Thank you very much, Madame Chair, and I'm very pleased to move NDP-16.
I think it's important to note that the independent online news publishers of Canada have been the instigators of start-ups right across the country, including two very important publications locally in my community, the Burnaby Beacon and the New West Anchor. They do terrific work. They employ a number of journalists, and they're the ones who have been the standard-bearers looking to have that critical improvement in Bill C-18. Their concern was around journalists who are partners in the business themselves or owners of the business themselves or who don't deal at arm's length with the business. Bill C-18 in its second-reading form excluded them from accessing the funds that are going to be so important for building journalism locally. Of course, the community newspaper associations like Alberta community newspapers and Saskatchewan community newspapers also spoke to this. This is an extremely important improvement.
What it does is it replaces line 9 on page 10 with the following:
Canada, which journalists may include journalists who own or are a partner in the news business and journalists who do not deal at arm's length with the business,
This amendment is a very important and critical one for improving the bill to make sure it's accessible to community newspapers, to online news publishers right across the country, to the media that provide supports in third and fourth languages in this country. We have an ethnic press that is extremely vital and energetic. What this does is provide that ethnic news publications that have owners who are also operators who are also journalists can access this regime. It's extremely important.
I became very confused by the Conservatives in the last discussion around the amendments. They've been opposed to Bill C-18. They've tried to fight Bill C-18. They've tried to delay Bill C-18, and then all of a sudden they spoke in favour of the benefits that come from Bill C-18. This is the litmus test. If they vote for NDP-16, they are showing the importance of improving the bill and making sure that it's accessible to community newspapers and online news publishers right across the country.
With that, Madame Chair, I hope that this passes unanimously. This will be an important improvement to make sure Bill C-18 really does what it needs to do, which is ensure that the big tech giants actually start funding journalism right across the country, including in communities throughout the length and breadth of Canada.