It beggars belief.
In the past two weeks, with little fanfare and virtually no reporting, news outlets large and small started receiving millions in cash payments from something called the Canadian Journalism Collective.
Who, you might well ask, is this generous, new patron of the country’s ink-stained wretches?
Why are they suddenly showering journalists in lucre amid an election campaign?
And why is none of this being reported on by the media itself?
These are important questions that every Canadian should be asking.
The CJC—or the Collective as it sometimes calls itself—is a non-profit organization selected by Google to parcel out $100 million in annual payments the so-called “Tech Titan” is required to make to news outlets in order to comply with the Trudeau government’s Online News Act.
It’s rather remarkable if you think about it. The cheques are being distributed just as the incumbent government kicks off an election campaign in search of its fourth term.
The news media will, of course, insist that this new infusion of state-mandated subsidies won’t affect its impartiality during the campaign, even though the Conservatives opposed the legislation and have signaled that they will repeal it if elected.
Yet the industry’s lack of transparency about the incoming payments is a tell. It’s a signal that recipient organizations—including major outlets like the National Post, The Globe and Mail, and various others—know it’s a problem.
It has always been this way with the Canadian press when it comes to the hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies that the Trudeau government has showered on the industry over the last half-decade. The media know that mass subsidies for their news journalism aren’t good.
They know that it rightly compounds already high levels of distrust on the part of Canadians. They know that it runs counter to their self-professed belief in the independence of the press. And they know it’s all a bit grubby, and has, after half a decade, turned many of their legacy brethren into de facto wards of the state.
This is why every news outlet that’s received a payment from the Collective should immediately declare so to their readers. The Collective has committed to releasing a list of outlets and their funding within 30 days of the cash dispersals. The problem, of course, is that based on that timeline, the full details won’t be public until the election campaign is over.
Recipient outlets should proactively disclose now. In particular, they should publish the total amount of funds received and explain what steps are being taken to ensure the payments don’t affect their editorial independence.
Sunlight, as the media often likes to quote in support of their efforts to bring accountability to the actions of others, remains the ultimate disinfectant. We agree.
This is why The Hub is declaring that it received a payment of $22,248.58 from the Collective on March 24. That is the first of three payments in 2025. The Hub will be donating an amount equal to the initial payment and all future funds granted from the Collective to Canadian charities.
The Hub has selected March of Dimes Canada to support its work of “empowering people with disabilities to live and thrive in communities nationwide.”
Why March of Dimes Canada? There are, after all, a lot of great registered charities across the country.
We’ve selected this organization because the March of Dimes Canada is a vital voice in the fight for dignity for the disabled. It’s needed now more than ever because the last federal budget grossly shortchanged persons with disabilities.
The government’s new Canada Disability Benefit was set at a maximum of just $2,400 annually. That works out to $200 per month or $6 per day for disabled Canadians. Combined with provincial benefits, it will not lift many, if any, recipients out of poverty, who number over 1.5 million nationally and live in poverty at rates twice the national average.
This is The Hub’s decision. We don’t expect other news outlets to follow our lead and donate their latest government-orchestrated subsidy to a worthy cause. But we do hope our example causes them to reflect on the opportunity costs associated with Ottawa’s outsized spending on the news media.
Last year alone, federal subsidies for the private and non-profit media totaled more than $325 million between the Canada Periodical Fund ($86.5 million), Canada Media Fund ($154.1 million), Local Journalism Initiative ($19.6 million), and Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit ($65 million). Now we can add Google’s legislatively mandated $100 million annual contribution, adjusted to inflation.
Decisions have consequences in the “hierarchy of needs” that is every federal budget. In a world in which the government is directing hundreds of millions of scarce public dollars annually to subsidize the news media, others, like persons with disabilities, will shoulder some of the cost. To be blunt, bailing out the legacy news media necessarily means that there are fewer resources left over for those who genuinely need them.
The Hub wants nothing to do with this entire sordid mess that is the current media subsidy regime. We hope our readers feel the same way.
If so, they should write to the other media outlets they are turning to this election for their news and information. Ask them if they are taking the Collective’s money and other government handouts. Demand they disclose these funds immediately, given we are in an election where the two major parties have sharply different views about the future of journalism subsidies, including the Online News Act. Assert your right to know what steps they have taken (pro tip: don’t get your hopes up) to ensure the millions in subsidies that they’re receiving, including these latest payments, aren’t compromising editorial independence.
Or simply subscribe to The Hub. We don’t take the government subsidies, and again we promise to donate funds equal to what we receive from the Collective to charities like March of Dimes Canada, who genuinely need and deserve public support.
This is our promise to you. Thank you for supporting The Hub and allowing us to thrive as one of the country’s few remaining subsidy-free and fully independent news outlets serving Canadians during this election.
