Good morning.
My name is Benoit Chartier. I am joined by Sylvain Poisson, general manager of Hebdos Québec. I am the chair of the board of Hebdos Québec.
Thank you for welcoming us to your committee.
Hebdos Québec is a group of about 40 independent newspaper owners. It includes 137 print and digital media outlets spread across 16 regions of Quebec and several other provinces in the country. Every week, we distribute some two million printed copies to every household in Quebec.
We now have stability for the first time in many years thanks to the Online News Act and the Canadian journalism labour tax credit, which amounts to 35%. This gives publishers more certainty to invest in their newsrooms. At the same time, we are expressing our deep concern that the tax credit will decrease to 25% on January 1, 2027.
Now on to Canada Post. Quebec's French-language weekly press is calling on you and sounding the alarm as the business model of our print media has been seriously shaken in recent years and continues to be jeopardized by the ongoing dispute at Canada Post and the overall conditions that affect our distribution by the Crown corporation.
Our print media is being subjected to unfair rates that jeopardize its future, as well as a status that exposes us to the stoppage or complete absence of distribution, as was the case during the Canada Post labour dispute.
Canada Post is critically important for the distribution of our print media to reach our readership and serve our advertisers every week. Its usefulness is undeniable, and we have no other private distribution network as exists elsewhere in Canada, such as the Postmedia distribution network.
We need to benefit from a single, advantageous rate that would remain in effect and that would enable each of us to opt for broad and blanket distribution. That would ensure our survival at a time when the quality of information is being undermined and journalistic deserts pose a real threat to social cohesion, as does artificial intelligence, for that matter.
We would also like to be able to obtain special status in relation to door-to-door delivery in order to avoid any interruptions, including the exclusion of neighbourhood mail as a media outlet. That status would also insulate us from any delivery stoppage.
At this point, I will give the floor to my colleague, Mr. Poisson.