Thank you.
Essentially, one thing we heard from many of the witnesses who came forward was a concern around the stipulation that there must be two journalists in order to fit the criteria.
Many of the local newspaper outlets function with one journalist. Perhaps one journalist is even shared between two different organizations. This is commonplace, particularly in rural areas where these small newspapers exist, oftentimes, as well as in ethnic media outlets. One thing we heard time and again from witnesses who appeared here in person, but also in written briefs submitted to us, was that they wished to see this reality accounted for—that there are often not two full-time journalists.
Ultimately, that is what we are trying to amend here. We would make sure that local news outlets and ethnic news media are able to enter into negotiations and that smaller players are not left out in the cold but are included in this bill. One reason this is so important is that much of this bill is already bent in favour of large newspaper conglomerates or larger broadcasters. It's been stated by the Parliamentary Budget Officer that about 75% of the money will be going towards these larger broadcasters.
Our attempt here is to stand up for the newspapers and make sure they get a fair shake.