(LifeSiteNews) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Department of Canadian Heritage has admitted that taxpayer bailouts have been insufficient in saving the nation’s mainstream media apparatus as public trust in news outlets continue to decline.
On September 26, Blacklock’s Reporter published a government memo from the Department of Canadian Heritage revealing that mainstream media outlets are failing despite major government bailouts, including a whopping $595 million in funds approved by Parliament in 2019 – a payout which is up for renewal March 31, 2024.
“At least one third of Canadian journalism jobs have disappeared since 2010,” said the May 17 memo titled, “The Online News Act.” “Between 2008 and February 1, 2023 a total of 470 local news operations closed in 335 communities across Canada.”
“Between the same period 210 new news outlets launched,” the memo added. “The government supports journalism in several ways but supports alone cannot redress the structural decline of the current business model.”
In 2019, Parliament changed the Income Tax Act to give yearly rebates of $13,750 for each person employed in certain cabinet-approved media outlets.
However, News Media Canada, a trade association for newspaper publishers, argued that the rebate is insufficient, and is requesting that rebates be doubled next year to a maximum $29,750 annually.
“The financial situation for most news publishers is extremely challenging,” News Media Canada wrote in a submission to the House of Commons finance committee. “It will remain so for many in the short to medium term.”
The current subsidy program is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year as it was originally setup to be a one-time benefit.
“I see this as a transitional program and temporary help,” Bob Cox, then-chair of News Media Canada, testified at 2019 hearings of the Commons 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,” Cox continued at the time.
“We will have to save ourselves,” he had added.
Despite the expensive bailout scheme, the Heritage department admitted that the failing industry did not experience an uptick in net job creation.
“The decrease in advertising revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to service reductions and newspaper closures resulting in the loss of more than 2,500 jobs,” said a 2021 briefing note titled “Improving Federal Support For Journalism.”
While 342 journalists were hired, this was only because their wages were 100 percent subsidized by the Trudeau government under a $50 million Local Journalism Initiative. Media outlets have since requested that this rebate also be extended.
The Trudeau government is continuing to throw money at legacy media outlets, despite Canadians increasingly turning to alternative media sources for their news.
Under the newly passed Online News Act, which aims to force Big Tech companies to pay to publish Canadian news on their social media platforms, the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is set to receive over $150 million from the program. The Trudeau government also announced earlier this month that it is looking to extend the $595 million bailout.
According to recent study by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), most Canadians have an exceptionally low level of trust in both the federal government and mainstream media.
The report shows that less than a third of Canadians displayed “high trust” in the federal government, with “large media organizations” as well as celebrities getting even lower scores.
Large mainstream media outlets and “journalists” working for them scored a “high trust” rating of only 18 percent. This was followed by only 12 percent of people saying they trusted “ordinary people,” with celebrities garnering only an eight percent “trust” rating.