Thank you.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair.
My name is Olivier Carrière, and I am the assistant director of Unifor Québec.
I'll pick up where my colleague Randy Kitt left off.
The local program improvement fund, or LPIF, was created in 2009. At the time, the problem was clear. The CRTC understood that and everyone agreed that the way to fix it was to set up a fund to support local news. In 2014, the CRTC unfortunately changed its tune. Suddenly, a fund to support news was no longer necessary because of the return of advertising revenue.
The CRTC got it wrong. After eight years of decline, it is now clear that the content offering is more and more out of touch with the realities in Canada and Quebec. American media now dominate our living rooms, with no regard for local programming or news.
That is why we can't let the CRTC make these decisions single-handedly. We believe Bill C‑11 should be amended.
Specifically, Unifor supports the bill but recommends that subsection 11.1(1) of the new act be amended by adding paragraph (d), which would establish a fund.
The paragraph reads as follows:(d) developing, financing, producing or promoting local news programming and coverage, using contributions paid by distribution undertakings to related programming undertakings or by distribution undertakings or online undertakings to an independent fund. In making regulations respecting the distribution of the contributions, the Commission must take into account the local presence and staffing of the programming undertaking.
That is paramount. Funding for local news must be tied to the actual number of local human resources needed to produce that news. In our view, that is the most reliable way of ensuring that industry funds will be spent solely on the purpose for which they are intended: making sure that Canadians have access to relevant and timely local news coverage they can count on. In order for people to access relevant news coverage, someone has to make it available.
The Broadcasting Act was created to protect Canadian voices in a marketplace in which they would not otherwise receive support. That has not changed. Bill C‑11 merely updates—or modernizes, if you prefer—the law. The local news model was upended and now deserves some consideration.
I'll turn the floor back over to Mr. Kitt.