Local and community newspapers help safeguard Canadian democracy, write Adsett and Chartier/NMC image

By Dave Adsett and Benoît Chartier

April 23, 2026

We grew up in different provinces, cheering for different hockey teams: Benoît for the Montreal Canadiens and Dave for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Both of us carry on proud family traditions of newspaper ownership.

Despite our own ‘heated rivalry’, we are on the same team when it comes to keeping our communities informed and engaged through original, local journalistic content. That content includes coverage of everything from policing to courts to city hall and high-school sports.

For a couple of small-town newspaper guys, we feel privileged to have had front-row seats and been active participants in media policymaking over the past few years – representing our fellow publishers – through News Media Canada, where Dave serves as chair, and Hebdos Québec, where Benoît serves as chair.

We’ve both worked with federal Heritage ministers, including Pablo Rodriguez and Pascale St-Onge, to get the Online News Act done. That legislation is seeing $100 million flowing annually from Google to Canadian news businesses.

Prior to its passage and in an attempt to thwart it, Google and Meta entered into content licensing agreements with large publishers. Smaller, independent publishers like us never got a call — let alone an offer of a licensing deal from those California-based behemoths.

Federal policy over the past few years has been very helpful to Canada’s news publishers. It’s allowed many of us to keep the lights on and maintain payroll.

The Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit, which provides a 35% refundable tax credit, rewards those who maintain and grow newsroom employment. That credit is scheduled to revert to 25% on January 1, 2027. We are concerned about the impact that will have, and we hope it will be maintained at 35% as it has contributed greatly to stability in newsroom employment.

As long as 94% of digital ad dollars flow to foreign platforms rather than remaining in the Canadian ecosystem and Google continues to monopolize open-web digital advertising markets, the industry will continue to face financial pressure.

Given the fiscal realities, new direct financial supports are not realistic. We are businesspeople and we understand that. However, there are a number of new policy measures the Government of Canada can take to keep the news publishing industry commercially viable.

In News Media Canada’s April 8th brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance in advance of the 2026 Budget, our primary appeal is to maintain the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit at 35%, which is the most impactful action the government can take immediately to maintain journalists across Canada. In the brief, we also advocate for a federal advertising set-aside for news and protecting against encroaching AI. But reforms to Canada Post, CBC, and tax policy would also help improve the economics of the news business.

The Role of Advertising

The federal government should set-aside 25% of its advertising spend toward private-sector Canadian news sources. Despite the government’s stated “Buy Canadian” policy, according to its own report, of the $64.2 million that flowed through the Agency of Record for 2024 to 2025, only $222,000 went to all print publications in the country combined.

For advertisers – whether governments or the private sector – credible journalism strengthens trust while delivering real business results in a brand-safe environment. We can help the government reach the 86% of Canadians who engage with newspaper content each week.

Since 2024, Ontario has directed its agencies, boards, and commissions to direct 25% of its advertising spend to news publishers. Six years ago, New York City mandated that city agencies allocate at least 50% of their print and digital advertising to community and ethnic media. The Maryland Legislature just passed the first state advertising set-aside for local news — also at 50%.

The U.S.-based not-for-profit Rebuild Local News found that advertising set-asides have a number of benefits. First, they can provide substantial revenue to local news organizations and help community journalism thrive.

Second, it is money the government is already spending—not new money—so it does not require enlarging state or local budgets or raising taxes.

Third, government messages should reach a full range of residents, including those who may not be using larger media.

Fourth, as advertising, it is payment for a service rendered, not a subsidy per se. Finally, advertising in community news helps government be more effective by reaching audiences through community and ethnic publications that are more trusted by their readers.

According to a Totum Research study conducted for News Media Canada, 68% of Canadians agree that the federal government should adopt a “Buy Canadian” approach and commit a percentage of its advertising budget to Canadian-owned media.

Protecting Against Encroaching AI

We fully support efforts to build Canada’s global leadership in artificial intelligence and to harness the potential of AI. We believe AI development should benefit all Canadians, reflect Canadian values, and strengthen our digital sovereignty and the health of our information environment. That means building safe, trusted, and fair AI systems — that are not built and maintained at the expense of those who create the underlying intellectual property that feeds them. In the words of Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada should not be forced to “choose between hyperscalers and hegemons”.

According to a Totum Research survey conducted for News Media Canada, 71% of Canadians agree that the Government of Canada should take action to prevent artificial intelligence companies from taking and repackaging news content without permission or compensation. There are concrete steps the Government of Canada can and should take to stop the theft of original Canadian news content.

First, procurement is one of the strongest tools in the government’s policy arsenal. Public Services and Procurement Canada and Treasury Board should work together to ensure those on the government’s list of interested artificial intelligence suppliers sign a “supplier commitment to support the Government of Canada’s effort in leading the way on ethical AI” that includes a commitment to the principles of transparency, consent, and attribution with respect to all copyright-protected source content.

Second, the Minister of Industry should direct the Competition Bureau to conduct a study into the state of competition with respect to search and AI. It is in the public interest to have Googlebot split into separate crawlers – one for AI and one for search. That would be a pro-competitive safeguard to help level the playing field between publishers and Google. According to Cloudflare, requiring Google to split up Googlebot by purpose — just like Google already does for its nearly 20 other crawlers — is not only technically feasible, but also a necessary and proportionate remedy.

Third, the Government of Canada should state clearly and unequivocally that the Copyright Act will not be amended to include a text and data-mining exception. On this note, we were encouraged by the words of Minister Marc Miller who said, “The current copyright law does and should protect those that have created material and people need to be compensated properly.”

Canada Post

Canada Post can play an important role in a more sustainable future. Unfortunately, its management team decided that community newspapers with commercial inserts – like Canadian Tire or grocery store flyers – were no longer exempt from Canada Post’s Consumers’ Choice program, which allows Canadians to opt out of receiving ‘junk mail’.

That decision was an unwelcome and abrupt U-turn from Canada Post’s longstanding policy. Like advertisements on the pages of a newspaper, commercial inserts pay for the news content our journalists produce.

Clearly, community newspapers with commercial inserts are not ‘junk mail’. The decision is having a demonstrable and devastating impact on community newspaper revenue. Canada Post’s preliminary work on its multi-year transformation provides an opportunity to revisit this policy.

It should offer fair postal rates and quality processing and delivery service to newspapers.

The CBC

CBC, which reported that its digital platforms took in more than $100 million in advertising for the year ended March 31, 2025 – up 33% from $75 million in the prior year — should not be competing with the private sector for scarce advertising dollars.

Tax Policy

In 1996, given the state of the internet at that time, the Canada Revenue Agency determined that foreign web sites could not be considered foreign newspapers or broadcasters and, therefore, allowed full tax deductibility of advertising expenses on such sites. It is long past time to close this loophole.

In the face of misinformation- and disinformation-fuelled foreign hyperscalers whose algorithms prioritize engagement and revenue over an informed citizenry, and amid threats to our digital sovereignty and economy, a commercially viable news publishing sector can only help us safeguard our democracy.

Dave Adsett is the Chair of News Media Canada and owner of the Wellington Advertiser.

Benoît Chartier is Chair of Hebdos Québec and the owner of Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe – the oldest French language newspaper in North America.