Evidence of meeting #7 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was newspapers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Periodical Publishing Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
It certainly is. That's not reflected in our support. It may refer to government advertising through the public works department, which I can't address.
Through our support, it is probably one-third and two-thirds, and that's simply because there are more paid circulation French language newspapers outside Quebec than there are English language community newspapers inside Quebec. There's a two-thirds, one-third split with our programs, but certainly nothing like a 10:1 ratio.
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
You have to look at the number of titles too.
Conservative
John Weston Conservative West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Yes, that makes sense. Monsieur Godin said what I was thinking too: these things should be equal. Well, I suppose the equality could be reflected in the fact that the rest of Canada has a population three times the size of Quebec's, and therefore one would expect to be supporting more publications. The equality may still result in numbers like 2:1 or 3:1 inside and outside Quebec. Is that a fair statement?
Director, Periodical Publishing Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
It may be so. I think it is a fair statement. The other thing, though, is that in our formula, since we base it on the number of copies sold, the value of a copy sold inside Quebec or outside Quebec is exactly the same. If you have 5,000 readers for a French newspaper outside Quebec and 5,000 readers for an English language newspaper inside Quebec, and they have both sold 5,000 copies, they should receive exactly the same level of support from our program. Mathematically, when we divide up our funding in our formula, it's exactly the same for both situations.
Conservative
John Weston Conservative West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Thank you for very clear answers to those not-so-clear questions.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Mr. Weston, for this linguistic demonstration.
We'll resume with Mr. Godin.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Regarding your notes, earlier I asked a question about L'Étoile. What about Le Madawaska, now? Is that in your notes?
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
Yes, Le Madawaska is in my notes.
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
I'm going to follow my line, because it's in very small print. Le Madawaska received...
Director, Periodical Publishing Policy and Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage
It received $31,366.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I know my Irving friends think I'm always hammering at their case, but that's an excellent example. What are the criteria? We're talking about an empire getting $31,366 when other newspaper representatives come here and tell us they would very much like to get assistance. We're talking about an empire. Irving has more money than the government of Canada. The government is about $400 billion in the red; Irving is about $7 billion in the black. On top of that, it is receiving taxpayers' money for a newspaper. I don't want to hammer at Le Madawaska. I don't want my friend Jean-Claude D'Amours getting angry with me. I am using it as an example, because that's the paper that came to mind, but there are other weeklies in New Brunswick. I don't have the whole list, but I know there are 17.
Director General, Cultural Industries, Department of Canadian Heritage
Mr. Godin, we don't make a distinction as to who the ultimate owner of a community newspaper is. There is a per-title ceiling and that is the only limit we impose. For example, there are magazines put out by empires that are really not very profitable. The empire is profitable, but the paper isn't necessarily.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I heard echos and I don't think it was an April fool. That is killing small newspapers, for example. It isn't fair competition, because the empire has money and the small paper doesn't. The empire still takes it. That is money it is receiving from taxpayers to subsidize it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Mr. Godin.
We are coming to the end of the meeting. It is no April fool, but I would like to inform you that when we return, after the Easter vacation, we will have representatives from Air Canada here to testify.
Thanks to the excellent work by our clerk, we have obtained confirmation that the Air Canada representatives will be present at our next meeting.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
With that, I would like to thank the witnesses and wish you a happy Easter. Thank you.
(The committee adjourned)
