First, you've been speaking about competition. Of course, I do support competition, but we all agree that we support fair competition. When every day we have 200 journalists in the province of Quebec getting into our newspapers to not only try to produce but to succeed in producing fantastic local news, then every day we're paying for those people to make sure that we will maintain a good community life and maintain democracy. On the other side, you have people grabbing your news without paying any dues, and I believe that's unfair. That's all we're saying about that for the time being
Second, I think we're making a difference. As you said, people are getting into the digital world. Indeed they are, but we believe that the new business model that's ahead of us is what we call the multi-platform. You're going to take tablets, and you're going to take smart phones, and you're going to look at the Internet, as well, and you'll take print. They all get involved in what I call the ladder of advertising. They all have a specific role to play. Those that are getting involved in print have a certain target and a certain vision. For those that are getting involved in the tablet, as well, it's different. In the mind of consumers, they don't react the same, so that's why we've chosen the multi-platform.
We're just asking you to make sure that we're going to be able to turn around that business model and that again we're going to have great newspapers across Canada. That's all we want.
When it comes to advertising, I'm pleased with the mandate you received, and I know you're hearing people from across Canada. I look—and we mentioned this many times—at about 10 years ago when $20 million was invested in our newspapers. Today it's half a million dollars. Those dollars actually went away to people outside the country. They barely create jobs, and they barely create taxes, sir.
If you don't mind, I do believe that if you believe in your mandate, then you should walk the talk. We make the difference for a lot of businesses from across Canada that are putting their ads in our print and digital versions. I do believe that the Canadian government should be proud enough of our culture to stand and keep announcing that in our newspapers. That's what I believe, sir.