INDU Committee Report

This dissenting opinion is not being written to diminish the work of the Committee but to highlight a major concern of the New Democratic Party that was not adequately addressed in this interim report — the growing concern of newspaper concentration in our country.

The Committee in its own wisdom decided that the Competition Act is not the appropriate vehicle for addressing an industry-specific concern such as the one of monopolies and concentration in the newspaper industry. The New Democratic Party differs in that it believes that the Competition Bureau should weigh the full impact on public interest as well as commercial interest when considering whether a proposed merger in the newspaper industry prevents or lessens competition.

The Public Policy Forum engaged by the Competition Bureau will provide the Committee with further opportunity to review and compare its national findings on the many issues studied. However, the New Democratic Party is reluctant to wait for the completion of the Forum’s review when considering the pressing and immediate dilemma facing the Canadian newspaper industry. We agree with the view offered by Tom Kent, former chair of the 1981 Royal Commission on Newspapers, who said: "In the public interest and in fairness to the business community generally, as well as to the shareholders of Thomson and Hollinger, a clear policy needs to be defined and announced very soon. I hope this won't be one more occasion when the decision is too long delayed." (Witness, Tom Kent, May 17, 2000)

There was compelling evidence that today’s unhealthy level of concentration happened because there was no effective legislation to prevent it. Here are some of the glaring facts:

nearly 90% of daily newspapers in Canada are controlled by large and powerful newspaper chains – in BC, 95% of them belong to Hollinger;

in 30 years, independently owned newspapers went from 40% to less than 4% of English language daily circulation — with one chain, Hollinger, controlling 45.4% of the newspapers;

three other large chains, Quebecor, Torstar Corp. and Thomson control the remaining 50% of English language circulation;

competing English language or French language dailies are found in only a few cities across the country;

in four provinces, one owner controls the entire daily newspaper industry — the Irving family in New Brunswick and Hollinger in Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan;

concentration of ownership leads to mass firings of journalists because big chains tend to minimize newsroom costs, drastically effecting both the quality of the news and the labour market.

Another emerging issue was the fear of opening up the industry to foreign ownership. We take the position that the answer to Canada's newspaper ownership dilemma is not to put the newspaper in foreign hands but to break up the monopolies. An American chain is not better than a Canadian chain and only puts at greater risk the cultural fabric of Canada.

NDP Priorities:

We believe that this interim report failed in not recommending the need for a cultural component, implemented by the Competition Bureau under a revised Competition Act.

We believe that the Heritage Committee needs to conduct an immediate and comprehensive review of media ownership while we have papers up for sale and have an opportunity to deal with the issue.

We believe that this government should support diversity of newspaper ownership by considering other innovative options including:

A requirement by the Competition Bureau to have the newspapers for sale offered on an individual, rather than a group, basis to ensure that newspapers are affordable and open to interests other than the large chains.

The use of the income tax system to encourage local ownership as opposed to chain-wide ownership:

Witness Tom Kent suggested, "fairly wide ownership could be encouraged by providing the investments of up to 10% in a 10% share of an equity required to be eligible for accelerated capital cost allowance." (Witness Tom Kent, May 17, 2000)

Explore ways to designate newspapers under a new and separate section of the Broadcast Act (which currently regulates all private electronic broadcasters and creates the CBC and CRTC).

Establish newspaper ownership legislation that deals specifically with ownership and market share similar to models used by European countries.

Consider a press subsidy scheme whereby newspapers that are not always supported by corporate advertisers are provided with some public financing.

The New Democratic Party is committed to ensuring a check and balance in the system that protects the integrity of what we consume as citizens. We feel that the priorities set forth in this opinion are an excellent alternative to the status quo and deserve the attention of this Committee and in the general debate on newspaper ownership in Canada.