To the average person, the job of a Member of Parliament would appear to be one filled with jam-packed schedules, pressure to deliver and little downtime.

A parliamentary committee chaired by Yukon MP Larry Bagnell is looking at ways to change that.

“Parliaments around the world have been dealing with this concept,” Bagnell told the Star in a recent interview.

But, more locally, House Leader Dominic LeBlanc’s mandate letter requested that it gets a second glance in Canada’s House of Commons. The task was given to the procedures and House affairs committee, which Bagnell chairs.

Several areas are being looked at, with the goal of becoming more inclusive to MPs with young families and increasing productivity in the House.

Changing the sitting times is among the most common ways to make Parliament more family-friendly, enabling MPs to return to their home ridings and families more frequently.

Each weekend, Bagnell attempts a 20-hour, round-trip flight home to his wife and kids – and races back to the Ontario capital for work Monday morning.

“Add everything you have to do and two days’ travel on top of that ...” he trails off.

“It makes it very hard for members who live far away.”

A report prepared for the House affairs committee states that 21.7 per cent of parliaments around the world have discontinued night sittings. Many other have eliminated entire days, such as Fridays.

Six Canadian provinces already abide by this.

Bagnell admits that this would help him and others who have long commutes from the Hill to home, but the suggestion has been met with some hesitation.

If the House were to eliminate Fridays, the 4 1/2 hours of legislative work would have to be allocated elsewhere, so productivity isn’t lost.

“Some people don’t think we should have longer days (elsewhere). It’s a matter of contention,” Bagnell said.

A different suggestion was raised that could combat the shortened workweek idea – parallel debating chambers.

This would entail splitting the House in half and opening a second chamber to carry out debates.

This method is already being carried out in Australia and the United Kingdom.

In both of these jurisdictions, the parallel chambers are strictly for second reading and consideration of details of bills, committee or delegation business. No voting can take place.

“You get more things done in less time... none of the members had ever heard of that before,” Bagnell recalled.

There’s also consideration being made for MPs with young children.

Proxy voting, for example, would assist mothers who are breastfeeding and cannot go to the House to vote on matters.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union estimates that just 5.9 per cent of parliaments have proxy voting because of childcare responsibilities.

For parent MPs with young children, being in attendance for each sitting is a problem made worse by the current daycare provisions on the Hill.

The onsite daycare, Children on the Hill, has spaces for about 34 children but only if they’re at least 18 months old.

Technically, infants are not allowed to be taken into the House – though the House Speaker has overlooked it several times.

“We have a member right now who just had a baby,” Bagnell said.

“If you have young children, you can’t bring them in.”

So, the MPs would be forced to find childcare of their own or risk missing a sitting – which has salary implications of its own.

While proxy voting seems to be the easy answer to this problem, it hasn’t been met with total support from other MPs.

The main argument against proxy voting is that it could be held “under duress” to vote, Bagnell said.

“Can (it) be guaranteed that we’re free from duress when we’re participating?” Liberal MP Arnold Chan asked during one of the committee’s meetings.

Another MP argued having proxy voting goes against other basic duties for members.

“It’s not just about being present for voting. It’s about being present for the decision-making and for contributing to debate,” Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld said.

The House committee has held two meetings on the family-friendly initiative so far.

The next steps include drafting suggestions for members and consulting with them, and hearing from witnesses.

This could include people who have left Parliament because of inflexible rules.

The committee will present what they heard at a meeting on March 9.

The committee will then table a report based on what it has heard and bring it to Parliament, where members will vote on accepting it or not.

Bagnell admits it’s an undertaking that won’t see any major changes right away.

“This will take a while,” he said.

“But I think anything we can do to make sure Parliament is representative is a benefit. We want to make sure all the people are not constrained by the rules.”

One of the committee’s early reports states that numerous tasks in Parliament and constituencies can ultimately have adverse effects on an MP’s work-life balance.

It also notes that members have expressed that a “family-friendly” parliament is a bit of an oxymoron – long hours are part of the job, and most future MPs would be well aware of that before even entering politics.