The House of Commons heritage committee finally released a long-awaited report Thursday which took a year to complete, hoping to aid the media industry in Canada.
Dr. Hedy Fry, chair of the committee put forward 20 different recommendations that the government should execute to help the slumping industry.
“Witnesses pointed out the slow decline of local and regional print and broadcast media, and its negative impact on democracy,” said Dr Fry. “Local media allows Canadians of all backgrounds, cultures and opinions to be informed and participate in the democratic life of their country.”
In the statement released by the government: “Key is the creation of a new government funding model that is platform agnostic and would support Canadian journalistic content,” a statement from the government stated. “Another recommendation suggests leveling the playing field across all platforms so that foreign news aggregators are subject to the same tax treatment as Canadian providers.”
“The Committee also recommends tax measures to allow deduction of digital advertising on Canadian-owned platforms and to assist the transition from traditional to digital platforms,” the statement continues.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shot down the idea of a tax increase, which was said to be roughly five per cent, though the other recommendations are still on the table.
Here are some of the recommendations that are included in the report:
– The Committee recommends that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada continue their efforts to improve affordable broadband Internet access in Canada, with an emphasis on Northern Canada and rural and remote regions.
– The Committee recommends that an Indigenous journalism initiative be created with the purpose of training Indigenous journalists to cover Indigenous government institutions and other relevant issues for Indigenous media outlets across Canada.
– The Committee recommends that the responsibility for creating this initiative be embedded with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Networks, and that this initiative be financed from programs supporting Canadian programming.
– The Committee recommends that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission collect more data on the state of local broadcasting in Canada.
– The Committee recommends that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rigorously track and enforce noncompliance with license requirements regarding locally reflective news and programming.
In today’s day and age, news media in Canada has been accused of “fake news” allegations. With U.S. President Donald Trump constantly accusing news media in America, the same accusations have landed in the thoughts of Canadians. Though, an Ipsos-Reid poll says 69 per cent of Canadians trust traditional news media.
While not directly addressed, the new recommendations would help both media outlets and Canadians to become trusted sources. This would especially be addressed with data gathering on the state of broadcasting in the country.
One of the other recommendations is to eliminate advertising from the CBC/Radio-Canada on their digital platforms, in which CBC believes it would be an approximate $533 million impact, which would damage the public broadcasters ability to deliver news.
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