Evidence of meeting #95 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 questions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Association de la presse francophone
It allows the government to transmit its messages and inform people. In addition, in so doing it provides economic support to various media.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
You spoke about your harmonized action plan. Has that plan been committed to paper?
President, Association de la presse francophone
Our objective was to meet with the departments concerned and discuss that with them. It's proactive.
Conservative
President, Association de la presse francophone
Yes, but it is proactive. We could have blamed people, but we decided to work with the departments in question. The response from certain departments has been mixed.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
When you talk to the public servants or the elected representatives of these departments, are they able to understand and to acknowledge that the big pan-Canadian media groups and the minority official language community media are treated differently? In their analysis of the media crisis, do they distinguish between those two media groups?
President, Association de la presse francophone
I think so, but at this time we do not feel that there is a sense of urgency. We are talking about a 9 or 12-month horizon, but it will already be too late.
Director General, Association de la presse francophone
Unfortunately, it's not the same with regard to Public Services and Procurement Canada. At this time, the people in that department do not understand the situation and don't see the difference at all. They always send us back to their evaluation matrix and to the metadata of the big media groups, but it is utopian to think that minority official language media will reach those types of numbers.
We are asking that we not be evaluated according to the penetration rate of the majority language media, but by a penetration rate that is adapted to the reality of our communities. Public Services and Procurement Canada does not understand that at this time, and it is relying on or hiding behind a Privy Council Office guideline.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Very well. Thank you very much.
Mr. Côté, what you said is bold, and it piqued my interest. I don't know if a justice of the Supreme Court, let's say, would agree with you. In your opinion, the decline in government publicity is unconstitutional, in light of the act and the obligations of those three departments. You say that by cutting that advertising, it is as though the departments had removed one of the positive rights of the minority communities. However, I would point out that in the Constitution, housing, for instance, is not a right.
Director General, Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada
However, there is the obligation to reach...
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
That's incredible; you are saying that advertising would be considered a positive right for official language minority communities.
Director General, Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada
All Canadians must be reached; that is what the act says.
Are all Canadians being reached if you use Facebook? No, because in certain regions of Canada, 56Kbps dial-up access is still being used. Do you think that those people really use digital services? No.
In any case, we see the impact these community media have in small communities. This is how people stay informed. It's not on the Internet. We are the first source of information for those people. If you do not go through us, you are depriving yourself from reaching a lot of people. I will give you an example to illustrate precisely what I have just said.
During the census, all of the media were used, including traditional media, and the response rate was never higher.
I think that this proves what we have been saying for many years, which is that by going through traditional media and some of the digital media, you will reach all Canadians. However, you must not target a single platform.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Thank you, Mr. Clarke.
We will immediately give the floor to Mr. Vandal.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Thank you for your presentation.
I think I heard Mr. Tardif's presentation before. It was last year, at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Mr. Samson was also there. I appreciate the fact that you have a united voice, but I must say that my experience in Manitoba was different. In my community, the digital shift affected community newspapers and radio stations in a very different way.
Can you explain to us how the digital transformation affects newspapers?
Executive Director, Quebec Community Newspapers Association
One of the first problems for many newspaper owners is quite simply that you can't make money on the Internet. The advertising difference between a newspaper and what you can get on a website is totally different. Three cents per click, or maybe a little bit per space on a banner, will not bring in the function and the revenue needed to keep your newspaper existing.
For example, 14 to 15 people can work at one small newspaper. When we talk about that multiplied impact of 10 on the economy, that's what it means. Let's say that a newspaper does go digital. It doesn't take much to run it, but the advertising still doesn't bring in the revenue. Also, you probably won't reach.... We have newspapers up in the northern parts that have interruptions, where the Wi-Fi doesn't work, and where there's no high-speed Internet. The reach is important.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Do your community newspapers publish every day or every week?
Executive Director, Quebec Community Newspapers Association
It's every week.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Every week?
And what has been happening on the francophone side?
President, Association de la presse francophone
Let's take L'Acadie Nouvelle, the newspaper I head up un New Brunswick. It's the only French-language daily east of Quebec. As Mr. Tardif said, newspaper advertising meant dollars, but publicity on the Web means pennies. Internet advertising does not offset the decline in advertising revenue for print newspapers. It is true that we have never reached so many people, by whatever means, thanks to digital platforms. Ten years ago, we did not reach a quarter million people monthly, though our website. And yet our community has 230,000 or 250,000 members.
In short, the Web reaches a lot of people, but the model is not yet profitable, despite subscriptions and the fact that our content is not entirely free.
Director General, Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada
Our situation is a bit different. For us, the digital model means that our signal is retransmitted most of the time. Our website contains community news. It provides information, on contests for instance, and so on. It's used to some degree to promote the station.
However, the fact that our signal is available on the Internet helps us to reach people we could not reach before. People who work in Fort McMurray but live in Nova Scotia can listen to their Chéticamp radio. Providing access to that is important to us, but there is a cost involved, and there is practically no advertising available.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
When Ms. Sophie Gaulin was here, from the La Liberté newspaper in Manitoba, she said that when the weekly made the digital transition, it became more demanding for their employees, because they had to produce daily material for Twitter and Facebook. Have you experienced that too?