The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) is completing a first-ever review of media subsidies, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “I am requesting specific data,” said Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux in a letter to the Canada Revenue Agency. Figures included the number of newsroom employees identified in media bailout claims and what salaries they were paid. No date was fixed for the release of Giroux’s analysis. “Promoting greater budget transparency and accountability are the Budget Office’s primary objectives,” said Giroux. “The degree to which this is possible depends to a large extent on free and timely access to quality information held by government departments.” Cabinet indicated in September it planned to continue the $595 million media bailout for various news outlets, which was about to expire.READ MORE: Feds $595 temporary ‘media bailout’ continues indefinitelyCanadian media lobbyist Bob Cox, who secured the media bailout by saying it would not last forever, had been named as a panel member overseeing it until 2025. Cabinet disclosed an executive order signed in September appointing Cox as a member of the advisory panel overseeing it. News Media Canada CEO Paul Deegan called the financial situation for most publishers “extremely challenging.”“It will remain so for many in the short to medium term,” said Deegan. To solve the legacy media’s decline, Deegan asked Parliament to award tax credits to companies that advertise in newspapers and increase the Canadian government’s advertising six-fold to $35 million per year. “The recommendations are concrete steps the government can take to address this,” he said. “Given the precarious state of the news publishing industry, these necessary steps should be addressed.”While the media bailout had positive intentions, Canadian Heritage said in a briefing note in 2021 it did not result in any net new job creation. “The decrease in advertising revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to service reductions and newspaper closures, resulting in the loss of more than 2,500 jobs,” said Canadian Heritage. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has said on many occasions his government would end media subsidies. If elected, Poilievre admitted a Conservative government would “make sure the government does not use tax dollars to leverage news coverage in its favour.”“Right now, Justin Trudeau is censoring those he disagrees with and trying to buy off the rest,” said Poilievre. “That undermines confidence among Canadians in news media.”
