Canadian Heritage Committee on April 14th, 2026

[Benoit Chartier]

Regarding weeklies in Quebec, following the dispute with Canada Post and the end of the Publisac throughout Quebec, yes, a broader solution is possible. We could sit down with Canada Post and try to get the preferential rates that are only for newspapers that provide general coverage in their region. That would be a much more favourable distribution rate than the rates we are currently getting from Canada Post.

Take for example the newspaper L'Express de Drummondville in your riding, Mr. Champoux. For some time now, L'Express de Drummondville has been distributed only in grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies. Why? It's because Canada Post's door-to-door delivery cost is too high. That has a major impact on journalism, on the distribution of newspapers and on the amplification of journalism in the regions. If we got a preferential rate from Canada Post for the general-interest weekly press in Quebec, every copy would definitely go to every house in that region. Going back to the example of Drummondville: L'Express de Drummondville could once again be distributed to every door in the city.

That's why we're here today: We have a major challenge in relation to the Quebec weekly press. This is not a problem elsewhere in Canada because they have private distribution networks that we don't have in Quebec.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

In a few seconds, Mr. Chartier, can you just tell me how important the tax credit, among other things, and programs like the local journalism initiative are for weeklies and their survival? Could you continue to provide regional coverage effectively without those support programs?

[Benoit Chartier]

It would be impossible.

Mr. Champoux, I fought with you for 10 years. We were in the trenches together in the early days as regards Bill C‑18, as you will recall.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

You mean we fought together.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Thank you both very much. It's a very small world, I would say.

Mr. Diotte is another former journalist in the room.

You now have the floor for five minutes.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

I know, Ms. Spring, that you have until only 12:30, so I'll ask you a question off the top.

I was looking at your website. You say that the Canadian Journalism Collective is funded by a diverse steering committee of news publishers and broadcasters based in Canada, yet you don't have anybody from western Canada. How is this even possible?

[Sarah Spring]

I'll refer to my previous answer. The board is structured as a 19-person board. There are eight broadcaster seats and eight publisher seats. They form the broadcasting and publishing councils. They elect an independent chair, and then the whole board elects the chair of the board. The publishing and broadcasting councils, those 16 seats, represent every sector of the news ecosystem, and the members elect, every year at their AGM, their representative on the board. The focus that was established when the CJC was founded was not on regional representation but on news sector representation. The members have the choice of what region they want to have represented to speak for them on the board of directors.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Is there not some slight guilt that you don't have somebody from western Canada? Could you not appoint someone? Have you ever had anybody from western Canada?

[Sarah Spring]

We're a pretty new organization. The board that's sitting right now is the first elected board. We're going to have an annual general meeting in June, when some of the seats are going to be up for election, so we'll see what happens.

The members can propose bylaw changes. It's part of our governance structure. The members can ask their representatives on the board of directors to propose bylaw changes. Everything is possible within the rules and regulations of good governance. No unilateral decisions could be made. They have to follow due process, but nothing is impossible if you're following those processes.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

I'll turn to you, Mr. Wood. I was a long-time journalist. We have a good friend in the legendary broadcaster John Gormley.

You noted that you have twice as much news on your radio stations on the weekend as CBC. CBC gets almost $1.4 billion. How is it that they can't broadcast local news on weekends when a much smaller organization like yours can?

[Murray Wood]

Thank you for the question.

Yes, we do have a mutual colleague. I worked with John for many years.

I can't really speak to CBC's decision-making process, and I would say that they do have radio representation on weekend mornings. You're correct in that we are the only broadcast organization in Saskatchewan that is also there on weekend afternoons. In particular, on Sunday afternoons, I'm sure we are the only one in Saskatchewan.

I don't know how CBC comes to their decision-making process, but I can tell you that we view it as a responsibility to the people we serve. News doesn't stop. It doesn't end on weekends. It doesn't keep office hours. In fact, in recent years and this year particularly, it seems that a lot of news has been happening on weekends, so it's been important and beneficial to us for the rest of our broadcast week to have people working on the weekends, covering those stories, talking to people and getting the information out as it happens.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Tell me a bit more about your operation. What's your secret to success? Rawlco is not Corus, but somehow you've succeeded as a family-run business for 80 years, I understand.

[Murray Wood]

As you touched on, it is a family-owned business. We don't just talk about providing service to our listeners and to the province; we actually walk the walk. In the last 10 years, we've increased the number of reporters and news people working for our two news talk stations in Saskatchewan because we recognize the importance of it.

At a time when people are increasingly getting their information from online sources or from international sources, we have local people who are live. We're live and local seven days a week on our stations, and we're delivering local content. We're talking about what Saskatchewan people care about. They can phone in and talk about those issues on our talk shows. Listeners know that, if something significant is going on, they can turn to both our news stations and our music stations and find out more about it.

We talk about reflecting values. We have people who live here. They focus on what people care about, and they really create a sense of the day-to-day for Saskatchewan. If there's a secret to what Rawlco's done, and I would say some other companies as well, it is, in fact, walking the walk and being there to provide local service.

I'd also say, going even further, that it's being involved in the community, with substantial fundraising for charitable groups. Our stations raise millions of dollars each year for good causes in Saskatchewan. These things are tangible; they mean something and are seen as having value and giving back to the community.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Thank you.

Mr. Wood, I've really appreciated your testimony today.

Would you tell me whether it would be valuable to your organization if CBC as a public broadcaster were compelled to share audio and video resources with other news stations across the country?

[Murray Wood]

That's a really interesting question.

This is my personal view. I've often thought that, for the role of CBC, what it's asked to do is serve the country. It's odd to me that CBC at times seems to view itself as being in competition. We even hear them in Saskatchewan talking about how they are doing in the ratings. They don't sell commercials, so I'm not sure why this is important to them.

There are times when access to information is a challenge. I will say in Canada particularly, The Canadian Press has backed away from providing as much audio as it has before. There are times when it's a challenge to access audio of a national feed. If the Prime Minister is doing something, we do workarounds, we find our way, but I think it's a fair issue to raise: whether CBC audio and content should be accessible—or at least some of it in some fashion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Thank you for that.

I will now—

[Murray Wood]

I'm sorry.

Having said that, I want to add that we would not need CBC's content or the stories they work on. We do our own, but some of the access to feeds and so forth might be useful and of service.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Because you're not on Parliament Hill, you don't have resources here, so you could have access from a public broadcaster. That was my point. I appreciate your opinion.

Thank you.

Ms. Royer, you now have the floor for five minutes.

[Zoe Royer, Liberal, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have deep respect for everybody in the room today giving testimony. This is such an important topic. It's really an imperative of our time.

In my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam, our local news shuttered their doors just ahead of the 2025 election, about a month before. That created space for the, as Mr. Wood said, deluge of free, and as Mr. Harvey said, unverified and, in some cases, malicious content. It was really a feeding frenzy of all of that stuff ahead of the election. Here we are.

In this time of news, when people are hungry for local, fact-based journalistic integrity, but the vacuum is being filled with everything else, what does journalistic integrity look like to you? How can Canadians spot it? I'd like to open the floor and hear from many of you, maybe beginning with Ms. Simard and Mr. Harvey, because you train journalists.

Please, I'd like to hear from you.

[Cindy Simard]

That's a really interesting question.

We do, in fact, train a great many journalists. I think being based in the regions gives us the opportunity to be close to people. People know us; we run into them everywhere we go, and they know that we truly provide fair and credible news.

We were talking earlier about how trust in journalists may have declined in recent years. I think fake news plays a huge part in that. That's what we're trying to counter, obviously. Even we sometimes find ourselves reading something and wondering if it's true or false, if the image actually exists or if it was fabricated.

I think that in the regions, we're really lucky to be close to people. People know us; they know our journalists, and they meet them in person. We offer really good training; it's so good that other media outlets seek out our journalists.

Personally, I don't sense this issue of unreliable information as much. On the contrary, I think the fact that we're close to people means we experience this situation less.

That said, I may have misunderstood the question.

[Pierre Harvey]

To add to my colleague's response, I'd like to mention another phenomenon, Ms. Royer.

What's causing some confusion among citizens who watch the news these days is what's known as opinion-based journalism. When on-air personalities participating in news programs, among other things, offer their opinions, it can distort the facts or give people a different perspective.

In the regions, there are few such local programs. Therefore, all of our journalists' commentary is based on facts. People are interviewed and give their opinions, and then the journalists seek out the other side of the story. We practise journalism the way it was done 30 or 40 years ago, following established standards.

Opinion journalism, or guest commentators, that's something else. By the way, this is also happening more and more on the radio, in talk shows.

In fact, the criteria for the Quebec government's most recent tax credit for journalism specifically state that the tax credit can only be granted to people who work in a newsroom and produce news broadcasts. It is also clearly explained that commentators are excluded from this tax credit. There is therefore a warning issued by government authorities regarding the financial assistance that will be granted.

[Zoe Royer, Liberal, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Amazing. Thank you.

To Ms. Spring, when you're reviewing applications for funding, are you looking at those applications through a journalism code of ethics? How does your screening process work?

[Sarah Spring]

We took the language of the Online News Act and transformed it into program administration. Certain elements are mentioned within the act. We ask for a journalistic code of ethics. People have to submit that, whether they follow their own journalistic code of ethics or whether they are part of an association, in which case they submit their association's code of ethics. It's one of the fundamental eligibility criteria in order to have funding.

[Zoe Royer, Liberal, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

For Canadians listening today, what would you say are the pillars of the journalistic code of ethics, if you had to summarize it in five points?