LANG Committee Report

J. Media of the Official Language Minority Communities

1. 2008-2013 Roadmap Investments: Initiatives and Achievements

The support provided for media is described in the 2008-2013 Roadmap as follows:

Measures are also planned to support community radio and other local media that promote cultural and community activities among youth. For young Canadians, this will mean greater availability of local media and activities in the minority official language.[254]

In spite of this statement, the community media representatives who appeared before the Committee as part of this study said they had been largely overlooked by the current Roadmap.

2. Evidence and recommendations of the OLMC

2.1 The place of community radio stations in the Roadmap

In fact, the Roadmap contains only one initiative targeting community radio stations, and that is the Franco Médias 2010 project:

I should mention in passing that we would like to extend our thanks to the government of Canada for including the Franco Médias 2010 project in the Roadmap. This initiative enabled Francophones and Acadian communities to also contribute to the success of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver. However, it is important to keep up the momentum.[255]

There is currently no regular federal funding to support community radio stations. According to the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada (ARC du Canada), only one community radio station has received federal funding under the Canada-communities agreements, which are administered by Canadian Heritage.[256] To meet needs, ARC du Canada, in partnership with the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCCRA) and the Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec (ARCQ), established the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) in 2007. The CRFC is a not-for-profit organization that solicits and distributes funds for the development and sustainability of local programming on student and community radio stations in urban and rural areas. It provides the community and student radio sector with the resources to promote local programming and community access as well as the development and enrichment of this essential sector of the Canadian broadcasting system. According to ARC du Canada:

We are talking about a fund of about $1 million for this year. After administrative costs, there is about $750,000 left to distribute to radio stations. As I said earlier, that represents less than $5,000 per station.[257]

ARC du Canada added that the federal government allowed the fund to be established, but does not contribute to it. And yet the sector’s needs are considerable:

The three associations [ARC du Canada, NCCRA and ARCQ] estimate that the sector as a whole requires more than $20 million.…It is our belief that, in order to fulfill their responsibilities, our radio stations must be able to count on a guaranteed annual amount of at least $30,000, which would at least allow them to maintain one permanent position per station.[258]

2.2 The place of community newspapers in the Roadmap

The situation is similar for OLMC newspapers. According to the Association de la presse francophone (APF), Francophone minority community newspapers have had no funding or programs under the Roadmap:

Having said that, when it comes to assessing the impact the Roadmap has had on the development of the French-language press in Canada, it is fairly difficult to arrive at a fair and satisfactory picture of the current state of play. Indeed, the document does make reference to the French-language press. It talks about measures to support community media that promote cultural and community activities among youth. According to the Roadmap, for young Canadians, this will mean greater availability of local media and activities in the minority official language.

To our knowledge, there are no specific measures in the Roadmap aimed at developing the French-language press. Indeed, when the Roadmap was first launched, we made the point that the community media sector was almost completely absent.[259]

Unlike the radio sector, community newspapers are assisted by Canadian Heritage’s Canadian Periodical Fund.

Community radio stations and newspapers are important for the OLMC, particularly for Northern communities, which are scattered and remote. According to the Association des francophones du Nunavut, community radio and newspapers are the only available means of obtaining and sharing information in French. Following implementation of Nunavut’s Official Languages Act in 2012, the community believes its media will become the preferred means of communication between the government and the community, but their funding must first be secured.

The Fédération franco-ténoise has also put a lot of effort into maximizing the human resources working for its organizations:

By combining our weekly newspaper and community radio station, we were able to hire a fulltime director for the radio station and open a news desk in Hay River, as well as share human resources and news content between both media outlets. However, this success story is a fragile one, and each year it becomes increasingly difficult to fund our media outlets as government advertising revenue are in decline as new information technologies grow in popularity and we are seeing a partial shift away from traditional media. Last year alone, L’Aquilon saw its revenues drop by 18%.[260]

The above passage highlights two major challenges facing OLMC media: the withdrawal from advertising buys by federal institutions, and the challenges that new information technologies pose for conventional media.

2.3 Advertising buys

The federal government’s advertising spending is managed by the advertising coordination sector at Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). The Communications Policy of the Government of Canada,[261] which took effect on August 1, 2006, contains provisions respecting the purchase of advertising from official language minority media. Paragraph 23 provides as follows:

Institutions must determine their obligations under Sections 11 and 30 of the Official Languages Act to ensure compliance in all advertising. Moreover, institutions must ensure that positive measures are taken for the implementation of the Government of Canada’s commitment, stated in Part VII of the Act, to enhance the vitality of official language minority communities. Advertising plans and campaigns must address the needs, concerns and language preferences of such communities. Media buys must include the purchase of advertising space and time in organs serving a community’s official language minority, be it English or French.

The Policy does not establish any amount or percentage for the purpose of regulating the purchase of advertising space in official language minority media. However, it does acknowledge that federal institutions have an obligation under Part VII of the Official Languages Act to include official language minority media in their advertising programs so as to promote the vitality of the Anglophone and Francophone minority communities.

Despite these obligations, OLMC media representatives told the Committee that they have observed a substantial decline in advertising buys and, consequently, in their revenues. According to the APF, newspapers have suffered a 35% drop in advertising purchases by the federal government:

With respect to advertising, we are currently going through some tough times. In the last two years, French-language newspapers have seen a 35% reduction in federal advertising. The effects of that decrease are being felt. Newspapers are publishing fewer pages. Some are talking about the major challenge facing them in order to survive.[262]

ARC du Canada estimates this reduction at 85%:

I can tell you that last year was an extremely trying year with respect to advertising, because a choice had already been made: it was the year of television and the Internet. Radio stations and newspapers paid the price, and it was a very stiff price. There was a drop of more than 85% in revenues from the federal government. There was not much left for us. Things are slightly better this year, and yet there are a number of campaigns in the newspapers and on television, but not on the radio.[263]

Buying advertising in OLMC media is not simply a matter of funding. The Quebec Community Newspapers Association (QCNA) clearly showed that advertising purchases in OLMC media are consistent with the federal government’s obligation to inform Canadians in the language of their choice:

For readers of community newspapers, advertising is information. Indeed, many readers may not differentiate between what is a paid ad, an opinion piece, or a news article. They simply read everything, every word, with great interest. The key here is that before we look at increasing or decreasing advertising rates, we need to understand that we’re talking about increasing and decreasing information to residents.

This is particularly critical for the English minority in Quebec. Our small newspapers are sometimes the only way residents are informed about what’s happening that impacts them, from various agencies, from the province, or even from the municipalities. Advertising bookings from federal agencies dropped from 2008 to 2011 in the range that the APF has experienced. But we can’t look at 2009 for these drops, except that there was an interesting lesson that year. Federal agencies were highly proactive in their fight against the H1N1 virus. They used community newspapers to run a preventive information campaign, with success rates any top agency would admire. Rates of infection for H1N1 were controlled in large part due to this aggressive advertising campaign. Readers responded by following advice contained in the ads. Readers were scared, they felt isolated, and they heard horror stories from abroad and from television headlines, but they didn’t understand what was being published in the French newspapers. The spending that went into community newspapers targeted them and helped them through this, offering them very reliable information. It empowered them to act responsibly and to help themselves. However, advertising bookings from federal agencies dropped off to virtually nothing following that pandemic. Roadmap or not, the effect was chilling.

The situation where the federal governing bodies do not communicate with residents is shared across Canada; it’s not just in Quebec. For a minority language group, this information is critical. It’s information about what agencies are doing for them or about them.[264]

According to the QCNA, “Recent polls show that 74% of adult Canadians read their local community newspaper. The numbers are even higher for those newspapers in minority language situations.”[265]

In view of the above, the Committee recommends:

Recommendation 25

That the Government of Canada, in accordance with its Communications Policy, ensure that federal institutions meet their commitments toward the media of the official language minority communities.

2.4 New information technologies

The advent of new media and social media raises a challenge for OLMC community radio stations and newspapers. ARC du Canada explained the problem as follows:

Furthermore, we often hear talk of the new media and the need for community radio stations to be part of that. In the space of barely a few years, technology has developed at such a pace and changed the Canadian media landscape so dramatically that even public and private broadcasters have been overtaken by events. Just imagine what it is like for radio stations like our own.

In the current globalized environment, where broadcasting giants are merging and diversifying their activities in order to deal head on with the phenomenal rise and popularity of the new media, community broadcasters, and particularly those operating in official language minority communities, are struggling to contain the erosion of their own audience and are fighting a totally unequal battle against the Internet, a medium which has neither boundaries nor clear and precise rules. Indeed, the CRTC made the point again recently that it does not intend, at least in the very short term, to regulate Internet content.

Canadians’ interest in the new media is such that we are facing a massive migration of our audience to these new platforms, but without all the necessary means to recapture those listeners.

It should also be mentioned that, very recently, the President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, Mr. Hubert T. Lacroix, told members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that he intends to double the Crown corporation’s investment in digital broadcasting between now and 2015. That means that more money will have to be invested in new platforms.[266]

ARC du Canada has already started negotiations with Canadian Heritage to obtain funding and develop new programs:

We would also like to draw your attention to the fact that the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada recently filed a project application with Canadian Heritage, and we are hoping to receive the requested funding in order to develop mobile applications that would enable Internet users to tune in our stations using their mobile devices, such as smart phones or touch-sensitive tablets.[267]

Community newspapers are also facing challenges with regard to their Internet presence and the use of new social platforms:

…having a presence there doesn’t mean you’re effective. There is a difference. As with every other medium, you have to learn to be an interactive medium, in addition to being a paper-based medium that is published every week.[268]

Not all APF-member community newspapers are online. According to the APF, few of them post all their content on the Internet:

I believe it’s possible for L’Express Ottawa, La Liberté and Le Franco. Four or five of them publish their full version of the news for online subscribers. In other cases, they may publish excerpts and other items that do not appear in the newspaper on a database….When it comes to the Internet, newspapers are proceeding by trial and error. I believe there is a strategic aspect to this, in that we want to be available via mobile technology, but we are not there yet.[269]

The lack of adequate funding undermines the ability of OLMC media to make use of new media and social media:

With respect to funding, I would say that, when it comes to newspapers, adapting to new media is a major challenge, given the limited resources available. It is not only a major challenge for us, but also a serious threat to Francophones in minority communities.
The current context is one where the media are having trouble remaining competitive. It is, in fact, difficult to compete with The New York Times and CNN.[270]

Quebec’s Anglophone community newspapers are in the same situation:

As for the landscape, with social media and Website presence for media, help in that regard is really critical in terms of having a presence and staying current. None of us has the funds to be as dynamic as big corporate newspapers are. Each of us has to struggle through that challenge.[271]

Having regard to the above, the Committee recommends:

Recommendation 26

That the Government of Canada’s future horizontal initiative for official languages contain initiatives designed to help official language minority communities keep pace with technological change, particularly by making use of new media and social media.

2.5 Community media and the arts

Community radio and newspapers are vehicles for the OLMC’s artistic and cultural products:

The link between community media and artists in minority Francophone communities is very important because it is often the first vehicle these artists are given to broadcast their talent, their works, etc. It must be preserved. It is more difficult for artists to break through, to access the mass media. This link with community media becomes very important in promoting their development.[272]

At ARC du Canada, this commitment has led to the creation of a platform for artists to allow ARC du Canada’s member community radio stations to access French-Canadian content across the country:

The service we provide to the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada consists of a programming exchange. Our server has a bank of programming that we make available to all of our stations….That gives us an opportunity to disseminate the culture of all of our communities across all communities. Obviously, we still have some ways to go. Indeed, we would like our radio stations to better reflect our communities, but given our lack of resources, that is quite difficult. It’s a problem. The platform is one of our initiatives. It is one of the jewels in the crown of ARC du Canada.[273]

The platform has grown out of a closer relationship with the Association des professionnels de la chanson et de la musique franco-ontarienne (Ontario):

At the time, artists expressed a desire to be heard more often, and benefit from better promotion. The people representing our radio stations answered that it is not always easy to have access to music created by community artists….We came to the conclusion that the best solution would be to create a national platform where music files from our community artists would be downloaded….The idea was to ensure that the music created by an artist from Western Canada — for example, Manitoba or Saskatchewan — would be broadcast in the Atlantic provinces, and vice versa. That way, songs by Acadian artists would be broadcast over the airwaves of radio stations in Western Canada or Ontario. That project was completed this summer, without additional financial support; in other words, the ARC of Canada paid for the hosting, implementation and maintenance of that platform. Artists now have a platform for disseminating their musical works. And radio stations are now able to more quickly and more easily access the work of our artists.[274]

ARC du Canada informed the Committee that the Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec (ARCQ) was open to the idea of picking up the service.[275]

The Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) told the Committee that community media are essential to present the OLMC’s cultural and artistic products:

The link is quite clear, relevant and close. This is to say that, for artists and artistic organizations, the community media are a primary ally in terms of showcasing their talents. Without these partners, our communities would not know if there is a show on a certain night in Cornwall or in any of the other 37 communities that have a cultural centre. Neither would they find out about what is new in book publishing or in music or film releases, etc. It is therefore a very important ally.

When someone asks what the economic benefits are, it seems clear to me that the action of our agencies, the community media and our communication companies have a considerable effect on access to the cultural product, whether it is a show, a visual arts exhibit, a new book, a music CD or another product. They are primary allies.

Regarding whether the government should recognize the importance of cultural entities although these partners are not members of the cultural federation — I am taking the liberty of venturing into some dangerous territory here I know — it is clear that we feel that you should recognize them. In my opinion, an investment in these partners can only be beneficial for the arts and culture community.[276]

In light of the above, the Committee recommends:

Recommendation 27

That the Department of Canadian Heritage develop programs for community radio stations and newspapers in its support strategy for arts and culture in the official language minority communities.