Procedure and House Affairs committee  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, wh

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That is a precise number that I would not be able to give off the top of my head; however, I can say I believe the CIJA program welcomes several interns per year, and they have been inoperative since 2018. I believe, as was mentioned, that the Ukrainian program had three interns

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I must confess that I am not a lawyer, but I think some clarity that the services of an intern participating in a non-partisan program would not be considered a gift would be helpful. There could be a separate space created in the conflict of interest cod

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would strongly suggest that Parliament would benefit from some sort of registry with regard to what internship programs are operating. This relates to Dr. Dance's comment that it would be helpful to ensure that interns have solid workplace experiences. To give you a very pract

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. My apologies for replying in English. I'm using the translation feeds because I want to make sure I'm getting the nuance. I would echo Mr. Koffler Fogel's remarks. The idea that interns are gifts misses the fact that the person being gifted, if I use tha

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. One challenge with the existing system is that there is no registry of how many internship programs are in operation. As part of that 50th anniversary program that Dr. Dance mentioned, I did research and tried to prepare a history of how the programs have

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the honourable member for the question. There are two points that I would make in this regard. If the goal is to increase transparency around who is placed with members of Parliament, using the existing mechanism of regulations on gifts c

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I believe it is appropriate. I would point out that the Canadian Political Science Association has been there for the 52 years that the partnership has been set up. We also operate the same kind of program at the Ontario legislature. Having an inde

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I want to thank the committee for inviting me to testify today. I am Paul Thomas, and I have been the director of the parliamentary internship program since July 2020. The parliamentary internship program is a unique educational initiative that's jointly delivered