The reason NDP-6 is here is in the event that our others were defeated, as they have been, it's just to say, for goodness sakes we have to ensure that interns are the sole beneficiary of unpaid internships, not people who can exploit them, not employers who can take advantage of their unpaid status. We're simply saying that if you're going to allow these unpaid internships outside of an educational setting—you'll recall that there are two categories, students and non-students, and I'm speaking to that second category outside of an educational setting—at the very least we need to make sure that unpaid interns benefit from unpaid internships and not employers.
This amendment would bring the federal government into line with models in the provinces. This isn't radical. I believe that British Columbia does, and I know that Ontario does, prohibit companies from receiving a substantial benefit from unpaid labour.
This takes me back. We have a crisis in youth unemployment and now we want to exploit the youth—though outside the youth category—by saying that employers can derive a substantial benefit from unpaid labour. This is entirely contrary to the spirit and intent of the Canada Labour Code and it's simply wrong.