Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, both, for being here today. I'll echo what many of the questions have been about the internships. I think this is something we need to address as a committee.
I wasn't a member of any internship program, but I started on the Hill as a staff member when I was 18 or 19 years old. But I know the value of these internship programs. I think you said it really well when, yes, there could be a benefit to the member. More importantly is the benefit to that intern of having that political experience and getting their foot in the door. I don't think we can lose sight of this. I look forward to continuing the conversation and trying to get to a reasonable ground on that.
Mr. Vis made some very good points about the parliamentary internship program. We have those witnesses in, and how that program is structured financially.
Madam Chair, I want to open a bit of a can of worms here if I can with Mr. Dufresne on something that was actually addressed. I know this has been a conversation at different times, and the commissioner has raised this. It's around the idea of letters of support and where the line is.
The analyst did a great job in the summaries of talking about this. I'll just read it quickly. It says that “Mr. Dion suggested that the Committee could examine the issue of acceptability of letters of support.“ He indicated that many members have contacted his office to get advice or to ask about it. Currently the Code makes no mention of letters of support. However, section 9 states:
A member shall not use his or her position as a member to influence a decision of another person so as to further the member's private interest or those of a member of his or her family, or to improperly further another person's or entity's private interest.
Actually, I think I'll put Mr. Barrett on the spot. I think he goes to the commissioner very often to ask about these letters of support. Where there is an asterisk here or where I think it requires clarification is immigration cases or case files in our constituency office. I wonder about your thoughts from a legal perspective are on this. I read that to say that if somebody comes in and has a problem with CRA or their bank deposit or child tax credit, we can go in and advocate and get that resolved. But if I think of an immigration case where there's a letter of support to say that I vouch for this person, X or Y, and I read about improperly furthering another person's private interest—in this case to gain Canadian citizenship or something along those lines—I think it's a very big grey area right now. So there's casework and then there are individual letters of support for certain individuals. Have you put any thought into where there may be a line or a legal aspect of where our casework starts and where advocacy or advancement of a private interest starts?
Sorry if I opened a can of worms, but that's the one that needs to be addressed.