Official Languages committee  I would say it's critical. We've seen, evidenced by community newspapers that have folded in other communities, that the demise of the institutional network follows afterwards. We're also the front door, the gatekeepers, for people to have information about health, social service

Official Languages committee  I came to see action. As I said at the beginning, I've been 40 years in the newspaper, and I've been before many of these committees. This is not my first rodeo, if you will.

Official Languages committee  I've spoken about this same subject. In fact, I just recycle my presentation over and over again.

Official Languages committee  We've been saying the same thing over and over again. This is not new to the committee, I'm sure, and it's not new to anybody in government.

Official Languages committee  I would love to see an emergency fund in place.

Official Languages committee  I can tell you also that we are going month by month, looking at declining revenues and cutting staff. The challenges are real.

Official Languages committee  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 h

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

Official Languages committee  Okay.

Official Languages committee  I will do that.

Official Languages committee  This is quite typical of the average reader of community newspapers. What has remained constant over the century is the commitment that our newspapers bring to respond to those needs. If they were strictly commercial ventures, the owners would probably have thrown in the towel

Official Languages committee  I'm from Monsieur Paradis'—

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for your invitation to appear before you today. I began my career in journalism 40 years ago in the Gaspé. At that time, we were trying to get a minority-language newspaper created. There was no English media whatsoever at that time