Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for that question, sir.
Let us go back to the first comment you made about the $20 million in government advertising that today stands at $495,000. It must be understood that we are not asking for an additional advertising budget. We understand that the overall amount invested each year is $20 million.
Essentially, we are saying to the Canadian government that, if it is sensitive in the area of local news, as you have just mentioned, it should continue to invest in our products.
Every day, in all groups, in all newspapers and coalition members, we meet people who, day after day, invest in our newspapers and buy advertising in them because they understand that we can help them to improve their sales and that we are partners. We also deliver results.
For several years, we have been moving from a paper platform to what is called the digital universe. We now deal with what we call multimedia. Essentially, we are telling you that something has to be done to help us, because the situation is completely unfair.
A little earlier, Brian Myles spoke about the assistance given to television. There was the debate about magazines; don’t forget that I was there at the time. That was done correctly, in order to protect democracy, to maintain journalistic quality everywhere in Canada, and to ensure Canadian content.
I said that the situation is unfair. In fact, every day, if you take the members of my group, Groupe Capitales Médias, for example, 200 reporters cover the news professionally all over Quebec. This is quality news about the communities. Those newspapers reflect the life of the community, culturally, politically and economically. We do it with our own capacity and our own financial resources, and with very generous people. They do it almost on a volunteer basis, because they believe in their mission.
Then, we see the Googles of this world, essentially stealing, distributing and broadcasting the information through the entire platform without it costing them a penny.
So we have come up with a number of recommendations. I feel that the Government of Canada should stop talking and start doing something.
In addition, I feel that we should be dusting off the Copyright Act, as they are in the process of doing in Europe.
When the government decides to deal with the copyright issue, when it tells the American giants to stop stealing our information and to pay us for it, you will see a change in the tone of the American giants and major companies. They will come and sit down with us, because they would not like to have a business model imposed on them.
So that is what we are asking you for.
Again, Mr. Vice-Chair, we're very glad to be here today, to be around this table and to support the mandate you have. I do believe it's a question of democracy. As you said, we're talking about regions across Canada, and it's key. If I decided to move on in my life and get involved in the media business knowing that the business model is going through a major transition in a period of time that's difficult for the media, it's because I believe in the information. I believe as well in the question of the quality of the information, and I believe and I know that we're making a difference in all the communities across Canada. That's the reason I'm here today.