Official Languages Committee on March 19th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Welcome everyone.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108, we will continue our study of the review of support programs for official language minority community media.

Today, we are pleased to welcome Martin Théberge, president of the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française, Maggy Razafimbahiny, its director general, and Marie-Christine Morin, its assistant director.

We also welcome Marie-France Kenny, president of the Coopérative des publications fransaskoises.

Finally, we welcome Melanie Scott, editor of the Low Down to Hull & Back News.

Good afternoon, and welcome everyone.

We will proceed as we usually do, meaning that we will give each group 5 to 6 minutes to give their presentations. We will then have a round table with the MPs so that they may ask questions, give comments, and so on. It will all finish around 5:30 p.m. I will try to manage the time as best I can.

We are listening. I think that the first group on the agenda is the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française.

[Martin Théberge, President, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française]

Thank you.

We see the local media's potential as vectors for change and openness. The government needs local media, because they play a pivotal role. They give the government access to our fellow Canadians' living rooms and kitchens.

Good afternoon, my name is Martin Théberge and I am the president of the FCCF, the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française. As the chair already mentioned, I am accompanied by Maggy Razamfimbahiny, the director general of our organization, and Marie-Christine Morin, its assistant director. On behalf of our network, thank you for inviting us to appear before you today. We hope to be able to give you the tools to defend our local media. We congratulate you for having taken the initiative to address this issue, which is of fundamental importance to us.

The FCCF is the voice of the Canadian francophonie for the arts, culture and cultural industries. Its vision consists in inspiring, mobilizing and transforming Canada through the arts and culture. The FCCF, founded in 1977, is a national organization dedicated to promoting the artistic and cultural expression of the Acadian and francophone communities. Its network has 22 member organizations, seven of which are national groups at the service of artistic disciplines and cultural industries, and 13 are organizations dedicated to developing the arts and culture in 11 of Canada's provinces and territories. The FCCF also includes a group of networks that broadcast the performing arts, and an alliance of community radio stations.

The issue we are discussing today is a window into seeing the different essential pieces of the official languages puzzle come together. All of them can influence the francophone and Acadian communities' chances of success for their development and their vitality. The Official Languages Act is to be modernized, and the Action Plan for Official Languages is on the verge of being released, not to mention the “Creative Canada – A Vision for Canada's Creative Industries” roadmap that puts us on a path to innovation.

We all have reasons to hope that these particular circumstances will have a real impact on the official languages issue. In his budget, Minister Morneau announced new investments of $400 million to implement the next Action Plan for Official Languages. Considering the work ahead of us, this promise was timely. We must get back on track as soon as possible, and give our media the tools to optimize their contribution to our fellow francophone and Acadian citizens' wellness across the country.

Official language minority communities are above all cultural constructs, and local media are indispensable to their success. The government must encourage the application of positive measures and a global framework aimed at fuelling collaboration between all stakeholders at all levels. Local media are rooted in our communities. They understand us, and listen to us because they evolve with us, in our communities. They are strategic partners to our organizations, because they help us to build relations with our communities through information, involvement and participation. They are catalysts for our actions and our activities. The statistics bear this out: The penetration rates of community media into the communities' households vary between 54% and 83%, depending on the area.

We believe that minority communities truly need wide-reaching media. Having access to locally produced and broadcast radio content builds pride in our identity and pushes us to express it, share it, and make it flourish around us. We also believe that community media influence social cohesion and the welcoming of new members to our community.

The FCCF believes that we must create opportunities, first, by inviting all stakeholders to participate in a global conversation how the country's media are evolving; and, second, by encouraging and believing in the potential of our communities' local media to create jobs and offer experience-based learning. Out of respect for their expertise and unique abilities, we must also invite local media to participate in the development of a global strategy to promote the francophone and Acadian communities. This strategy would be jointly designed by the government and the communities, as key strategic partners. Furthermore, users would be central to the process and to the strategies developed from it. We also need to increase the government's awareness of minority language communities; local media play a key role on this front.

The FCCF is proud to include the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada, the ARC du Canada, in its membership. The ARC is the nationwide manager of broadcasting in French-minority communities, and we echo their beliefs.

Here, I am quoting from its brief on minority community media, jointly presented with the Association de la presse francophone, the APF, and the Association des journaux régionaux du Québec, AJRQ, during the cross-Canada official languages consultations led by the Department of Canadian Heritage in 2016.

...minority community media make a direct contribution to the vitality index of their communities. They cover topics that the major media do not and they have a direct link to the daily life of the communities. They can cover broader topics, but they always do so by establishing links with the issues in their local and regional communities.

Beyond their mission to inform and entertain, local media recognize their duty to support the development of the communities. We might think, for example, about the technical and professional training that they provide to their staff. The value and the contribution of local media as a venue for professional and technical learning must be better recognized. It is an example of convergence that should be further explored.

Beyond the social health, the dynamic activity of local media is vital for arts and culture, in whose name we speak. No other participant in Canada's communications ecosystem is in a position to provide us with as much value. Our local media act as a catalyst for our distribution efforts. They also have a direct impact on the development of our emerging artistic careers, which would not otherwise be seen as having value by the mass media.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

The time is quickly running out. Could you speed up a little and go to the most important points?

[Martin Théberge]

Okay.

Local media are in a very precarious position, which presents an obstacle to their ability to fully play their role. The federal government's strategy in placing advertising over the last decade has undermined the network. Local media are in a financial crisis; reinvestment is required and it cannot come too soon. We have seen some closures and others are likely in the short and medium term; others are barely holding on.

It is critical to focus our efforts on a coherent short-term investment strategy, with the goal of stabilizing our asset base in local media, media with no access to stable and ongoing financing.

In presenting our brief jointly with the APF and the AJRQ, the FCCF supports the measures proposed by the Alliance des radios communautaires.

The community media network, our vital communication tool at local level, is struggling. Large numbers and commercial interests win the day, to the detriment of the essential contribution those media make. Radio-Canada, our only national French-language broadcaster, is less and less able to serve our regions and to have them part of the development of their own content.

The abilities of those who develop our French-language content must be preserved. That is the vision that the government invited us to share last fall when it announced “Creative Canada – A Vision for Canada’s Creative Industries”. “This is the time for Canada to step confidently forward, to set a new standard”. Those were the words spoken by the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Using them, the FCCF is positioning itself as a catalyst that is ready to rally the sector's driving forces and steer them in the same direction.

We urge the Government of Canada to commit itself to innovation and to undertake the tough task of designing solutions with local media and appropriate national organizations. Community media must be given the means to fully play their roles, to see their contribution valued, and to be able to see the beneficial effects of their actions multiplied.

We are putting our faith in the scope of your work and we would be happy to work with you.

Thank you for the time you have given us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Théberge.

We will now hear Marie-France Kenny's presentation.

[Marie-France Kenny, President, Coopérative des publications fransaskoises]

Mr. Chair, Mr. Parliamentary Secretary, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, my sincere thanks for your invitation to the Coopérative des publications fransaskoises, which has been publishing our newspaper, L'Eau vive, in Saskatchewan since 1971. My name is Marie-France Kenny and I have been the president since May 2017.

First of all, let me tell you about our newspaper. Our newspaper was a weekly until March 2016. Because of a lack of financial resources, we had to close for some months and reorganize ourselves. Thanks to the great generosity of the Centre de la francophonie des Amériques, of the Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise and of Zachary Richard, our community really mobilized and we raised $49,000. Let me show you the extent to which our community is committed to our newspaper: on a per capita basis, that would be like Ontario raising $1.7 million. So we relaunched the paper with the help of committed volunteers and a dedicated staff. However, we reduced the number of issues to two per month from one per week.

We have one and a half employees. We serve 13 remote communities. It takes eight hours to travel from the most remote to the other end. Our staff therefore has to coordinate the content of the paper, cover the news, write and edit the text, manage the stringers, update social media each day, work with the designer on the layout, proofread, liaise with the printer, digitize everything, apply for grants, prepare reports for the donors, monitor the budget, sell advertising and subscriptions, answer the telephone and the mail, just to mention a part of what they do.

Some of my colleagues in other provinces and in the APF who testified before me have given you a lot of excellent solutions, including a tax credit for producing original Canadian information, a partial reimbursement or tax credit program for digital investment, and reimbursing the GST for those who produce original Canadian content, as is the case for books. I agree with these solutions completely. You have also been told about government advertising, and that is where I would like to spend some time, in order to explain to you exactly what is going on between the government and our community media.

I am sure you will agree with me that the Government of Canada has a mandate to communicate with all Canadians. Moreover, the Official Languages Act requires it to do so in both official languages.

At L'Eau vive, we have 650 subscriptions, of which only 30 are exclusively digital. Personally, I just see the digital edition. Apart from those 30 subscribers, everyone has chosen the online and paper editions. That means that the majority of our readership prefers the paper edition, even though some of them take the digital editions. Otherwise, they would unsubscribe from the paper edition and only take the digital one.

Saskatchewan is big. A number of our communities are located in small, remote rural areas and have no high-speed Internet access. We are the only media outlet in Saskatchewan that publishes in French. So a large swath of our community has no access to federal government advertising. Why is that? It is because, in November 2013, at a meeting of the Consultative Committee on Advertising and Official Language Minority Media, the Advertising Coordination and Partnerships Directorate confirmed, in a way, that there would be a shift to the Internet for advertising. That shift was later confirmed by a directive from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

I see no problem prioritizing online advertising. But, in my opinion, and in the opinion of the Commissioner of Official Languages at the time, it is a breach of the Official Languages Act to do so without first consulting the communities and taking into account the habits of our subscribers, and of the population of Saskatchewan, an aging one at that. It must also be recognized that a number of francophones in minority situations have no access to high-speed Internet and will therefore not be able to see government advertising. If they had continued to be able to buy advertising on our websites and in our newspaper, they would still have been able to reach that readership.

The problem lies in the fact that, with this shift to the Internet, the federal governments has decided to advertise, or not advertise, on websites based on their traffic. You must understand that our newspaper is in Saskatchewan, and it has 650 subscribers. So I will never compete with Google, Facebook, the Journal de Montréal, or even with other francophone newspapers in other provinces and territories. The more traffic on the sites, the more advertising there will be. Federal advertising has therefore disappeared from our francophone media. It has actually happened.

I understand there is a directive for that, but there is no directive to ensure that the the government systematically continues to advertise in newspapers to give francophones access to that advertising. The legislation states that the federal government must advertise positions in both official languages; it's the law.

For our small newspaper L'Eau vive alone, that's a loss of $50,000 in revenue per year. The loss of $1.5 million for all the community newspapers and radio stations is not huge, but it is for small newspapers and radio stations. That's what a number of people and I think. We are talking about the survival of our media. With the exception of Radio-Canada, we are the only francophone media outlet that reaches people in Saskatchewan.

In her 2017 investigation report, the acting commissioner of official languages ruled in the favour of the communities who had complained. Before making decisions, the government should have consulted the communities and put in place measures to mitigate the impact on all the communities. I am not talking only about money, but about the possibility of members in our community having access to federal advertising.

There is an immediate, simple and inexpensive solution in my opinion: issuing a directive to ensure all federal advertising on the Internet must be systematically placed in our newspapers in both print and digital formats, as well as in the community radio stations in official language minority communities. The Government of Canada will be able to say that it is fulfilling its official languages obligation by advertising in both languages in order to reach the entire population. As I said before, we are talking about $1.5 million a year.

I would like to briefly talk about the digital shift.

My colleague from La Liberté newspaper talked to you about it. While some newspapers have already made this shift, others have not done so yet. We have the equivalent of one and a half employees. Since more people subscribe to the paper version, the digital version is not the quickest one for us.

I know that we are planning to invest in digital, especially according to those much-touted think tanks, but L'Eau vive newspaper does not need to think before going digital; it's a must. However, to be able to do so, we need resources. We have a portal that we are struggling to update because we do not have the resources we need. Creating a fund to help our media transition to digital would be more effective than sitting down and thinking about it.

We feel that an investment of $50,000 would enable us to take the necessary step for L'Eau vive to become digital, while keeping the paper version.

On budget night, I received a call from Minister Joly's office. I was asked what I thought about the measures announced in the budget for official language minority newspapers. I then talked about the federal advertising and I was told that it was not Minister Joly's responsibility.

Let me read an excerpt from Minister Joly's mandate letter: “Work with the President of the Treasury Board to ensure that all federal services are delivered in full compliance with the Official Languages Act.” The President of the Treasury Board's mandate letter also says “in full compliance” or “en parfaite conformité” in French.

Clearly, by not considering the impact on minority communities, the directive issued by the Treasury Board Secretariat does not comply with part VII of the Official Languages Act.

We have had the official languages legislation for 50 years. In 2009, I came before this committee—which was not made up of the same people—and I asked when we were finally going to enforce the law. I think it is time to do so, especially since tomorrow will be the International Day of La Francophonie.

Today, right now, this committee has the opportunity to quickly right a wrong that seriously affects our official language minority communities and that contravenes the Official Languages Act. The committee must recommend that a new directive be issued to ensure that all federal advertising is systematically placed in both print and digital media.

Ladies and gentlemen, I urge you to take this concrete action and make a recommendation in your report. The future and vitality of our communities depend on it.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Ms. Kenny.

Ms. Scott, go ahead.

[Melanie Scott, Editor, Low Down to Hull & Back News]

Thank you.

My comments are along the same lines, but from the perspective of anglophones.

Thank you for the invitation to speak.

I'm Melanie Scott, editor of the Low Down to Hull & Back News, a weekly community paper based in Wakefield, Quebec, just north of Gatineau. We serve a minority anglophone population. Having lived abroad, I can attest to our success as a nation in working to develop and maintain a bilingual society.

Many communities do not have the resources to provide services in both official languages and many communities, like our Municipality of La Pêche, do not have access to high-speed Internet. Local newspapers are critical to the communities they serve. We connect people. We provide critical information that no one else provides. In the case of the Low Down—one of few community newspapers to remain independent, vibrant, and vital to its readership—we are the one reliable anglophone source of news and information in our area. There is no other source people can turn to for objective, well-researched reporting.

We are not the same thing as a big daily. Dailies have lost their audiences; we have not. We know our communities better than anyone else because we live and work in them. We are read cover to cover every week.

Social media is not to be confused with the real media. User-driven content will never replace real news because users are not put out on the street interviewing people. They are not attending municipal council meetings. They are not asking the hard questions that reporters ask. We all know about fake news and its negative side effects. It's absolutely critical that real news outlets are supported to ensure that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are not the go-to sources for news, no matter what language it's presented in.

Social media platforms, along with aggregate news services, are taking our work and repurposing it, sometimes changing it in the process, without considering where it came from and without paying for it. In the beginning, the discussion was about whether or not to go online. News outlets made the mistake of offering their content for free without looking ahead. I know. I was there.

The world of online news is now a chaotic mess. Despite the fact that we're constantly reminded that online is where we need to survive, online does not pay the bills. We're being forced to evolve into a medium that is more likely to bankrupt us than to ensure our survival. As a journalist, my writing has been published in dozens of major newspapers and magazines, but it's my work as an editor of a small-town newspaper in a very small town that has been more rewarding than any other work I've done, because I see evidence of our connection to our community every day.

I'm going to talk very quickly about the Canada periodical fund. It has been fundamental in keeping publications, both anglophone and francophone, alive, including ours. Despite its much needed support, it has given grants to publications that are defunct or are no longer publishing under the terms that the grants were awarded. A few cases in point, as revealed by Canadaland, which obtained this information through an access to information request, Maclean's weekly magazine received $1.5 million in 2016, then cut 75% of its print edition; Chatelaine, both English and French editions, received close to $2.5 million from the CPF and subsequently cut their print runs from 12 to six editions per year. Rogers Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, is a media powerhouse that received 16 grants worth close to $9 million from the Canada periodical fund in 2016-17 but summarily suspended publication or sold off or reduced publication schedules for all 16 of the publications for which it had received funding.

These examples illustrate how the CPF is not fulfilling its mandate, and I quote:

The Canada periodical fund provides financial assistance to Canadian print magazines, non-daily newspapers and digital periodicals, to enable them to overcome market disadvantages and continue to provide Canadian readers with the content they choose to read.

Rogers is not overcoming market disadvantages. Rogers is making money. Its stock closed at $58.72 on Friday.

We need a review of the CPF to ensure that anglophone and francophone publications that are vital to the communities they serve and are truly in need have a shot at surviving. The CPF needs to take a close look at what's happening out here in the real world of publishing.

We also need the federal government to respect independent publications by buying ad space for public service announcements that impart critical information to Canadians. As mentioned, many people in rural communities are unable to access information online and newspapers are their lifeblood for being informed about what our government is doing.

Believe me, no one goes into journalism for the money or the glory. The hours are ridiculous, the pay is atrocious, and the stress is constant. No, we're not brain surgeons, but if you're an editor and you fail to get the newspaper out on time, it's quite simple. In the words of Donald Trump, you're fired. We have gotten our newspaper out on time without fail every week for 45 years. That's 2,250 editions of the paper. That long history of serving our readers may come to an end because of outside forces we can't control.

I hope I've shed some light on an industry that needs help so that Canadians can get real news in the language of their choice, no matter where they live.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Melanie.

My thanks to all the presenters.

We will now go around the table, starting with Alupa Clarke.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon, madame.

I just want to tell you that, in a non-partisan way, the committee understands the difficulties facing the media, especially in OLMCs, or

minority linguistic groups in Quebec. Just be aware of that.

We understand. As to whether we have the right solutions, I do not know. That's what I want to discuss with you.

First, Ms. Kenny, you talked about La Liberté, this major newspaper. Is it a daily or weekly newspaper?

[Marie-France Kenny]

It's a weekly.

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

Its representative, who appeared before us three weeks ago or a month ago, told us that the government was asking them to go digital.

However, the newspaper is very present everywhere in the digital world. Nevertheless, this changes nothing in terms of advertising volume. It would be the same with your newspaper. Even if it was doing very well in the digital world, you would not have more ads, would you?

[Marie-France Kenny]

No, and it's because we don't have the traffic or a sufficient number of clicks to justify—

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

So the digital shift does nothing for your budget.

[Marie-France Kenny]

No. We want to access the digital world. I must say that going digital would make certain things possible.

I must tell you that we are dealing with another major competitor, Radio-Canada, which is now on all platforms. We also want to circulate information as quickly as possible. You understand that we have the equivalent of one and a half employees.

My newspaper is full of potential, I see it. I'm a volunteer. I have a job that helps me make a living and I have expenses, like everyone else. The equivalent of one and a half employee cannot do everything. We should run a subscription campaign and look for advertising. We could do a lot of things, but that can't be done with so few people. All we do is put out fires, and we are not even fully able to do that.

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

Let me go on to another comment you made. It did not surprise me, but I'd like to talk about it with you.

About two years ago, in 2015-16, the federal government provided $140 million a year to all newspapers in Canada. Right now, the amount is about $40 million annually. You said that only $1.5 million would be needed for the advertising in all the newspapers in OLMCs.

[Marie-France Kenny]

What I said is that the $1.5 million would fill the gap created when the directive was issued in 2013.

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

Okay, I understand.

[Marie-France Kenny]

Simply adding the advertising back would right the wrong. Should there be more? All the ads should be for all Canadians.

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

Yes, absolutely.

[Marie-France Kenny]

In our case, seniors read the paper version of the newspaper, so the government should advertise in the paper version. It cannot simply be calculated based on the number of clicks.

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

This does not mean that—

[Marie-France Kenny]

—it would solve everything. No.

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

In the best of all worlds, we would have to go back to that $140 million a year in advertising in all the media.

[Marie-France Kenny]

I speak on behalf of official language minority newspapers. Without mentioning the fact that we would have to do a lot more, addressing this gap would already be a good start. The legislation is being contravened right now. We have known that for two years, and we have been talking about it for two years. Let's stop discussing it and solve the problem. An amount of $1.5 million is not a huge sum.