Thanks very much, Madam Chair.
I'm opposed to creating more loopholes. It doesn't make sense to me. We put into place legislation that community newspapers in places like Alberta and Saskatchewan have asked us to. Improving the bill doesn't mean creating more loopholes and creating more escape clauses for the web giants, so I'll be voting against this amendment.
However, Madam Chair, I know that the Conservatives have put forward five identical amendments. The only thing that has changed is the dollar figure. That, to me, is a real attempt to filibuster and stall the legislation.
I just come back to the witnesses who came back to us: the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association and the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association. These are newspapers that basically provide important journalism for communities and that represent nearly half of the Conservative caucus. I don't understand how any member of Parliament, when the community newspapers come forward and say this legislation needs to be improved and this legislation is needed, would then put forward amendments that are clearly designed just to stall the legislation from being adopted. It doesn't make sense to me. I think it's disrespectful to Alberta community newspapers and Saskatchewan community newspapers, which do such an important job in providing communities across Alberta and Saskatchewan with the kind of journalism that is so important to bringing together a community.
I would hope that my Conservative colleagues would withdraw the other amendments, which are basically just carbon copies with just one dollar figure changed, rather than stalling the bill. We have important work to do to move forward on this bill, to improve it for sure, but in this case we have five amendments that are identical, in which only the dollar figure changes, in what is clearly an attempt to stall, clearly an attempt to block the legislation. That's not what Alberta community newspapers and Saskatchewan community newspapers want, and I think we should abide by their testimony.