I don't know how many writers have told you that they've stopped doing various forms of writing. I used to do short freelance pieces quite a bit. I freelanced for different newspapers and magazines across Canada.
At one point I went to the B.C. magazine awards. I can't tell you how long ago this was. I'm going to say it was around 2000. The guy who was given the lifetime achievement award talked about how the rate has been a dollar a word for feature articles in national magazines for too long. It was a dollar a word when he started 20 years ago and it was still a dollar a word. He said that had to change, because people can't afford to write a feature article for a national magazine for a dollar a word.
A few years later, I was asked to do a cover story for Vancouver magazine. I did it, and the editor said to me, “You've done such a great job. You've been so great to work with. I'm going to give you my top rate: 85¢ a word.” And it's gone down since then.
So it doesn't really pay. As other panellists have mentioned, at a certain point it's not worth it for writers. When you're trying to broaden the number of stories and voices in Canadian culture, which has so many spinoff economic effects that are good, you end up narrowing it to people who can afford to subsidize that themselves.