Unifor is urging the federal government to speed up policy measures to save Canada’s newspaper industry after Postmedia announced last month it will stop printing eight weekly newspapers and one daily in Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba. The media company is also cutting 10 percent of its workforce across the entire newspaper chain which means some workers will be laid off while others are being offered buyout packages.
The affected newspapers are the Camrose Canadian, Strathmore Standard, Kapuskasing Northern Times, Ingersoll Times, Norwich Gazette, Petrolia Topic, Northern News, The Graphic, and the Pembroke Daily Observer. Workers in Pembroke were told the daily paper will stop publishing July 28.
“We have asked the federal government to help newspapers transition to new and economically sustainable ways to deliver local news but have been met with essentially empty platitudes,” Local 87-M President Paul Morse said. “Now, another historic Canadian newspaper will die, and proud Pembroke will face the threat of becoming a local news desert.”
These cuts come on the heels of 36 community papers shutting down in a controversial Postmedia Torstar swap in November. Postmedia already slashed 20 percent of its newspaper workforce in 2016.
In June 2017, the Parliamentary Heritage Committee urged the federal government to expand tax measures to make advertising in Canadian newspapers more attractive as well as adopt the American model of tax-free endowments for journalism. Unifor has also urged the federal government to consider a news tax credit to entice more readers to buy subscriptions.
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