The Treasury Board of Canada has launched a review to determine why 12 federal organizations aren’t paying some of their interns.
Federal agencies such as Canadian Heritage, Public Safety Canada, and National Defence offer unpaid internships, according to CBC.
CBC said roughly 1,000 interns are accepted at the federal level each year. Treasury Board policy states that legally, interns should be paid for work unless the placement is part of an academic program such as co-op.
The Canadian Intern Association (CIA) states on their website that their mission is to advocate, “[a]gainst the exploitation of interns and aims to improve internship experiences.”
Joshua Mandryk, the Ontario director of the CIA, told the CBC that “with the growing recognition that a lot of unpaid internships are illegal, a lot of employers are simply shifting their unpaid internships towards . . . school programs, so it’s more by the book.”
“But at the end of the day, it’s really the same sort of stuff—we’re really talking about employers getting a large pool of free labour,” he added.
Wendy Skye, a Carleton University public affairs and policy management student, said she worked an unpaid internship at the United Nations in New York City this summer.
“Having people get to know you and your face, is not only how you get your foot in the door, but your arms and torso as well,” Skye wrote via Facebook.
While she said she enjoyed the experience, it also proved difficult to pay for living costs.
“I don’t think it is truly livable for students (considering a 1 bedroom is about $2000 USD),” Skye said.
Vice editorial intern, Ebony-Renee Baker, recently wrote a piece titled The Canadian Government Isn’t Paying Some of Their Interns and That Sucks. Baker wrote that there is currently no existing national legislation regarding unpaid internships, though most provinces have laws around internships.
According to the CIA, Ontario interns are considered employees and entitled to minimum wage, unless they are working as part of a school program, training to join a profession, or receiving training from an employer, but “only under very narrow and specific circumstances.”
In February 2016, the CIA voluntarily quit talks with the Liberal government because the association felt concerns would not be addressed with proposed changes to internship policies, according to CBC.
Lyndsay Armstrong, a fourth-year Carleton journalism student, said in an email that she worked an unpaid internship at CHEX Television and left the experience with “valuable skills” and “high quality pieces of journalistic work” to add to her portfolio.
However, she noted the experience did not help her financially.
“As a student I can’t afford to take more than two weeks off of paid work, so I’ve had to keep my internships short so I can balance my other paid jobs around them,” she said. She added she did not feel taken advantage of by the organization.
“In my situation at CHEX, I don’t believe the station could have paid me. If they were to pay their interns, they likely wouldn’t be able to have an internship,” Armstrong said. “I felt like I understood why it was an unpaid internship and I was okay not getting paid.”
Jess Lemke, a fourth-year Carleton social work student, said she worked an unpaid academic placement this past summer at Family and Children’s Services in Renfrew County.
Since it was an academic placement, she gained credit for her participation, but received no payment. Lemke said she still would have considered taking the job if it was an unpaid internship and not for academic credit.
“I think it still would have attracted me because I hope to do that work in the future so the experience would be super valuable,” she said via Facebook. “I think that unpaid internships are a good way to get experience in your field . . . it looks good on [a] resume.”
