Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles for her comments and for putting forth the bill.
Having been part of the finance committee when it studied youth employment, I know that has been a persistent issue for several decades now and that in the last number of years that rate has come down from what it was from 1993 to 2005, but I have a couple specific questions about her bill, and one is a clarification.
I think there are many cases where people will pursue, and want to pursue, an unpaid internship. I do not think she is saying that is a problem. It can go ahead, as long as these people are protected. I see that proposed subsection 178.1(2) in her bill, under “written notification”, seems to cover that, so I just want her to clarify that she is not saying that there should not be any unpaid internships, just that there should be protection for the employees.
The second thing I want to ask her about is proposed paragraph 178.1(1)(a), which states:
the training is approved by a secondary or post-secondary educational institution or vocational school and the completion of the training contributes to a degree or diploma.
What about a situation where a person maybe pursues an internship to expand his or her capability or to go into another area? That might not necessarily be approved by a school. I wonder what the protection is for the student who wants to pursue that.