Evidence of meeting #96 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 newspaper.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Sharon McCully  Publisher, The Sherbrooke Record
George Guzmas  Co-Publisher, The North Shore News, Newsfirst Multimedia
Lily Ryan  Publisher and Managing Editor, Aylmer Bulletin

4:05 p.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC

I won't comment on that, but I understand what you mean.

If I understand the case correctly from last week, if there's no emergency action whatsoever, monetary action, you might go bankrupt or die—not you, but your papers—very soon.

4:05 p.m.

Publisher, The Sherbrooke Record

Sharon McCully

No, I'm not closing. We will continue. We will continue to find ways of operating. As I said to you, it is so important for our communities that we find ways of doing it. We have been doing that for the last number of years, so no, we're not closing our newspapers.

Newspapers have closed, though.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC

Yes.

4:05 p.m.

Publisher, The Sherbrooke Record

Sharon McCully

When a newspaper closes, very soon after that you will see the institutions and the network that serves them begin to falter as well.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC

Do you agree with the Quebec Community Newspapers Association that you would need a certain emergency fund?

4:10 p.m.

Publisher, The Sherbrooke Record

Sharon McCully

I would love to see an emergency fund in place.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC

Okay.

Sir, you talked about the fact that we on this committee have the power to influence—

4:10 p.m.

Co-Publisher, The North Shore News, Newsfirst Multimedia

George Guzmas

That's what I believe.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC

That is why I'm going to put forward this motion again today, Madam Clerk.

It reads as follows:

That the Committee recommend that Canadian Heritage establish a $2 million emergency fund for official-language minority media to be administered by an ad hoc committee composed of the Association de la presse francophone, the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada and the Quebec Community Newspaper Association.

Our dear colleagues on the Liberal bench said they needed time to prepare for the debate. I think we've had four or five days, so we're coming back with that today. I hope we can go all the way to the final vote this time.

Thank you, sir.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Thank you, Mr. Clarke.

According to our rules, when a motion is moved in this manner, we suspend the round of questioning that is under way and debate the motion as moved. I simply want all members to understand the procedure.

Ms. Lapointe, you may go ahead.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

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

I am aware of the motion.

To date, there have been few witnesses from the anglophone community, but they are the witnesses we have before us today. You are well aware that the votes have us tied up, and that it will be difficult to hear from these witnesses and ask them questions.

I understand what you're saying. On Wednesday, Minister Joly will be giving her technical briefing. That presents a problem for me, however, especially since I wanted to speak with Mr. Guzmas, who spent the last month preparing to meet with us. Quite frankly, this is a problem for me. It is not that I do not want to debate the motion, but we are in the middle of questioning witnesses who are telling us about issues affecting them. Can we not, at the very least, hear what they have to say?

The action plan will be tabled this week. I think that we can wait another week before dealing with this motion.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Mr. Arseneault, do you wish to say anything? You do not?

The next person on the list is Mrs. Boucher.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC

Mr. Chair, on our side of the table, we were on time and ready to begin. We were here at 3:30 p.m. when the meeting began, precisely because there are witnesses from whom we want to hear. It has been two weeks since we submitted this notice of motion, and we want to put it to a vote.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Mr. Choquette, the floor is yours.

4:10 p.m.

NDP

François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for being here today.

I want you to know that it is by no means for lack of manners that we are taking up this valuable time. I know that you come well prepared, and we want to take all the time available to us to listen to you.

That said, the associations that represent you have also warned that urgent action is needed. You indicated that a number of newspapers closed down. We therefore want to take action before other newspapers and radio stations meet the same fate.

Moreover, we have been told that despite the release of the action plan this week, there will be no injection of the funding needed in the short term. This money will become available only in 6 or even 9 to 12 months. It is our understanding that your budget cycle is drawing to a close late this month, and that you need swift and concrete action now.

This is not rocket science. So many millions of dollars are handed over to Facebook and Google. Can we not take some of that money and give it to official language minority community newspapers and radio stations? That, I believe, is what the motion states, and that is why I support it.

We are sorry to be taking up some of the time allotted to you, as what you have to say needs to be heard. Notwithstanding that, the motion must be the first order of business, in my opinion.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

I see that Ms. Ryan just arrived. I do not know how we should go about hearing her remarks. She went to the trouble of coming here to appear before the committee, and she is also one of the key players in this issue.

I would seek the consent of my colleagues to suspend debate for six or seven minutes to give us time to listen to Ms. Ryan, before coming back to the issue in hand. May I suggest that we hear what she has to say and ask questions later?

I see that everyone is in agreement.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC

Yes.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Ms. Ryan, the floor is yours.

4:10 p.m.

Lily Ryan Publisher and Managing Editor, Aylmer Bulletin

Thank you very much.

Please forgive me for being late. The printing presses are running today at our small newspaper.

My sister and I own three newspapers. I am 43. We are young businesswomen. Our newspapers are distributed in the Outaouais region.

We have the Pontiac Journal; the West Quebec Post, which was established in 1896; and the Bulletin d'Aylmer.

We serve a community that's both rural and urban in minority language situations. We have readerships who live in English, residing in Quebec. We send reporters to French events, cover them, and we publish the news in English so that residents who live in Quebec but don't understand French well have the news. They know what bylaws are being changed.

In my newsroom, we're facing an increasingly diminished ability to do research journalism and cover city council, municipal council, and regional council, let alone any other news that comes our way. Increasingly we're doing—us, as owners—extra time, overtime, before work and after work. We're writing and reporting because we can't afford to staff our newsrooms.

I'm aware that you have the brief that was submitted to the minister in October. The action plans detailed in that brief are at the core of what we do, and any actions that are taken to support those action plans will make a difference to English speakers in Quebec living in a minority-language situation. I understand that everyone has that at the core of why we're here today.

I really thank you, and I'm open to any questions you have.

4:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Thank you very much, Ms. Ryan.

As I mentioned earlier, before we have our questions and comments period, we are resuming debate on Mr. Clarke's motion.

Mr. Généreux, you have the floor.

March 26th, 2018 / 4:15 p.m.

Conservative

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

People often say that we talk a lot in committees but that we don't act. Last week, I moved a motion to ask the government or Canadian Heritage to create a $2-million emergency fund for all minority official language newspapers, which you represent here today. And I thank you for being here today.

We refer to this as “a measure”. The government has a $50-million fund to ensure the survival of our organizations in the medium and long term. There is a problem related to the creation of that fund, however. Any normal government has to go through all existing processes to implement its policies and to ensure that the various stakeholders are treated fairly. That being the case, we will have to wait at least six to nine months before the money from that fund becomes available. It is a completely normal political and governmental reality. We are not complaining about it. It's quite the opposite; we understand the process.

Like Ms. Lapointe, I would like to be able to continue putting questions to you. Last week, we had the opportunity of hearing representatives from the associations that represent you. They let us know clearly that you, the members of those associations, were in agony and on the verge of closing, and that in September or November, it would be too late.

What we are proposing in our motion is quite simple. We are asking that the Liberal members support this request, despite the fact that tomorrow or next week...

4:15 p.m.

Conservative

Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC

It will be Wednesday.

4:15 p.m.

Conservative

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

Wednesday, the new Action Plan for Official Languages will be introduced. That's perfect, and I have no problem with that. Minister Joly has already announced an additional sum of $400 million. There are probably measures that will affect you. We hope so and that is our wish.

Concretely speaking, however, that money will not be available for six to nine months. We are simply asking the government and the committee to agree to the creation of a $2-million emergency fund. My colleague, Mr. Choquette, said earlier that the government had already planned to allocate certain amounts to advertising. Let the government immediately take $2 million out of the Budget 2018 advertising budget, which it tabled and which will come into effect in one week precisely, on April 1. The math is quite simple.

Mr. Guzmas, I don't know if you are an accountant, but if you aren't an editor, you are an insurance specialist. You know figures well because you were very eloquent on this topic.

We will go back to that later, and I hope that we will vote in the near future.

I am saying all of this to explain that it would be very easy for the government to create this emergency fund very quickly. We have to move forward and it's just that simple.

This concludes my intervention.

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

Mr. Arseneault, you have the floor.