The government shares that objective in that a DNI should not be able to get an exemption without having agreements in place with small independent players.
In terms of the government's position, if you look at the exemption criteria, you will see that there are strong markers put there about the importance, under subparagraph 11(1)(a)(ii), of supporting the production of local news content. Subparagraph 11(1)(a)(v) is really a critical one for independent local news businesses in that “a significant portion” of them have to benefit from the agreements and that the benefits have to “contribute to the sustainability of those businesses”. Then, in subparagraph 11(1)(a)(vi), again, you see reference to “a range of news outlets”, including local news and different kinds of business models.
All of this is to say that the government does share that objective. These agreements need to be diverse. They cannot be simply with a small group of consolidated players but have to be put in place with independent local news businesses.