Canadian Heritage Committee on May 10th, 2016

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Thank you.

[Dr. Mohammad Tajdolati, Ombudsman, National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada]

May I say something?

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Mohammad Tajdolati]

I want to say that many of our members are working as journalists at the same time that they have another job in order to have money for their daily lives. They put money from other jobs into publishing the newspaper because they love it, and because they suffered from the lack of information in their home countries and want to inform the members of their communities.

This is one of the big problems that we are trying to solve. More and more, our members have two jobs. Journalism is not a second job. It is the first job, but they have a second job in order to have money for the first job. This is the problem.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. O'Regan.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Maybe I could ask you to make a point one more time, just to make sure that it's absolutely clear. I guess it's frustrating, what you're saying, from your point of view.

[Thomas Saras]

You know that better than anybody else around here, Seamus.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I'm going to assume that it's frustrating for you—

[Thomas Saras]

It is.

Mr. Seamus O'Regan —to see large subsidies go to magazines like Maclean's and Chatelaine while you continue to struggle. Obviously, along with the Carleton study you cited, you firmly believe that the money should be directed towards the struggling ethnic press.

Is that fair to say?

[Thomas Saras]

Let me tell you something. It is fair what you say. The problem is.... From a $2.5-million cap previously with Maclean's magazine, after negotiations they brought that down to $1.5 million now. This is the maximum that Maclean's magazine can receive. Of course, daily, I am facing Rogers, who is fighting me, because it lost $1 million from only one magazine, and Rogers has hundreds of magazines, as you know. Of that $53 million, probably $40 million is going to Rogers every year as a subsidy. My members are receiving $8,000, $12,000, or $6,000.

There were rules set previously, and those rules were that the government was subsidizing only sales of the magazines, which means that if you are selling a million copies, then, according to the price you are selling at, you are receiving a subsidy from the government. My people were not ready for those things. Usually, the ethnic press has free distribution, except for the subscriptions that they are sending directly.

But it is free distribution. When the matter came down to the rules, Canadian Heritage started cutting everyone: you are not selling, so you don't qualify for the program. Another thing they did was harass every member who submitted an application to submit an audit. The auditors were charging $4,000 every six months to do the auditing—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute, Mr. O'Regan.

[Thomas Saras]

—and if you lose $4,000 to the auditor to get $6,000, it is not even worth it. This is the problem.

Excuse me, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

You have 30 seconds.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Is there any other point that you would like to add, Mr. Saras?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

You have 23 seconds.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds, Mr. Saras.

[Thomas Saras]

Thank you very much.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Your laughter just cost you another two seconds. Go.

[Thomas Saras]

I want to bring to your attention only one thing: we have to change the rules on how the subsidy is going to be given out. We have to change the rules. You cannot keep the rules of 30 years ago, which were only for the anglophone and francophone publications, and include the ethnic press in the same rules now, because the reality is that this is a totally different thing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Now we go to Mr. Waugh, for the Conservatives.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Change the rules to what?

[Thomas Saras]

Change the rules—

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Just to make your papers and your magazines viable? What are your numbers?