Canadian Heritage committee  Okay, thank you. Good morning from Edmonton, Alberta. My name is Duff Jamison. I am the president and CEO of Great West Newspapers, which publishes 18 newspapers in Alberta. In my role as government affairs chairman, I am representing the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association t

Canadian Heritage committee  I would like to discuss the aid to publishers program, copyright law, and some ideas about how we can share digital revenue with some of those Internet giants, and maybe touch on Canada Post while we're at it.

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, that's fine with us. We understand.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think as we broke off, I had touched briefly on the tax system. I'm far from an expert on the tax system, so I'll let that one go. I see you have our written presentation. It's in there. Let's talk a bit about the aid to publishers program. That program was originally designe

Canadian Heritage committee  We do not.

Canadian Heritage committee  Excuse me, we did hear a translation.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's coming from the House of Commons though, not from here.

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't want to seem flippant, but you're talking to a couple of guys from Alberta. We're not usually into too much of that sort of thing. I haven't given it any thought. I don't know how it works. I think there are probably better mechanisms.

Canadian Heritage committee  I could make a few brief comments. I think that most communities have, perhaps, a community Facebook page, for example. They're not vetted by an editor. It's just a place where people can post their thoughts about whatever subject. It's not always accurate. I know that in some o

Canadian Heritage committee  We're aware of that, and we know the owner well. Inserts are, in fact, a very important part of our business. It becomes a problem in terms of our Canada Post distribution because Canada Post views inserts as a pretty important part of their business. In fact, it's one of the fe

Canadian Heritage committee  They are, and there's another way that they increase prices: by changing rules. I remember a couple of years ago the post office representatives came to my office to tell me about this great new rule. When I looked at it, they had changed the sizes we were allowed to mail to be

Canadian Heritage committee  I would imagine that's entirely possible, and we've seen some evidence of that. When Spain tried to enforce that type of rule with the Internet giant, Google just cut them off and said, “Well, okay, Spain, you don't get our service anymore.” The Europeans have been quite active

Canadian Heritage committee  I threw a few ideas down here, and Dennis did as well. He may want to speak to this. I even thought, could we make it attractive for newspaper owners to turn their businesses into foundations or trusts that would allow the community to own a newspaper if it came to that? They d

Canadian Heritage committee  You know, I haven't given that type of structure any real thought. Revenue will be the big issue. It will need to underpin the reporting activities. I can tell you that in most small communities where we have newspapers, we are the only other person in council chambers or at the