Official Languages Committee on Feb. 5th, 2018

[Sophie Gaulin]

I do too, for that matter.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Your newspaper is a private company?

[Sophie Gaulin]

Yes, indeed.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I thought it was a community organization.

[Sophie Gaulin]

No, not at all. It's a share-capital corporation owned by an organization.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

That's good to know.

I'm going to ask a very blunt question. If the Government of Canada decided to give you back some sort of funding support, be it through the purchase of advertising space or some method it had used in the past, would you continue to bite the hand that feeds you? I'm not sure whether you catch my drift. If the Government of Canada were to give you $50,000, $100,000, or $200,000 in funding support a year—

[Sophie Gaulin]

Is Radio-Canada able to do it?

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Truth be told, it doesn't have much of a bite. I can assure you.

It's important to understand that advertising is one thing. I used to head community newspapers and other organizations of that nature. I agree with you that the program to allocate advertising dollars is an important one. By all accounts, a rebalancing effort is under way.

Mr. Noreau, you said that Google, Netflix, Facebook, and others were taking a large chunk out of the advertising pie. Your newspaper also has a website, but is it popular enough for the government to advertise on it?

You're a private company. By the way, I'm a business person as well. That's why I am looking at this from the standpoint of a private company. If you have a successful website, I don't see why the Government of Canada wouldn't advertise there.

[Pierre-Paul Noreau]

There is a difference between advertising on the website and advertising in the print newspaper. Under the current model, the print paper holds up the organization. It has nothing to do with not being successful on other platforms. On the contrary, we are. Every week, Le Droit reaches 215,000 people in one way or another.

Google sells ad space at a cost per thousand impressions of three dollars. I, however, have to charge a cost per thousand impressions of $70 so as not to lose money. It's not the same thing.

By asking us whether we are going to bite the hand that feeds us, are you challenging the fact that the media is trying to shake things up and press the government into action?

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Personally, I don't think the media is doing enough to shake things up and press the government into action.

It's important to understand that the government is an entity that represents all Canadians.

Ms. Gaulin, I was certain that yours was a community newspaper. In fact, Mr. Noreau and Ms. Gaulin, both of you represent private companies. You came here today to tell us that the government should purchase more ad space from you so that you can stay afloat. That is basically what you are saying.

[Pierre-Paul Noreau]

Yes.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Let's say the government were to advertise in your newspaper, even though it could purchase the same ad space somewhere else at a cost 10 times cheaper. Would you, then, stop railing against the government because it was giving you money?

[Pierre-Paul Noreau]

I have received money from the government before, but that didn't stop me from challenging it and trying to shake things up.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I'm going to switch gears now.

The government does not tax Netflix, Google, Facebook, or the like. That's revenue that the government is not collecting. If it were to make those companies pay taxes, though, it could pass on the money to you in one way or another. What are your thoughts on that?

[Pierre-Paul Noreau]

I am completely in favour of taxing Netflix, Google, and Facebook. Their competitive advantage is without question unfair.

[Sophie Gaulin]

It is totally unfair.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

What's more, they use all the content you produce free of charge.

[Pierre-Paul Noreau]

That's the cherry on top. They plunder everything we produce.

Right now, a Canadian vendor that buys ad space on Le Droit's website has to pay taxes, but when that same vendor places an ad with Google or Facebook, the vendor doesn't have to pay taxes. They can't believe it, of course.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

You are here on behalf of not just publishers, newspapers and magazines, but also community organizations. I see the two as completely separate.

There is a difference between investing in a business and investing in a community organization. To my knowledge, the government has always placed ads in all sorts of newspapers, community-based and private alike. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are asking the government to subsidize community media and organizations in francophone minority communities. I see no problem with that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

It is now over to you, Ms. Lapointe.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome to the committee, and thank you for being here today.

You represent French linguistic minorities. My riding, however, is in Quebec, where anglophone media organizations are in the minority.

[Pierre-Paul Noreau]

The situation is the same.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

It's very similar.

The member for Saint-Boniface will no doubt focus his attention on you, Ms. Gaulin. Mr. Noreau indicated that Le Droit's readership was around 200,000 people. I'd like to know, though, how many people your publication reaches a week, Ms. Gaulin.

[Sophie Gaulin]

We have 6,000 subscribers and, according to a Leger survey, 20,000 readers.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

All right. I'm trying to draw a link with the local papers in my riding, the northern suburb of Montreal. The only way we have to reach people is through local newspapers. We have nothing else. You might say we are lost in the wilderness of the greater Montreal area. We survive only on local newspapers, be they in French or English; we'll talk about that. Thank you.

Mr. Noreau, I'd like you to talk a bit more about tax credits. What do you see as the solution? When you talk about producing original national information, are you referring to journalistic content?