I believe that if there weren't any communications in French, the community wouldn't see itself reflected anywhere. The majority media don't cover matters of interest to Francophones or what they do. If you read the Winnipeg Free Press, if you look at the English-language television networks or if you listen to English-language radio, you won't hear about the people from Saint-Pierre-Jolys or Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes.
As a result, we heard about the official opening of the Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes health centre one week before the first sod was turned, and we've been monitoring this file for a long time. People won't find that in other newspapers. The community media obviously play an essential role. People see themselves reflected back home and don't see themselves elsewhere.
It's true that the communications sector is one of the major forgotten sectors of the Dion Plan. When you talk about the support the federal government can provide to newspapers—and I'm only talking about newspapers because that's what I know best—we're generally talking about advertising. However, the government buys advertising in all the media. There's no specific support for the development of a Francophone minority press. The same is true of the Publications Assistance Program. In view of the millions of dollars this program generates, very little money is paid to the minority press. The same is true of the Canada Magazine Fund. There's millions of dollars to help Canadian magazines, but no money is paid to the newspapers of the minority Francophone press.
If it wants to include communications in the next plan for official languages or in any initiative whatever, the federal government must set an objective of supporting the Francophone minority press. Everything has to be done, because nothing's happening at the moment.