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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 217

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 20, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 217 - Jun/20/23
Mr. Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)
  • Jun/20/23 3:14:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the other day I got an email from the owner of Grizzly Jim's General Store in Topley, B.C. Like hundreds of thousands of other small business owners across this country, he accessed the Canada Emergency Business Account to keep his doors open during some of the most difficult times this country has seen. Revenues have still not fully recovered, and now small businesses are facing the added pressures of inflation and a tight labour market. There is a simple way the minister could help businesses such as Grizzly Jim's, and that is to extend the repayment period for the CEBA business loans by an additional year. Will the minister do this?
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Context: House Hansard - 217 - Jun/20/23
Mr. Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)
  • Jun/20/23 4:26:42 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-18 
Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned that, in her view, the government should not interfere with this free market that rules our media world, yet the message I am hearing from community media, like the local newspaper in my community, is that it wants this. It is struggling in the face of these big tech giants that are not going to tell the local stories in Smithers, Burns Lake, Fraser Lake and Prince Rupert. They are just not going to do that. Community media wants to find a viable way to ensure it has the business case to deliver those stories to the people who need to hear them. People came to me, met with me and said they want precisely what is delivered by this bill. What would my colleague say to them if they came to her with that message?
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Context: House Hansard - 217 - Jun/20/23
Ms. Michelle Ferreri
  • Jun/20/23 4:27:34 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-18 
Madam Speaker, that is a great question. On the surface, I would sit down with them and tell them to read the bill. It is not going to give them what they think it will. They need help. Every small media company is literally drowning. If the government walks in and says it will give them money, they will say yes because they do not know how else they are going to keep their head afloat otherwise. The reality is they have to get innovative. I am going to tell a quick story. I worked in a newsroom and we launched a live talk show. I went to the news director at the time and said we needed to ensure we were cutting these stories for the Internet, so we were putting them into two-minute-and-30-second pieces to post online. The boss looked at me and said, “Michelle, we are in the business of TV, not the Internet. We are not doing that.” That is the limitation that boss had. He has been fired and he did not make it. They have to be innovative, but they have to be given the environment to—
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