with health problems like diabetes. This would allow them to eat a snack and avoid feeling ill because of a very long vote.
One of the last crucial points I would like to bring up is putting in place a child care service that reflects the House schedule.
The private day care on the Hill currently only takes children full-time, and only from the age of 18 months. Moreover, it closes at 6 o'clock. This absolutely does not correspond to the needs of members. This service could be very useful for members who are breastfeeding, who have very young children and who must go and see their baby every two or three hours. Such a service would also be useful for many male members who told me that they would very much like to bring their children occasionally for a week to the House. However, since there is no day care, they cannot do so and this saddens them. This would also be appreciated by male members of Parliament who would sometimes like to give their spouse a break in caring for their children. I am aware that it is a challenge for the operators of the day care to deal with the House schedule, and moreover the House does not sit every week. However, I think it is achievable.
In closing, I would like to specify that I focused on the aspects of work-family life balance that concerned procedure, which is what this committee is looking at. I contacted the Speaker of the House regarding other improvements that would have more to do with the Speaker or the Board of Internal Economy.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to appear before you.