Mr. Speaker, this government needs to respect Canadians living in the regions whose community life and day-to-day reality are different from that of people who live in large urban centres.
In light of the rapid advances in information technology and in the deployment of high-speed digital technologies, regional media needs to adapt to the market reality. Funding programs exist for various media, but not for print media, even though print media newsrooms produce so much of the real news.
In this era of fake news, it is important to have access to the truth. The right to information is critical to all Canadians. For instance, my riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier has the weekly Courrier de Portneuf, a co-operative that is currently in a precarious situation. They have to do a lot more with a lot less.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage needs to take this problem seriously, have the decency to meet with representatives of the Fédération nationale des communications, and come up with a solution to ensure the survival of regional weekly publications.
People living in the regions deserve respect. They, too, have a right to their news.