Cardozo and Law Report on Sustainable Canadian Media

Courtesy: senatorcardozo.ca

The Honourable Andrew Cardozo and Howard Law have co-authored a new report on making Canadian news media sustainable.  Senator Cardozo was appointed to the senate in 2022 and is a member of the Progressive Senate Group.  Howard Law is the former Unifor Media Director and the author of mediapolicy.ca.

The report stresses that Canada’s patchwork of news funding measures have become a de facto permanent pillar of media policy and now requires a more coherent and transparent public policy approach for supporting the economic sustainability of Canadian news journalism, while protecting editorial independence.

In an effort to source policy from other countries, the report notes that European nations combine strong, generously funded public broadcasters with targeted public support for private news, often via per journalist subsidies, sales tax (VAT) relief on subscriptions, and local or independent media funds.

In developing a new overarching strategy to save local news, the report states that all government funding and determination for tax credits should be conducted through an arm’s length agency so that support to media does not come under the direct purview of a minister or appear to be influenced in any manner.

The authors conclude that public policy cannot expect that there exists a one-size-fits-all universal model for supporting the economic sustainability of Canadian news journalism.  It will be vital to strengthen existing supports, while bolstering new policy that sustains independent local news.