Mr. Speaker, increasingly, my generation is being referred to as a “lost generation”. There are 27% of young Canadians who are now unemployed or underemployed, and up to 300,000 are working as unpaid interns. Of all the OECD nations, Canada now has the most university grads earning less than the national median income.
Too many young workers live in a climate of uncertainty and fear.
Many young Canadians have to take unstable jobs or unpaid internships. They currently have no protection under federal law.
Today, I am pleased to introduce a private member's bill in order to give unpaid interns the same protections as paid employees. The bill would also prevent paid jobs from being converted to unpaid internships.
I urge my colleagues to support this important initiative to help young workers.