In one of the more creative ways to save money, the Toronto Metro laid off all its staff writers and hired unpaid interns to replace them.

Union president, Brad Honywill, doesn’t think this is such a good plan. “In this kind of environment, layoffs are inevitable,” he said. “But we reject the notion they can fill jobs with interns hired three days beforehand.”

Metro‘s group publisher for English Canada, Bill McDonald, has a different take: “We made a small adjustment to our staff. We’re managing our business in these economic times.” He also said that “content partnerships” will be responsible for providing some stories.

The news comes just a couple weeks after the Metro in Spain was shut down. Apparently, there are no interns in Europe.