Evidence of meeting #89 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
In fact, based on Part VII and what you are telling us, the government has a continuing obligation to ensure that it enhances the vitality of the official language minority communities.
Is that how you understand Part VII?
4 p.m.
Doctoral student in Sociology, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Yes, that's how I understand it.
I'm not a lawyer, but I also think that the fact the Commissioner of Official Languages has looked into these matters suggests it is legitimate for us to consider them as well.
4 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
I would like to go back to the concept of genuine equality to ensure I understood it correctly.
Government action has less impact on a major media organization in the majority community than on a media outlet in the minority community.
We hear the terms "asymmetrical action" and "asymmetrical funding" used precisely to describe this genuine equality. Is that what you mean?
4 p.m.
Doctoral student in Sociology, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Yes, that's consistent with what I mean.
We should not always give all groups the same thing. In certain instances, we should give one group more so that it can achieve genuine equality. All media organizations are currently experiencing problems. The idea of funding all media organizations is a good idea in theory. However, some organizations are in particularly difficult situations, and those are the organizations of the francophone minorities. Since we live in a bilingual country where bilingualism is part of the country's identity, and since we have the Official Languages Act, it is doubly important to fund those media organizations. Funding need not be symmetrical. In fact, it should be asymmetrical in this case.
4 p.m.
Liberal
4 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
In fact, your position is that the media forms an integral part of the very identity of the communities they represent.
4 p.m.
Doctoral student in Sociology, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
My position is that, without community media, the communities lose their ability to act and mobilize. To my mind, they are really an integral part of the community.
4 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Mr. Jolin or Mr. Michaud, I liked your presentation. Since you recommended an investment of 5% in Ontario, I wonder whether the investment in New Brunswick will be 10%.
4 p.m.
President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
I'll let New Brunswick speak for itself.
4 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
That was a joke.
Other witnesses suggested a number of possible solutions to us on Monday. I found one of them very promising, and that was the idea of buying more advertising or of going back to where we used to be.
What do you think about a tax credit for information, for Canadian content?
4:05 p.m.
President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
That's one of the recommendations in our white paper. If a tax credit could be granted to the people, organizations, and businesses that advertise in French, that would be good. That's a recommendation on which we entirely agree. It would be one way to encourage organizations to advertise in French. We obviously compete with all English-language media outlets.
According to our white paper, which I have here—
4:05 p.m.
Bryan Michaud Policy Analyst, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
Since I had given away all my French copies, Mr. Jolin received one in English. I apologize for that.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
I have two French copies.
4:05 p.m.
President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
We recommend that the tax credit for organizations that do business on the Internet be abolished. Here's the excerpt from the recommendation in question:
...collectively present a request for funding to develop an information campaign aimed at all francophone media to promote the tax credit for local advertising.
Obviously, we entirely agree with this recommendation. It's one way of raising funds for our media organizations.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
No, four and a half minutes had elapsed, and the other minute and a half came afterward.
Mr. Choquette will continue.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
If I can summarize correctly, over a 10-year period, advertising placements declined by 78% for francophone newspapers and 73% for francophone community radio stations. That drop obviously has a direct impact. During that time, the Government of Canada tripled its advertising placements on the Internet, not the Internet of our community media organizations, but rather that of giants like Google and Facebook.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
That costs it less money.
February 7th, 2018 / 4:05 p.m.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Mrs. Eddie, what you said is very important. You have to consider official languages when making spending decisions. People from FCFA, QCGN, and AFO talked about that. Official languages should be considered when making government decisions. The decision made about Netflix reveals a certain amount of spending unfairness. That, generally speaking, is why you are requesting a reinvestment.
Recommendation 1 in your white paper is that 15% of advertising spending target francophone media. You will eventually have to talk about Quebec anglophones as well. That's part of the budget. Is that the main recommendation? The present situation is not new. It's what we've seen for 10 years. You filed a complaint with the Office of the Commissioner of Official languages saying that this made no sense. How does this recommendation respond to the report of the Commissioner of Official Images?
4:05 p.m.
President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
When our consultant was working on the white paper, he looked at the conditions in which all the organizations operated, the television stations and community radio stations. With those people, he discussed funding and what they would need in order to provide their services, make the digital shift, and do their jobs to ensure the vitality of the communities. It is all well and good to have a community radio station, but, if it is only hanging on by a thread and no one is providing secretarial support, and all that remains are a few hosts to sell advertising, perform hosting duties, and answer the telephone, it's hard to focus on what you have to do.
We need that to ensure the vitality of the communities. We want to improve the quality of the information we provide and to make it uniform everywhere. The community radio stations want to be able to work together on that.
The MICRO organization had to fire its secretary. The executive director cut her own hours and is now working out of her basement because the association can't even pay for a small office.
It is essential that we have efficient structures that help the francophone community remain vibrant. Every time a media outlet finds itself in difficulty or disappears, we have just taken another step toward assimilation.
I would add that three elements work together in a community: the school system, community organizations, and the media. Those three elements must be able to do so constantly in order to keep the community vibrant and informed. The schools organize all kinds of things, and community organizations do the same. Media organizations are thus essential because they pull everything together, make the community vibrant, and encourage it to participate.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Thank you, Mr. Jolin.
Mrs. Eddie, you briefly discussed the announcement that there would not be any investment in media organizations that are not viable. In your view, that may not be the correct approach if we want to maintain the viability of the minority media. Can you clarify your thinking on that? This is an extremely important point because one position currently favours investment, but on the condition that media organizations go digital and are viable.
4:10 p.m.
Doctoral student in Sociology, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
I understand why the government, like everyone else, wants to go digital. No one disagrees with that.
First of all, the idea of a digital shift can mean several things. All media organizations at least have a website, but they have to take an extra step to begin a genuine shift. Others are well engaged in the process, in particular L'Acadie Nouvelle and Le Droit, if I'm not mistaken. However, the model has apparently not proven profitable for them.
In my view, the current model is not viable for the media in general. I don't think there is a media organization in the world that has achieved a lot of success and made profits on the Internet. Media organizations in Canada generate revenue from their paper versions, partly as a result of advertising. The cost of online advertising is very different from that of advertising intended for paper versions.
Consequently, instead of deciding to invest in media organizations that have proven they can make go digital, let's provide the necessary support instead to all those that would like to do so.
We should also not put all minority community media organizations on the same footing as all other media. They perform very specific roles in those communities in addressing specific needs. Once again, the idea is to provide assistance—which may be asymmetrical—to help those organizations survive and thus contribute to the vitality of the minority communities.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Thank you, Mr. Choquette.
I will now turn the floor over to Ms. Lapointe.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being with us. The information you are providing us is really very interesting.
Mrs. Eddie, earlier you said you were a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa and that your work focuses on the official language communities. You did not have much to say about situations concerning anglophones. We are talking a lot about those involving francophones, and rightly so, but I represent a community in the northern suburbs of Montreal that also has anglophones.
In my riding, there are probably 5,000 anglophones living in Deux-Montagnes and about 2,500 in Rosemère. There are also anglophones in Boisbriand and Laval. They aren't all in Montreal; they also live outside the city.
Can you tell us a little about them? Have you studied the situation of those anglophone communities with regard to local newspapers? I've learned from them that they're in a tough situation.
