Official Languages committee  So, I didn't see this as the end. So, there were consultations that lasted one day.

Official Languages committee  I'll be honest with you. I don't consult the Roadmap every other day… We establish our plans and priorities based on the needs of our members.

Official Languages committee  When we read the Roadmap, we saw nothing in there that said there would be something for the French-language press.

Official Languages committee  I think we would really have to show considerable ingenuity in order to do that. As I mentioned earlier, we could always say that we are delivering a youth project and that it's in the Roadmap. That would be an additional argument in support of our project. However, unless I'm mistaken, there is not one word in the Roadmap which says that—

Official Languages committee  An example I could give would be the Aid to Publishers component, which is part of a program that is open to all newspapers in Canada, including English-language newspapers in Quebec. The Quebec Community Newspapers Association and ourselves have always argued in favour of a funding formula which recognizes the fact that it's far more difficult to penetrate a minority market which represents 2% or 3% of the population, and that there are far more obstacles involved.

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chong, Mr. Bélanger, Mr. Godin, members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, members of Parliament, the Association de la presse francophone would like to thank you for the invitation to appear today. We wish to commend you for undertaking a study of the Roadmap and want you to know you can count on our full cooperation.

Official Languages committee  The interdepartmental aspect is the foundation for our development. The OLSPB remains important. I will go back to the example given by François. Regardless of where he goes knocking, there is never any funding for radio. In our case, for our development survey and marketing project, we were told to knock on the door of Canadian Heritage.

Official Languages committee  If support is cut, whether it is from federal advertising or subsidies from the Canada Periodical Fund, newspapers will definitely go out of business. The most appropriate solution in our eyes would be that the departments develop their own programs. Right now, we are talking about the interdepartmental aspect.

Official Languages committee  Yes, that has always been the case.

Official Languages committee  No. That the officials from each department, when they are developing a program, ask themselves what is best for official languages, what is best for official languages development—

Official Languages committee  Rather than send us an answer expressing their regret because we do not meet the standards, we do not have this or that, we do not meet their criteria, they should be wondering how they can tailor their programs in order to meet requirements.

Official Languages committee  If the program disappears completely, I cannot tell you how many will not find a way to adapt, but clearly several of them will not survive.

Official Languages committee  We are projecting into the future, but clearly some will disappear and others will have to make draconian changes to their community coverage, the number of pages, the number of copies they distribute. Efforts would surely be made, because communities can show great creativity in efforts to ensure that they will have the services and institutions they need, but there would certainly be a very detrimental effect.

Official Languages committee  No, we have focused on the program review since 2008, and we have devoted all of our efforts to explaining our view that there needs to be a specific program for official languages publications. Once we have finished that, we are going to argue in favour of a renewed commitment from the government.

Official Languages committee  If that were the case, 25% of the funds would disappear. If you look at a paper the size of La Liberté, for example, that would represent a shortfall of $30,000 or $35,000, if the cuts were imposed proportionally on all papers participating in the program.