FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MPP Ghamari introduces her first Private Members Bill at Queen’s Park
The Supporting Ontario’s Community, Rural, and Agricultural Newspapers Act, 2019 focuses on strengthening and supporting local community, rural and agricultural newspapers across Ontario
March 6, 2019
QUEEN’S PARK – Today, Carleton’s MPP Goldie Ghamari tabled legislation aimed at supporting local community, rural, and agricultural newspapers across Ontario. Municipalities are required to post notice to the public for relevant community works, events, consultations, and more. These notices are often required under various statutes to be tendered to the public via postings in local newspapers.
The current definition of newspaper in the Legislation Act, 2006 reads as follows:
“newspaper”, in a provision requiring publication, means a document that,
(a) is printed in sheet form, published at regular intervals of a week or less and circulated to the general public, and
(b) consists primarily of news of current events of general interest; (“journal”)
This definition of a newspaper contained within the Legislation Act, 2006 is the standard used by municipalities for the purpose of providing public notice in the following acts:
- City of Toronto Act, 2006;
- Development Charges Act, 1997;
- Environmental Assessment Act, 1990;
- Expropriations Act, 1990;
- Municipal Act, 2001;
- Ontario Heritage Act, 1990;
- Planning Act, 1990.
“Increasingly, community newspapers, particularly those in northern and rural Ontario, are published on a bi-weekly or monthly basis due to policies made by the previous government that lead to cost-cutting efforts by these small, independently owned businesses. When local or community papers limit their publications to a bi-weekly or monthly basis, municipalities are no longer able to post municipal notices in these publications because they do not fit the standard definition of “newspaper”,” MPP Ghamari stated.
“Not only are these community newspapers, like Carleton’s Manotick Messenger and Ottawa Community Voice, losing out on a potential source of revenue that would help support local businesses, but this also makes it difficult for municipalities to inform local populations of relevant and oftentimes important municipal news. To fix this problem, the Supporting Ontario’s Community, Rural, and Agricultural Newspapers Act, 2019 adds the following definition of newspaper to the acts listed above (excluding the Legislation Act):
“newspaper”, in a provision requiring publication, means a document that,
(a) is printed in sheet form, published at regular intervals of a month or less and circulated to the general public, and
(b) consists primarily of news of current events of general interest; (“journal”)”
By amending the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Development Charges Act, 1997, the Environmental Assessment Act, 1990, the Expropriations Act, 1990, the Municipal Act, 2001, the Ontario Heritage Act, 1990, and the Planning Act, 1990, to include this updated definition, MPP Ghamari is working to ensure we are strengthening the fabric of Ontario’s rural and northern communities while at the same time supporting local businesses.
“To clarify,” MPP Ghamari said, “this change does not mandate that municipalities must now provide notice in all of these papers. All it does is broaden the scope of potential newspapers, giving more choice to municipalities and giving community, rural and agricultural papers a potential new source of advertisement revenue. Municipalities will still have the option of deciding which newspaper they wish to provide notice in.”
Background Materials:
Supporting Ontario’s Community, Rural, and Agricultural Newspapers Act, 2019
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For more information please contact:
Rory Taylor, Legislative Assistant
Office of Goldie Ghamari, MPP
647-354-4956
rory.taylor@pc.ola.org