Good day. My name is Steven Watt. I am the Editor and Director General of Le Gaboteur newspaper, which is the only French-language newspaper — and almost the only francophone media channel — in Newfoundland and Labrador. Of course, there is a Radio-Canada radio and television journalist here, in St. Johns, but Radio-Canada tends to produce more news stories about what is happening in Newfoundland for the rest of Canada. For our part, we provide Newfoundlanders with true coverage of activities here in Newfoundland.
We are an independent organization, but we of course work in close partnership with regional community and provincial organizations. It is our mandate to support those organizations, particularly by covering their activities and projects.
Generally speaking, we have a two-pronged mission. We have to serve as a window on the francophonie of Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the past 23 years, Le Gaboteur has also compiled the most complete historical archive of Newfoundland's francophone community. The newspaper is therefore a major witness to the province's francophonie. The other component of our mission is to inform francophones and those who wish to receive part of the news in French.
It is not always easy to be the voice of and to inform this community, given its small size, but especially its diverseness and the fact it is so scattered. You have already heard about the three major concentrations of francophones in the province, which are very remote from one another. I especially want you to understand that there is not one francophone centre in Newfoundland, as if the majority of francophones were established in a same location. Rather, francophones are divided into three groups living mainly in three diverse regions that are remote from one another.
In fact, we are talking about a very rural population on the west coast; a rather urban, but very isolated group in Labrador; and more urban and cosmopolitan citizens in St. John's. Some live in regions where the economy is rather sound; others live in areas that are rather depressed. It is almost impossible for someone living in Labrador or on the west coast to travel to St. John's to attend events; it is just not feasible.
For a small organization with a limited budget and rather little flexibility in terms of human and financial resources, it is quite difficult to reflect the life of francophones in Newfoundland, whether in general or in detail, with a 12-page newspaper that is published every two weeks.
That is why the newspaper relies heavily on the Official Languages Act, particularly the part dealing with federal ads, i.e. the national publication of federal ads in both official languages. Based on what I had just said about the francophone communities, there is also a problem with regard to advertisers. It is very difficult, almost impossible, for us to develop a local advertising market.
Our distribution is already limited, owing to the small size of the francophone community. Consequently, an advertiser in Stephenville, in the Port-au-Port region, for instance, will not want to place an ad if only one third of our readership is in his area. The same thing goes for the City of St. John's, which also accounts for one third of our readers. As a provincial newspaper, it is very difficult to develop a local advertising market. We also do not have the necessary resources to publish a newspaper in each of the three regions.
The newspaper is the only means the government has to directly reach the provinces francophones, and we are basically the only professional representatives of the francophone press in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
I spoke about the importance of the Official Language Act for the newspaper; I would now like to say how important the newspaper is for official languages. I just mentioned the services that the newspaper provides to the government, and this is something I firmly believe in. If we want the federal government to be a bilingual institution, it has to be able to reach francophones in their own language in a mostly anglophone province. The written press is a very effective tool to do so. Currently, in Newfoundland and Labrador, it is the only tool, given that we represent the only francophone media in the province.
Josée has just spoken about the strength and solidarity of the francophone community, but that does not remove the problems it faces. You always have to keep in mind that our community is very spread out and diversified. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador, in all its beauty, is a borderline case in terms of Canadian bilingualism. I believe it accounts for one of the smallest francophone minorities.
If Canada is to be a bilingualism country and if the Official Languages Act is to be implemented, then we must consider our case as the ultimate test of that policy. It is relatively easy to be a bilingual government in Eastern Ontario or Northeastern New Brunswick, for example. However, in our province, not only is bilingualism more difficult to achieve, it is also fundamentally different. We have to find alternative and creative solutions. “one size fits all” solutions, which are implemented across the country, should not be considered because a number of linguistic minority communities experience fundamentally different circumstances.
Developing programs and initiatives requires flexibility, so that they can be applied not only to a minority community that represents 20 per cent of the population, for example, but also to the community in Newfoundland and Labrador.