Media Figures Clash on Government Funding at Commons Hearing

Media representatives offered clashing views on press subsidies, with outlets such as Rebel arguing they lead to greater government control, while media association representatives said subsidies are the only way to preserve journalism in the country.

MPs heard from several witnesses from the media industry who testified on April 16 before the House of Commons Canadian heritage committee, which is currently studying the state of the journalism and media sectors.

Sheila Gunn Reid, president of the Independent Press Gallery and chief editor of Rebel News, told MPs that independent journalists who are funded solely by their readers, and not by government subsidies, are being “pushed out” of Canada’s media landscape.

“Canada already has a two-tier media system,” she said. “On one side are government-subsidized outlets. On the other are independent journalists who rely entirely on their market and their audience.”

Gunn Reid said independent media outlets are “increasingly denied equal access” to the government and the public square.

She noted a recent example in which an independent journalist was told by the federal immigration department that his organization did not qualify to receive answers to his questions from the department. She also said elected officials have refused to answer questions from independent outlets.

Conservative MP Kerry Diotte noted that the vast majority of media outlets receive direct funding from the government, and asked whether it is inevitable that this would impact these media outlets’ objectivity.

“Where is the incentive to hold the government to account if your newsroom is reliant on the government for its survival?” Gunn Reid responded.

Meanwhile, Éric-Pierre Champagne, president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, told MPs that government funding is helping to maintain journalism.

“We believe that information produced by professional journalists is essential in a democratic society. In this era of polarization, disinformation, and artificial intelligence that is disrupting everything in its path, we need journalists and quality journalism more than ever,” Champagne said.

He argued that the media business model in Canada is “broken,” saying that a large percentage of advertising revenue goes into the pockets of platforms such as Google where the content gets shared.

Champagne said government funding for the media sector has “helped to mitigate the damage” of this issue, and said there is “no reason to encourage foreign platforms that are in favour of misinformation.”

Freelance journalist Léa Villalba of the Association des journalistes indépendants du Québec (AJIQ), meanwhile, asked for an expansion of the subsidies for freelance journalists.

Change of Model

Peter Menzies, senior fellow of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, who has spoken out against government subsidies for the media, noted that the health of many news organizations in Canada is “poor.”

He said most outlets are now reliant on the government for subsidies, and unless “significant changes” are made, that dependence will grow stronger as the list of organizations asking for funding increases.

“The playing field for the news industry will continue to be unstable and its content viewed with increasing suspicion,” Menzies noted, adding that by sustaining companies with “broken business models,” organizations trying to create “sustainable, independent, and trusted models” are disadvantaged.

Menzies suggested an alternative path forward that subsidizes consumers instead of media outlets. For example, he said the government could enhance the tax credit for individuals purchasing a news subscription, or make such a purchase purely tax deductible. This approach would subsidize Canadians’ consumption of news and eliminate the association between the government and certain news outlets, he said.

“Then people are free to consume the news that they want, and government can subsidize the behaviour that it wants without putting the publishers in a conflict of interest,” he added.

Concerns With AI

Meanwhile, Jane Robertson, president of the Canadian Media Guild, called for adding rules in the subsidy system to ensure human workers aren’t replaced by AI.

Robertson, whose organization represents media including the CBC, The Canadian Press, and others, said media workers are concerned about AI systems being trained on their work and the misuse of AI destroying media audiences’ trust, while removing “meaningful” work. Implementing policies on AI use would encourage the public’s trust in the media sector, Robertson added.

“We encourage the government to include human content standard language around AI use in the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit,” Robertson said. “Adding a human content standard will ensure the credit is supporting Canadian workers and not their artificial replacements.”