THE RECOGNITION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ETHNIC PRESS AS VITAL TOOL TO OUR DEMOCRACY
The National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada has been selected as one of eight groups of the Media industry to provide to federal government recommendations on the eligibility criteria for taxation measures announced in the 2019 Budget.
In the 2018 Fall Economic Statement and in the 2019 Budget, the Government of Canada proposed measures to support Canadian Journalism with two tax credits and measures to encourage charitable donations to eligible organizations of the industry.
According to the announcement the Hon. Pablo Rodriquez, Minister of the Canadian Heritage, is forming an independent panel of experts to make recommendations on the criteria for the tax measures in order to confirm that they are fair, efficient, transparent and inclusive of all sectors of the industry.
The Hon. Rodriquez announced that the has invited eight Media Associations representing Canadian Journalism to submit the name of a candidate in order to participate in the business of the independent panel of experts.
The National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, is one of them, alone together with News Media Canada, the Association de la presse francophone, the Quebec Community Newspaper Association, the Canadian Association of Journalists , the Federation professionnelle des journalists du Quebec, Unifor and the Federation nationale des communications.
The mandate of the independent panel will come into effect with the appointment of the members, scheduled for mid-June and will continue until the panel provides its recommendations later in July.
The National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada is also one of the seven independent non-governmental (NGO), which will administer part of the funds of $ 50 million over five years, known as “Local Journalism Initiative”, to support professional local journalism, an investment announced by the Federal Government in support of professional local journalism.
This plan is the offer the opportunity to Canadians living in underserved communities to have access to media coverage on topics of public interest which affect them.
According to this plan member Media outlets of our organization, in order to receive this fund from the Local Journalism Initiative, must hire journalists recently graduated from a school of journalism in Canada to strengthen national and local coverage of civic and cultural matters in underserved communities.
The Board of Directors, on behalf of the member publications of the NEPMCC, is thanking the Hon. Rodriquez, Minister for Canadian Heritage and the government of Canada, for the recognition of the importance of the Ethnic Press of Canada and the inclusion for our members in the program.