Hon. Andrew Cardozo: Colleagues, there is a crisis in the economic stability of Canadian news media. The traditional advertising-supported model of news media is no longer functioning sufficiently to sustain a robust, diverse and independent media in Canada. News media’s share of advertising revenue has been precipitously declining for two decades. Subscription revenues have failed to expand enough to fill the gap.

News media is an essential pillar of democracy. Without it, voters cannot find out what is being done in their name. They cannot adequately hold their representatives to account, including the Senate, and they cannot make informed choices at election time.

In this context, public subsidy of news has become a pressing matter. I have written a report, co-authored with media policy analyst Howard Law, entitled Making News Media Sustainable: Options for the Long Term. My report provides a comprehensive analysis of the existing public subsidy set of programs.

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In this report, we argue that public subsidies will remain essential to the news media sector’s survival. Existing subsidy programs have played a vital role in the survival of news media to date. Ideally, public intervention should be systematic and subject to transparent accountability. That is the best way to ensure value for money for taxpayers and support the news media we need.

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We propose 15 policy options, and let me just mention 3. Governments need to spend 50% of their advertising budgets in Canadian media. Currently, governments provide about 2% of their advertising to Canadian media. The rest of it goes to foreign-owned social media.

We need to ensure that public funding is distributed through a body that is at arm’s-length from the government and insulated from political intervention. We also encourage charitable foundations to support news media.

Copies of the report can be found on my website, senatorcardozo.ca. If you would like a copy, in either official language, we can send that to you.

The quest to maintain and build credible Canadian news media is critical at this time of worldwide instability with rapidly growing disinformation. Thank you.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.