Goldie Ghamari - April 03, 2019


Speech： MPP Ghamari's first private member's bill


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

139.21

Word count

1,291

Sentence count

51


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Bill 78: Supporting Ontario's Community Rural and Agricultural Newspapers Act. Bill 78 is a Private Member's Bill that would require municipalities to provide notice to the public in their local community newspapers. It would also update the definition of newspaper to reflect the current legislation.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 I move second reading of Bill 78, an act to amend various acts with respect to the publication
00:00:19.660 of notices in newspapers.
00:00:21.840 Pursuant to Standing Order 98, the member has 12 minutes for her presentation.
00:00:29.360 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to stand here today in the Legislature to talk about
00:00:33.820 my first private member's bill, Supporting Ontario's Community Rural and Agricultural
00:00:38.600 Newspapers Act. Community newspapers bring high-value engagement and trust to all levels
00:00:45.920 of government messaging—federal, provincial, regional and municipal. 82% of Ontario citizens
00:00:52.940 read their local community newspapers. Community newspapers like the Manitik Messenger and
00:00:58.780 Ottawa community voice in my riding of Carleton are the voice of their community and strong
00:01:04.100 contributors to their local economies. Community newspapers are aligned with our provincial
00:01:11.080 government's mandates to help create jobs, to save taxpayer money and to reduce red tape for
00:01:17.380 small businesses. In a December 2016 research poll, when almost 2,500 Canadians were asked the
00:01:24.960 question, which of the listed media do you think are the most appropriate for advertising for
00:01:30.620 federal, provincial, and municipal or regional government programs and services? 72% of
00:01:36.960 respondents, or almost three-quarters, said that they want to see advertising for government
00:01:42.060 programs and services in their local newspapers. In smaller markets with a population of less than
00:01:52.440 100,000 people, 6 in 10 or approximately 60% of adults believe that community newspapers
00:02:00.900 are the most appropriate media for government advertising.
00:02:05.040 Indeed, Ontario's community newspapers are lucky to be supported and represented by the
00:02:10.340 Ontario community newspaper industry, and I am glad that I was joined earlier today
00:02:15.700 by Caroline Medwell, the executive director of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association.
00:02:20.760 This proposed private member's bill has its roots in my riding of Carleton.
00:02:28.320 This issue was originally brought to my attention by Mr. Geoffrey Morris, who owns two local
00:02:33.720 community newspapers, the Manitik Messenger in my riding of Carleton and the Barhaven
00:02:38.980 Independent in Mr. McLeod's riding of Nepean.
00:02:43.880 With the past purchase of the free Metroland News and its subsequent shutdown of its local
00:02:48.520 community editions, independently owned community newspapers are vitally important sources of
00:02:54.200 information in Carleton and in other rural and northern communities throughout Ontario.
00:03:00.840 They are also relied upon by many immigrant and new Canadian communities as crucial sources of
00:03:06.600 local, non-traditional English news. The proposed changes will help ensure the viability of these
00:03:13.880 newspapers, enabling them to continue to bring their communities together and to provide
00:03:19.000 residents with crucial local news.
00:03:23.240 Turning now to the content of my private member's bill, municipalities are required to post
00:03:28.400 notice to the public for relevant community works, events, consultations and other things.
00:03:36.000 These notices are often required to be tendered to the public via postings in community newspapers.
00:03:41.960 The current definition of newspaper in the Legislation Act reads as follows.
00:03:46.800 Newspaper, in a provision requiring publication, means a document that is printed in sheet
00:03:52.400 form, published at regular intervals of a week or less, and circulated to the general
00:03:57.360 public, and consists primarily of news of current events of general interest.
00:04:03.440 This definition of a newspaper contained within the Legislation Act 2006 is the standard used
00:04:10.220 by municipalities for the purpose of providing public notice in the following acts—the
00:04:15.180 City of Toronto Act, the Development Charges Act, the Environmental Assessment Act, the
00:04:20.760 Expropriations Act, the Municipal Act, the Ontario Heritage Act, and the Planning Act.
00:04:31.900 Increasingly, community newspapers, particularly those in northern and rural Ontario, are published
00:04:37.900 on a biweekly or monthly basis because of the disastrous policies made by the previous
00:04:43.260 government, such as increasing red tape, increasing hydro bills, and increasing their overall
00:04:48.940 bottom line, which has led for many of them to look at cost-cutting efforts in order to
00:04:55.760 maintain their small, independently-owned businesses.
00:04:59.380 By limiting their publications to biweekly or monthly, municipalities are not able to
00:05:04.820 post notice in these local publications anymore because they do not fit the standard definition
00:05:10.060 of newspaper. Not only are these community newspapers losing out on a potential source
00:05:15.500 of revenue that would help support local businesses, but it also makes it difficult for municipalities
00:05:21.000 to inform local populations of relevant local news. To fix this problem, I am proposing
00:05:28.160 to add the following definition of newspaper to the acts that I previously mentioned.
00:05:33.500 Newspaper, in a provision requiring publication, means a document that is printed in sheet
00:05:39.640 form, published at regular intervals of a month or less, and circulated to the general
00:05:45.080 public, and consists primarily of news of current events of general interest.
00:05:50.220 By amending the City of Toronto Act, the Development Charges Act, the Environmental Assessment
00:05:55.220 Act, the Expropriations Act, the Municipal Act, the Ontario Heritage Act, and the Planning
00:06:01.620 Act to include this updated definition to reflect publications of a month or less as
00:06:07.840 opposed to weekly or less. I am hoping to strengthen the fabric of Ontario's rural,
00:06:13.140 northern, and immigrant communities while at the same time supporting local businesses
00:06:17.600 and ensuring that Ontarians continue to have easily accessible news resources.
00:06:22.360 And to clarify, Madam Speaker, this change does not mandate that municipalities must
00:06:27.520 now provide notice in all of these papers.
00:06:30.540 All it does is broaden the scope of potential newspapers.
00:06:34.980 Municipalities can still pick and choose which paper they wish to provide notice in.
00:06:39.640 The requirement that municipal notices be posted in newspapers with a publishing frequency
00:06:44.600 of weekly or less has prevented many smaller local community newspapers from being able
00:06:50.140 to post these municipal notices, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.
00:06:55.960 Amending the definition of newspaper to those which have a publishing frequency of a month
00:07:00.400 or less will help even out the playing field for many local community newspapers, and it
00:07:06.500 could add to their bottom line.
00:07:08.680 It would also save municipalities money, as they could specifically target the areas in
00:07:13.180 which they must post notice, as opposed to publishing in a larger newspaper which has
00:07:17.980 many readers to which the notice may be irrelevant. Note that the majority of these local community
00:07:23.900 newspapers are free. Therefore, the proposed changes will also save many Ontarians from
00:07:29.900 having to purchase a newspaper just to get relevant and important local community information as it
00:07:35.660 pertains to municipal notices, since they will be able to get that same information for free
00:07:41.500 in the community newspapers that they already rely upon. I have received broad support for
00:07:46.940 this private member's bill from key stakeholders across Ontario. I would like to take a moment
00:07:52.780 to read a letter of support provided to me by Ottawa's Mayor Jim Watson. On January 21, 2019,
00:07:59.820 Mayor Watson wrote, I am writing to request that the province amend the definition of newspaper
00:08:05.660 to allow for a broader range of options for municipalities to provide public
00:08:09.740 notice to residents as required under various Ontario statutes.
00:08:14.700 With consolidation in the newspaper industry, this leaves the City of Ottawa with few options to post public notice required by various laws.
00:08:24.040 I ask that you consider broadening the legislation's requirements from a weekly frequency.
00:08:30.020 This would allow municipalities to advertise in a broader range of local and community newspapers, some of which publish every two weeks.
00:08:37.900 This would enable us to more effectively reach more residents and communities and support
00:08:43.560 local newspapers while fulfilling statutory public notice requirements.
00:08:48.020 Madam Speaker, I'd like to thank Caroline Medwell and everyone from the Ontario Community
00:08:53.180 Newspaper Association for their support.
00:08:55.860 I'd like to thank Mr. Geoffrey Morris for bringing this issue to me in the first place,
00:09:00.440 and I'd like to thank everyone here today for joining me in this debate.
00:09:05.260 I hope that after listening to my comments that everyone in the House can join me in
00:09:10.040 supporting Ontario's Community, Rural and Agricultural Newspapers Act in the Legislature.
00:09:15.920 Thank you.