Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

How many papers are there—?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

It's over 150 digital subscriptions that you announced. It was actually 156. I'm wondering how much it is dollar-wise.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

You're talking about the $600-million credit that was put in place at the time, and there was $50 million for regional media. Is that right?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Yes.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I'll have to ask Finance, because it's Finance that runs it. However, I'll tell you, if I may, why we did it. It's because our independent press is disappearing. I said earlier that 450 media outlets closed their doors in the last 10 years, so it was absolutely urgent to act.

This is very neutral and, once again, arm's length. We don't want the government there. There are specific criteria. It's managed by CRA, and they apply...together or not.

I think it was the right way to help, because we need a free, independent, non-partisan press.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

The reason I think you gave them the tax credit was to hopefully get subscriptions.

Is there any data that in Canada subscriptions actually went up, for the Toronto Sun or other newspapers, or was this a gift to them? Do we have any data—to Isabelle, maybe—saying that subscriptions in this country to local newspapers have gone up in the last two years, or was this money just a gift and we don't have any tracking for subscriptions?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

It was never.... I'm not sure—English is my third language—what you mean by “gift”. It's there to support an industry that needs it, an industry that's one of the pillars of our democracy, right?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Yes.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

The intention is not to give. It's to help them do their job, to ask you and me the tough questions and to do what they do best.

For those specific numbers, we can ask Finance. It's really Finance that manages that. It's not Heritage.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I was just wondering about the subscriptions, because that's the logical thing. I have a tax credit of $378 now from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, so really I get it for free. There should be more subscribers to the local newspapers, right?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

That's the objective, absolutely.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

That's the question I asked. Are we seeing a rise in subscriptions in Canada?

Maybe that will come from another department.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

It would come from Finance, absolutely.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

In July 2021, when he was still heritage minister, Minister Guilbeault was here. He sent us briefing notes because we had started this look at what COVID-19 had done to arts and entertainment. It stated the government's intentions to increase advertising spending to traditional media.

Can you provide those numbers to the committee? Owen, we know the government put lots of money into Google and Facebook. What about traditional media like radio, television and newspapers? In the report of July 2021, you indicated you were going to make a concerted effort on that front.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I'll turn to Owen on this one.

[Thomas Owen Ripley]

I have a couple of statistics I can share with you. If those don't do the trick, we can certainly follow up.

Since the beginning of the 2017-18 fiscal year, the Department of Canadian Heritage has spent approximately $8.75 million on advertising. Of that amount, only $846,000 was spent on social media platforms. The remainder was spent on more traditional media.

During the fiscal year of 2020-21, the department spent approximately $1 million on advertising. Of that amount, approximately $450,000 was spent on social media. The remainder would have been on more traditional platforms.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Boy, have you ever come down in advertising. It's down from $8.75 million in 2017 to only $1 million now.

[Thomas Owen Ripley]

The 2017-18 amount is a cumulative figure, so $8.75 million is the cumulative figure since 2017-18.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Okay, good.

I think I have 30 seconds left, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You folks have some creative clocks around you.

I'm sorry, Kevin, your time is up.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

All right. Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Leslyn, I'm sorry you didn't get to ask any questions.

Now I'll go to Lisa Hepfner for five minutes.

[Lisa Hepfner, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Thank you very much. Through you, Madam Chair,

[Member spoke in Spanish]

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

[Witness spoke in Spanish]

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We don't have Spanish translation.