Most Canadians would rather see federal funding spent on urgent needs such as affordable housing than on media subsidies to prop up failing news outlets, according to in-house Privy Council research.
Ottawa commissioned a poll just weeks before doubling newsroom payroll rebates to an additional $129 million. The survey, first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, found few Canadians were in favour of the federal government’s support of the news industry.
“While it was widely felt that the Government of Canada should continue to ensure that news was widely accessible to all Canadians in the official language of their choice, only a small number believed that the news industry in general should be a top priority at present,” the report on poll results said.
The respondents said Canadians already had access to a wide range of news sources on many platforms, and that the federal government had more pressing issues to focus on such as housing affordability and the cost of living. The findings were based on focus group questionnaires conducted under an $814,741 contract with The Strategic Counsel.
When focus group participants were told a number of news outlets had cut jobs or become insolvent, many expressed indifference, the report said. Most said that as long as major outlets like CBC, CTV News and Global News continued providing information, this would not be an issue.
“While few felt that they would be personally impacted by this decline in the number of Canadian news outlets, some believed that this issue may be more acutely felt by older generations, who they expected were likely more reliant on local television and newspapers for their news,” the report said.
The average Canadian spends about 30 minutes to an hour each day following current events, mainly on television, the internet, and radio, according to the report. Many Canadians polled also said they believed news outlets had become more “opinion-oriented and sensationalized” in recent years.
“It was thought that almost every outlet now appeared to have its own perspective and as such it could be difficult at times to determine what the truth of a story was,” the report said.
“Participants were mixed in their reactions, with most in Northern Quebec supporting it and almost all based in Toronto and mid-sized cities opposing it,” the report said.
“Supporters felt that securing more money for locally-based news was critical for keeping them operational, while those opposed said requiring digital platforms to pay for news may reduce the amount of news available to Canadians on social media.”
