Thank you, Madam Chair.
Subparagraph 27(1)(b)(i) of Bill C‑18 is still useful. It shows the importance of discussing and reflecting, and then speaking with the various stakeholders involved in a bill, as this can produce results.
In this case, I must confess that I was concerned from the outset about the situation of very small regional media, which are no less rigorous because they are small. They are struggling these days, and have been for years now, since the arrival of the web giants.
However, I also have a very serious concern with Bill C‑18, and that is that we need to ensure that the news businesses that will be regulated by this bill are serious and rigorous businesses. We will come back to it with other amendments later.
So I think it's important to set some parameters. Employing two journalists certainly shows that the news business is serious, or so one would hope. If a business hires more than one journalist, it's certain that you're not dealing with a blogger who is merely commenting on the news in their basement. So I think it's important to set some parameters to prevent people from falling through the cracks and taking advantage of Bill C‑18.
A compromise was reached by allowing that one of the two journalists could also be an owner or have an arm's length relationship with the business. This compromise will certainly cover a fair number of small regional media, which are the ones we want to protect with this bill.