TORONTO—Unifor supports the Ontario government’s announcement today that it will direct key provincial agencies to ensure at least 25% of their ad spends will go to Ontario publishers, a move that encourages saving local news.

“We all know that community, regional and national news publishers have been facing and struggling with declining ad sales,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne.

“This initiative will help giving Ontario publishers support to keep afloat. Unifor calls on the federal government, as well as other provinces, to follow Ontario’s lead on and commit to supporting Canadian news.”

Unifor has always maintained that Canada’s media sector requires a variety of sources of funding, and this is one important piece of that puzzle. The federal government has taken steps to provide relief and it’s encouraging to see Ontario step up to the plate, by putting tax dollars to work.

The Ontario Finance, Transportation and Tourism, Culture and Gaming ministries have directed the largest to four government agencies – the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), the Ontario Cannabis Store, Metrolinx and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) – to allocate a minimum of 25% of their annual advertising spend, which tends to be well over $100 million on marketing each year.

The ad buys must be directed to Ontario-based publishers, designated as Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations by the Canada Revenue Agency.

This means the province expects this new initiative to flow over $25 million to Ontario-based publishers, which will help protect jobs and promote local content and culture.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Unifor Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi.  “It’s great to see the government supporting Canadian journalism and prioritizing local news and media workers in Ontario.”

The plan comes into effect by Sept. 3, 2024. The Ontario government said it will review this initiative on a quarterly basis.

Unifor represents more than 10,000 media workers, including 5,000 members in the broadcast and film industries

TORONTO – Unifor is deeply concerned and outraged that Bell Media has once again announced restructuring plans, this time, giving notice to close to 50 Unifor media workers.

“This is a corporation that has made billions of profits at the end of last year and they continue to carry on with their profit-over-people principle,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne.

“This is yet another blow to journalism and democracy and a step towards bigger swaths of news deserts across Canada.”

Unifor was informed that 49 unionized positions may be impacted in Locals 79-M and 723-M, driven by what the company calls, the “Willow” plan to relocate its downtown Toronto news stations CP24, BNN and NewsTalk 1010, to Agincourt, Ont.

The company plans on consolidating these stations with its existing CTV Toronto, CTV News Channel and CTV National News.

The Bell Media cuts specifically impact production workers, including ENG editors and supervisors, media services coordinators, media services technicians, graphics artists, post sound, AV technicians, and engineering technicians, among others.

In June, 2023 Bell cut 1,300 media jobs and in February of this year terminated 4,800 workers, including 100 in media as noon news broadcasts on all CTV stations, except Toronto, and weekend newscasts on all CTV and CTV2 stations, except in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa were cancelled.

Earlier this year Unifor launched its ‘Shame on Bell’ campaign to call out the BCE Board for decimating Bell’s media division while continuing to hike shareholder payouts.

The Bell cuts are the second major hit to local news this month.

On June 12, 35 Unifor members at Global News were laid off as part of restructuring by Corus Entertainment Inc. There were 13 layoffs in Calgary, seven in Toronto, eight in Edmonton, three in Lethbridge, three in Ottawa, and one in B.C.

The 35 Global TV cuts were on top of 11 Unifor members at the company who were already laid off in 2024.

Unifor represents more than 10,000 media workers, including 5,000 members in the broadcast and film industries.