In La Liberté's case, it did indeed lose funding when the two programs were merged. The figures show that. A large chunk of that decrease is due to the drop in subscribers. So, the lower the readership, the less funding the publication gets, as Mr. Bernier explained. But when you compare the former program, the publications assistance program, and the Canada periodical fund, the figures show that funding for French-language periodicals rose by about 30%.
On October 6th, 2016. See this statement in context.