Future of the media: "wear your panties and act!"

Mayors from different regions of Quebec came to the parliamentary commission on the future of the media in Quebec, where they expressed their concerns, but also the importance of local information for their municipality.

"We must move forward with changes, new models, we need a complete restructuring," said Sherbrooke Mayor Steve Lussier, who added to have learned a lot during the consultations.

Asked that all the municipalities had withdrawn their public notices from local newspapers and that they did not intend to return, the Mayor of Sherbrooke explained that he was assessing the situation for his city.

"We had discussions with the Executive Committee of the City of Sherbrooke, I know that it is also spoken in several regions. We are also reviewing our business model. Are we going to sit down with the owners of our local newspapers to see what we could do together to make it easy, so that everyone can read the public notices? Less than 10% of people, but I exaggerate I think it's less than that, really know the public opinion and how it reads and especially, what's the point, "says Steve Lussier.

The mayor of Trois-Rivières, Jean Lamarche also expressed concern about the area of ​​regional information dissemination.

"On our side what we want to point out is the need to preserve the regional media space, a space for information dissemination, but also a space for dialogue, and this is what we get from the dailies, but all regional media, "he says.

"We need to go beyond the mere advertising placement," he adds.

"Wear your panties"

The Mayor of Saguenay, Josée Néron, also stressed the importance of having journalists who live and live in the region where they work.

"It's essential to ensure diversified information. The more players you take away, the more you affect the quality, the diversity of information to our people, "insists M^me Nero.

She said she believes in a form of taxation imposed on the giants of the web, the GAFA, topic that was discussed at the G7 summit over the weekend.

"It is not only in the print media that there is an impact, it is also in our entire tax system in our city, our province. These are revenues that are lost as a society. This year we must take a stand, "says the mayor.

"Wear your panties and act," she adds, speaking directly to federal politicians, currently in precamp election, concluding that public notices were still published in newspapers in Saguenay.