At the CRTC hearing on developing a regulatory framework regarding contributions to support Canadian and Indigenous content, CUPE’s Conseil provincial du secteur des communications (CPSC) called for a dedicated news fund, to be funded by foreign-owned online businesses. “These online multinationals do business here and should contribute to Canadian broadcasting policy objectives, just like traditional broadcasters. As a result, Canadians would be denied access to a diverse range of trustworthy news sources, the bedrock of Canada’s democracy. “The CPSC believes that a fund for local and community news could provide financing for all commercial radio and TV stations and community channels and stations producing local or regional news,” says CUPE servicing representative Steve Bargoné. “This fund could potentially help us prevent MAtv and TVA from being torn down and local news from being centralized, thus protecting our diverse range of news sources.”
