We did see in the federal budget of 2018 a commitment to expand child care services to better accommodate MPs. In addition to that, predictability is obviously an important consideration. Our systemic change recommendations are based on a global survey of what legislatures across the world are doing, thanks to some work done in collaboration with Grace Lore, a long-serving researcher with EV.
Obviously, we think that predictability in maintaining the current commitment to fixed election dates is pretty important. Also, the raging debate about how we structure the parliamentary sitting week so that we can get MPs who are parents home to their ridings, to work from their ridings, is something that we believe requires discussion. We are generally in favour of looking at Fridays as riding days.
From a sustainability perspective, which is a key question for many women in politics as well as for their male counterparts, we really support an increase to the members' office budgets to ensure that there's better constituency coverage in particular, given the role MPs are playing in their ridings as ombudspersons, liaisons, and so on. Revisiting the office budgets to ensure that constituency offices are really well supported is something we believe strongly in. As would not be a surprise to you, it is important to ensure there is competitive remuneration for MPs so that the full talent pool of women in Canada can really look at and fully pursue the opportunity to become elected at the federal level.
Finally, we speak to some safety recommendations, to ensure that there are robust harassment policies. EV has in fact developed a whole matrix of what makes for good policy. Much of what's happening federally in terms of policies in the House of Commons is strong, but we would strongly suggest an additional measure to ensure full independence in activating, overseeing, and reporting on the results of investigations.
Finally, it's not on your chart, but we would like to also endorse what you heard from a previous witness. We think an electoral financing mechanism to incentivize parties to run an agreed-upon threshold of women would be of value. Thank you.