Canadian Heritage committee  As I look at the various things we have put in our submission, I think that some way of sharing the digital revenue with the really big players like Google and Facebook.... There is just something not quite right about the way that works. It just seems that all the money is going

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, it's coast to coast, and I speak to publishers across the country. I've been through the chairs in Alberta. I was the president here 20 years ago now, maybe 30, and the national president in the mid-1990s, so I know lots of publishers across the country. Every one is dealing

Canadian Heritage committee  I think so. There is some work being done. We are seeing here in Alberta, Telus particularly is busy getting high-speed fibre to the door. That last mile used to be copper. That is all happening. There are some downsides to that whole thing, though. It makes online shopping a lo

Canadian Heritage committee  You are correct. In the rural areas, the speed of the Internet is quite slow.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think you are exactly right. In our business, we attend a lot of community events, and I don't think I have seen a single community event sponsored by Google, Facebook, Apple, or any of those. It is always sponsored by the local media and the local business community.

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

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  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 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.