Canadian Heritage Committee on March 8th, 2016

[Richard Tardif]

That's a good question. Our local readers are loyal, to answer the first part of your question. That's what keeps our numbers at that level, except when we have three newspapers shut down by corporations. Then we drop in our readership.

For incentives we get zero funding from Quebec, period—zero; there's none. The Canadian Heritage funding we get, which is $120,121 annually, remains. We've been told by Canadian Heritage that there's no new money but that we're not going to lose the old money.

As for incentives for digital, in our papers we have journalists who use social media. They all have Twitter, they all have Facebook, and our members all have websites. As Carmel has pointed out, they're strapped. They're doing everything. They're called multimedia journalists.

I have ideas about incorporating a digital-made bundle, but I have to worry about the immediate, present situation of retaining English language-writing journalists in Quebec, because if they keep losing money they'll shift, for one thing, to another trade, which is not uncommon, or they'll find work on a daily, which might last them six months but would give them more money, but in the end is the same kind of thing.

I offer for my members a centralized digital offering to advertisers whereby they can use the QCNA website to advertise to all the other members in our network, if my members don't have a digital platform, which none of them has. However, they can advertise. I can offer corporation A $900 for a full page, but say that if you would like to be in our network we can do it for $60 more per issue, or whatever. Now, I split that with our members, because we have an operating budget as well, but they have an offering. It is working so-so.

That's the furthest I can go at the moment, because I have no other resources available.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

The follow-up question would be, if a third of that funding comes from Canadian Heritage, can you give me a percentage breakdown of how you generate the rest of your revenue? Does it come from advertising or other areas?

[Richard Tardif]

Yes. I anticipated that question.

We have a low membership fee. In return for that, we require that each newspaper donate four pages to us. I get to use that member-donated space to advertise our membership in the papers, or I get to use that space for advertising that the QCNA has brought in. That keeps it low.

Also, we have a thing called “blanket classifieds”. As you know, classifieds have dramatically declined in the last 20 years, but these classifieds, as part of membership, go from our customers to all in our network, in one shot. It's one clearing house. They send us the classified ad every week, and boom, it goes to our papers. Through arrangement, we take that money for our operating costs.

Federal advertising dropped by 98.5%. This year, it went up with Elections Canada. The year before, it was $54,000. The year before that, it was $1,500. I had to adjust my budget four times last year when that came around. There are also sponsorships and advertising in our awards newspaper every year, which is one part of our big gala.

I do have to say that it's becoming increasingly difficult. When I came to the role in 2012, I had a $700,000 budget. My proposed budget for the new fiscal year coming up is $385,000. It's the bare minimum. In terms of the cut back to federal advertising, to follow up on this question that we had, we've worked on Public Works and media monitors in government departments, and we've harassed—it's part of our job as salespeople, I guess, to harass—but we've had no luck or success.

Quite frankly, I'm considering what I'm going to do with some of my staff. It's a hard situation.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you.

Madam Chair, I wanted to allow my colleague Mr. Waugh to ask a question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute, Mr. Waugh.

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

One minute...? I have to be quick.

I just wanted to say to the APTN that I've been a big fan since 1990. You've come a long way. Thank you for shutting down the bureaus. You only need a bit of room now for a reporter. You've showed that in Saskatoon.

You've come a long way, and I want to say this. The basic level service was supported by the CRTC. You're one of the lucky ones. Each and every Canadian pays for APTN, whether they watch it or not. While we can sit here and point to the CRTC, you're one of the lucky ones.

But what I am going to ask you about is that I only see 28% in aboriginal languages. You've touched on that. You need to do better. How are you going to do it?

[Jean La Rose]

Those numbers are set by the CRTC. They are the ones who have set the percentage of English, French, and aboriginal languages.

Every year, in a certain way, we exceed that 28%, because for a lot of the programming that is in languages we will play it on the different channels, and then we even it out to manage to get to that point. But when you look at the northern channel, you will see that about 60% of the programming is in aboriginal languages, and that's the one that reaches into our communities in the north, as well as the more remote areas of central Canada.

I think that as a network we've been doing more, and we want to do even more, but that will need the co-operation of the CRTC and Canadian Heritage. We can't change our conditions of licence. You know that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Now, for seven minutes, we have Mr. Nantel for the NDP.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I also thank the three groups for joining us this morning.

First, I would like to ask Mr. Tardif a question about the situation of the West Island Chronicle or the Westmount Examiner.

Can we compare the situation of either of those English-language weeklies with that of a French-language minority weekly elsewhere in the country? Are there any parallels we can draw regarding the resources granted to each of these weeklies? Can we do that?

[Richard Tardif]

Yes, I can, and quite elaborately, as a matter of fact. The West Island Chronicle, The Westmount Examiner, and The Gleaner belong to Transcontinental, or TC Media, which operates in part of Ontario and most of Quebec. They presently have 109 francophone newspapers.

The West Island Chronicle is now called The Chronicle. I started my career there many years ago. I wrote articles when that paper was like a book every Friday. I was a young reporter learning and I had so much to do. We had so many inserts and so much advertising. Everybody came. Those were my glory days.

That was bought up by TC Media, and I remember in our association that it was down to eight pages, with no advertising.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Do you get the same support as a French comparison in Edmonton or St. Boniface in Winnipeg?

[Richard Tardif]

No, I get $121,000 from Canadian Heritage. I get nothing from the ministry of communications and culture in Quebec, nothing, zero.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Do they receive from the provincial level?

[Richard Tardif]

They receive $40,000 to $60,000 per media. This is done through TC Media influence. I don't get that support.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I have a simple question for Mr. La Rose.

Obviously, I think that everyone is happy with the high visibility afforded by the presence of APTN in the basic package. In terms of the population you would like to serve, what percentage do you fail to reach for technical deployment reasons, either through cable or via the Internet? In your opinion, what percentage of the people you mentioned are you not reaching?

[Jean La Rose]

Currently, there are very few people we are not able to reach. We are part of the basic package offer and, of course, about 97% to 98% of Canadian homes are wired. In this respect, we are able to reach as many people as CBC/Radio-Canada does. Our greatest problems are in our northern communities, when it comes to digital distribution. In the North, there is absolutely no infrastructure like that in southern communities that would allow people to consume news or programming on a digital platform, regardless of our offer. In the North, it is almost impossible to receive those services. We regularly receive complaints about it.

At this time, one of the worst places is probably Nunavut. We have not yet managed to find a way to bring fibre optics into that region of the country. Everything that the population receives is via satellite. Often, when an entire community relies on one or two satellite receivers, there is not enough capacity in what is called the “pipe” to enable everyone to get information, or view movies or anything else. Therefore I would say that about 40% of our population is not getting the same level of service on a digital platform as the rest of Canadians probably do.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Then, 40% of that specific target population, the people we are talking about, has no access to that signal.

[Jean La Rose]

That is probably—

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That is quite significant.

[Jean La Rose]

It is probably up to 40%. If we look at all our communities that are not near urban centres and are in remote areas, they often do not have access to this service.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That is staggering.

[Jean La Rose]

It is still necessary to go via satellite. Often, the community cannot afford more than one receiver for all of its people. Anyway, we all know that the North has an entirely different dynamic.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you for doing a great job.

Ms. Smyth and Ms. Umurungi, I would like to ask you a question.

You mentioned that in the Saskatchewan legislature, there is no regular reporter that covers provincial politics on a full-time basis. That is what you said.

[Carmel Smyth]

Yes, that is exactly it.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Personally, I find that absurd.

I am not sure whether any of the committee members tried to see the Oscar-nominated films. Many films co-produced or produced in Canada were in the running. One of the movies that won, other than The Revenant, is about the investigation of Catholic priests in Boston and is entitled Spotlight. You just spoke about your example concerning an HIV investigation in your home province. This is a really serious situation, and it is sobering to realize that, in Canada, a provincial legislature has no media coverage. Reporters are sent there just as they could be sent elsewhere. Nobody is there to regularly cover the news. You are positive about that.