Goldie Ghamari - April 03, 2019


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


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

139.21138

Word count

1,291

Sentence count

51


Summary

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

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.