Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. In fact, 25% of the salary of a journalist can make the difference, especially in a small operation, between existing or not existing. Indigenous publications are usually very small operations. Actually, at the Winnipeg Free Press, we publish one. It's owned by

Finance committee  I don't know that it's a blank cheque. I think that really, it depends. We've been urging the government to set up an independent panel that will determine the eligibility criteria and assist with the implementation. It's envisioned in the budget that there will be some kind of

Finance committee  The program itself is envisioned to be for five years, and I felt that was an appropriate period of time for the transition, because of course, there will be news outlets, newspapers, that fail the transition, and you can't give them forever. There does need to be deadline. Deadl

Finance committee  In my opinion, yes.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm here today on behalf of 700 daily and community newspapers across the country to address budget measures aimed at supporting Canadian journalism. The budget measures are very important to daily and community newspapers and we strongly support them.