Thank you, Madam Chair.
I included that because of specific experiences that our host MPs have had when they were not aware that such a requirement existed. An intern was placed with a member of Parliament, and the member of Parliament had read the conflict of interest code, which does not mention interns. The member was not aware that an advisory opinion had been issued, because the advisory opinions had been removed from the commissioner's website. The only way I could find the actual text of the advisory opinion was to go to the Internet archive and see what the website looked like in 2018.
We also have an additional challenge with the parliamentary internship program, given that it is delivered in partnership with the House of Commons. Often members assume, quite rightly, that perhaps we should not be covered in the same regard, given that we have direct support. The interns are written into the members' bylaw, so there is a bit of confusion as to how we are at the same time both an external and an internal program.
Greater clarity, at the very least just making it so the advisory opinion is available to members to read, would be a great first step. Then from there, having greater clarity as to their duties—I think Dr. Dance mentioned training—would be very helpful in this regard so that it's not reliant on the internship programs to educate MPs about it. Those who might want to create a program—I've been approached by several people—had no idea of this because they couldn't find it either, so people could inadvertently contravene the guidelines.