Ottawa announced Tuesday that the journalistic labor tax credit will be increased from 25% to 35% for the next four years. In the community, we welcome this measure which will “bring a little breathing room”, but only for the written press.
A priori, the salary eligible for the tax credit will increase from $55,000 to $85,000, which is equivalent to a maximum of $29,750 per employee. The cost of this measure is estimated at around 129 million over five years, starting in 2024-2025. The Bloc Québécois, for its part, called for an emergency fund of 50 million to help the news media.
” It’s good news. It will bring a little relief to the media which are in difficulty, but we should not think that it will be a panacea either. The media are in such a major crisis that it will take more than that to get there,” said the president of the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ), Éric-Pierre Champagne.
According to him, we must in particular “continue to think about other solutions in parallel”, including first of all “getting the web giants to contribute with Bill C-18”.
In the midst of a crisis
All this comes at a time when the media sector is being hit hard by the loss of advertising revenue which is being siphoned off by the web giants. This phenomenon affects all media from one end of the country to the other. Job losses were also deplored at Bell Media last spring.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has been preventing the sharing of journalistic content for Canadian users of its platforms since August, in response to C-18, a law that aims to force web giants to enter into licensing agreements. compensation with news media for sharing their content.
Google has threatened to do the same, but has not yet taken action, except temporarily, last spring, to conduct “tests”.
“Our industry is going through an unprecedented crisis which directly affects the funding of newsrooms and, consequently, the public’s access to reliable and rigorous information. We welcome the government’s announcement to increase its aid to the news media,” reacted the president of The PressPierre-Elliott Levasseur, shortly after the announcement.
According to him, “this decision, to which is added the implementation of the Online News Actdemonstrates that the government recognizes and values the essential work of the news media and their contribution to our democracy.”
Written only
For the moment, however, federal government assistance will only affect print media newsrooms. In other words, TV or radio stations will not be able to benefit from the enhanced tax credit.
“It remains a major problem when we know that it is really television which is most greatly affected by the media crisis currently,” raised associate professor of journalism at the UQAM Media School Patrick White.
The expert nevertheless also welcomes a “step in the right direction”, but recalls that “2024 is going to be a much more difficult year than 2023 for the media”. “What we see today will help, but we will especially need what the Quebec government is preparing on its side. The ball is in Quebec’s court,” notes Mr. White.
The federal announcement follows major cutbacks recently announced at TVA, where Pierre Karl Péladeau announced at the beginning of November the dismissal of 547 employees, or nearly a third of the workforce. The Métro Média company, which includes the newspaper Metro and 16 local weeklies, also confirmed in August the immediate suspension of its activities.
The Information Coops are also making cuts due to their digital restructuring. Some 125 people, which represents approximately a third of the organization’s workforce, have already confirmed that they will benefit from the voluntary departure program offered to them.
“We welcome today’s announcement,” noted the general director of Coops de l’information, Geneviève Rossier.
“The media are in a situation of insecurity and uncertainty with everything that is happening with GAFAM. This help comes at a good time and will likely ensure that the impact of our current insecurities is mitigated or diminished. It will allow us to breathe, to exhale and to see it coming,” she concluded.