Thank you, Ms. Gardner.
Mr. Palmer, comments were made by Mr. Singer around.... There seemed to be this claim that there were these two pots of money, which again points to his misunderstanding of this legislation. He pointed to the fact that newspapers are going to be able to apply for money but then other news outlets will be able to apply for money. That's not the case. Within this bill, there are not two pots of money. There's only one pot of money and, indeed, you will have smaller newspapers competing against larger organizations like Bell.
We've heard from two different individuals who came before this committee, one representing Alberta newspapers and one representing Saskatchewan weekly newspapers. Alberta newspapers said that, within that province, 50% of newspapers would not be eligible because they don't have two or more full-time journalists. Then, with regard to Saskatchewan, he said that 80% would not be eligible because they do not have two or more journalists.
If the point of this bill is truly to protect local newspapers, will it accomplish that?