The House of Commons has concluded one of its least productive years in modern Canadian history, with MPs sitting for the fewest number of days in nearly nine decades.
A Historic Low in Parliamentary Activity
In 2025, the House of Commons convened for a mere 72 sitting days. This marks the lowest level of parliamentary activity since 1937, when members sat for only 62 days. The tally for 2025 falls significantly short of even the pandemic-disrupted year of 2021, which managed 95 sitting days despite COVID-19 lockdowns.
The current 45th Parliament is a much larger governing body than its 1937 counterpart. Today, 342 Members of Parliament represent approximately 41 million Canadians and oversee a federal budget of $586 billion. In contrast, the Parliament of 1937 consisted of 245 MPs governing 11 million people with a budget equivalent to roughly $8 billion in today's dollars.
Minimal Legislative Output
Despite the vast scope of modern governance, the legislative output for the year was remarkably scant. Across the entire year, the House passed only seven bills.
The passed legislation included the federal budget and the One Canadian Economy Act, which granted Prime Minister Mark Carney extraordinary powers to exempt certain resource projects from environmental and other reviews. Another bill extended Canadian citizenship to foreign nationals with Canadian-born parents.
The remaining bills were a mixture of routine supply legislation and minor amendments, such as a Bloc Québécois proposal that forbade the federal government from decreasing dairy tariffs during free trade negotiations.
The Political Turmoil Behind the Numbers
The primary cause for the record-low number of sitting days stems from the political transition at the start of the year. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not resign immediately amid a caucus revolt but instead prorogued Parliament for three months to allow the Liberal Party to select a new leader.
His replacement, Mark Carney, swiftly called a federal election for April 28, 2025. Consequently, nearly one-third of the year had elapsed before Parliament could be convened. Carney did reconvene Parliament relatively quickly after the election, with MPs returning to their seats by May 26—less than a month after the vote. For comparison, Parliament remained prorogued for two months following both the 2015 and 2021 elections.
This historic low continues a longer-term trend of declining time spent in session. During the more typical years of 2022 and 2023, the House of Commons averaged about 122 sitting days annually. This equates to roughly 25 weeks per year when Parliament is active, a duration similar to a full NHL season, highlighting the substantial amount of time the institution spends in recess.
