Thank you, MP Thomas, for the question.
To bring some hard facts into the conversation, the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford—which is well respected—has documented the decline of Canadian trust in the news. The trust that Canadians have in the media fell from 55% in 2016 to 39% in 2024.
Polling that we've conducted indicates that 76% of Canadians agree that government funding could undermine journalistic objectivity. About 67% of Canadians surveyed do not trust the government to decide which media organizations qualify for subsidy support.
We have to understand that this whole conversation, for the last hour or so. It seems to be entirely focused on the large incumbent organizations, and I get that. They have powerful lobbyists, and clearly, they've been very effective in designing a subsidy scheme that is optimized for their needs. To a large degree, it entrenches their incumbency, for the reasons I talked about.
I appreciate your raising the issue of trust, because nowhere in this conversation has anyone addressed the extent to which trust in the media is plunging, including trust in the CBC.
Will we connect? Will we have the courage, fortitude and perspicacity to understand that there may be a connection between large-scale government funding of the media, with an increasing public distrust in news and journalism and the consequences of all of that for our democracy? Instead, it seems as though we're having a conversation that's exceedingly convenient for many of the people testifying today on behalf of the organizations they represent. It's basically about how we can maximize subsidies that we receive from government to maintain and sustain our business models, which are legacy models that were built over decades. I do not deny that they produce excellent journalism and provide a public service.
Other than my voice today, who's speaking for what we'll hope will be the next generation of media organizations that will come up in this country, that will develop new ways of telling Canadian stories and writing effective journalism? Who's speaking for them? Where are the types of reforms to the subsidy model that could allow 1,000 flowers to bloom?
I'll end on this point. We're celebrating our fifth anniversary at The Hub, after five years of building this organization from nothing to something. When I look around, I'm distressed to see that no one has followed us. There are very few new media start-ups of any size, since these subsidies came into effect in 2019.
We have to acknowledge that the subsidy regime is doing something. It is squashing innovation. It is impeding new models, methods and types of organizations to renew our journalistic capacity in Canada.
I appreciate the question about trust, because it's something we need to discuss. We need to connect it to subsidies. We need to connect it to how the subsidy regime has largely frozen Canadian media, from the CBC to my old friends at The Toronto Star and others.
We're not seeing a renewal in the industry. We're not seeing dynamism in the industry. I would challenge anyone to argue otherwise.