Official Languages Committee on March 19th, 2018

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Ms. Scott—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

If I may, I will move on to the next speaker, Linda Lapointe, who has four minutes.

I will then reduce the speaking time because time is running out.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here.

I represent the riding of Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, north of Montreal. It includes Deux-Montagnes, Saint-Eustache, Boisbriand et Rosemère.

I have an anglophone community there. They publish North Shore News up there. I'm sure you know, you're one of the 40.

I understand very well when you say that, in the Montreal area, you don't exist in the suburbs to make news. You need local media, and you don't need to convince me of that.

There are two local newspapers in my riding. The Groupe JCL publishes a French-language newspaper, and the North Shore News covers the anglophone communities. Actually, 20% of the population I represent is anglophone. It's a hub.

As for news and advertisers, you mentioned the Journal de Montréal earlier. If people in Saskatchewan read the Journal de Montréal, the advertisers won't reach consumers. Given the population base, if advertisers want to reach clients, it takes social media.

As a small aside, if you want to add anything you didn't say, anything that would help the committee with its report, you can send it to the clerk in writing.

I had a discussion with the Groupe JCL. Yes, it's media in a majority community, but here's what it's done recently.

You always talk about turning to a digital version. The digital platform needs to be fed, provided, of course, that people have high-speed Internet. Even in the northern suburbs of Montreal, there are some places where people don't have access to high-speed Internet.

A digital platform is expensive because you have to constantly feed it news. We were told here that it was more expensive than publishing a paper version of the newspaper every two weeks or every week.

The Groupe JCL has changed the way it does business. It has decided that if the content isn't in the paper version, it won't put it on its digital platform. The North Shore News publishes everything at the same time.

What do you think about that?

[Martin Théberge]

In general, we are very much in favour of digital, but in a very simplistic way, I would say that we aren't able to make this shift. As I said earlier, if we are struggling to pay for the space on the antenna to put a transmitter and for Internet fees, the website and its feed become less of a priority. Community media needs recurrent and stable funding, but they don't have it.

A community radio station closed in the past year. According to the ARC du Canada, of its 27 members, eight will face a threat of closure in the coming year.

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

I understand that once closed, these media won't open anymore.

[Martin Théberge]

The issue isn't just shutting down. When you have trouble getting your head above water, you don't think about building a new dock.

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

Okay, here's another question.

[Marie-France Kenny]

If I may, I would like to share with you my fear about this way of operating.

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

This group started doing this to reduce costs.

[Marie-France Kenny]

I want to, except that if people don't find the desired information on French-language media, they will go and get it from English-language media. That's my big fear, especially when it comes to young people.

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

I have another question, and it is for Ms. Scott.

We have heard the comment that, to continue to have journalistic content

to get the news for your population,

there would have to be a tax credit to help journalists to make sure there is content. Is that something you would like to see?

[Melanie Scott]

I think giving breaks is a great idea, but I think what is really needed.... I'm just going to go back to the Canadian periodical fund because we wouldn't be publishing without it. It is a very important part of what we receive in terms of income. I think, for community newspapers to thrive, there are a few things that need to happen. What we say at the Low Down to Hull and Back News is that if I can read it somewhere else it doesn't go in the Low Down. If there were a dedicated fund to community papers that served their specific communities in either language.... There are actually a lot of papers in the QCNA that publish in both English and French. If you read it there, you don't read it elsewhere. That could be a guideline for the Canadian periodical fund in terms of creating a community newspaper fund that is geared just toward that. When you compare what's given out to major media outlets like Rogers, like TV Guide.... TV Guide gets money from the Canada periodical fund. As a journalist with many years of experience, I find that surprising.

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

I agree.

[Melanie Scott]

In relative terms, what small community papers receive is so minimal that in order for there to be genuine news—we are a very spread-out country—the only way for people to actually be informed about what's going on is via real journalists. It's just as simple as that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Ms. Lapointe.

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

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I will let Mr. Samson, Mr. Généreux, and Mr. Vandal ask one question each, in that order.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

My preamble usually takes three minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Look at the time. I am trying to direct our discussion accordingly.

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

Mr. Samson, just ask your question.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Make an effort.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Samson, you have the floor.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

If I can ask just one question, I will divide it into two parts.

First, does one of your key messages for us pertain to core funding? Second, do you conduct surveys in your communities to find out how many people from the minority read your newspapers to get the news? The local media do a fantastic job of course. In Nova Scotia, Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-Écosse and local radio do an excellent job.

Do you all agree that core funding is needed? Is there some way to demonstrate to the government that you need it?

[Martin Théberge]

For the first part, the answer is yes.

For the second part, you have to remember that community media come from the community. Their boards of directors are made up of people from the community. The content on the radio is produced by journalists and freelancers, who are from the community.

Should a survey be a priority? I'm not sure of that.

[Marie-France Kenny]

We could certainly conduct a survey if our staff was not just 1.5 full-time equivalents. I would really like to do one, in fact. I have the platform to do it, but I simply don't have the time. We do not have the time.