Thank you, Madam Chair.
We have the Conservatives throwing out a whole bunch of figures left, right and centre. I have no idea where those figures come from, so I wanted to ask our officials to what extent NDP-16 would enlarge the number of small community newspapers and online news publishers. Would it be able to benefit from this money from big tech?
Secondly, my question is simply this: If we just stop moving forward on Bill C-18, which is what the Conservatives want, what would that mean in terms of those newspapers and online publishers across the country? If we don't have Bill C-18 at all, how many news publications would go bankrupt in the coming years?
I've certainly seen big tech taking so much money out of my constituency that we've lost half of the community newspapers over the last few years.
I'm asking the officials, I guess, three things.
Where do these figures come from, or are they aware of these figures that are being thrown around by the Conservatives? What is the impact of not adopting Bill C-18? What is the impact of NDP-16 in terms of enlarging the number of publications that benefit from big tech finally being forced to provide support for journalism in this country?