By: Laura Steiner
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau spent the day in Milton on May 30. Morneau’s day began with breakfast hosted by the Milton Chamber of Commerce where he summarized his government’s financial record.
“Business will be the source of a future prosperity,” Morneau told the crowd. He highlighted his government’s commitment to pursuing trade opportunities, as well as emphasizing his government’s plan to connecting rural Canadians to broadband Internet. Morneau also toured the Innovation Centre, and made a stop a local tech company Enable Education.
Liberals Under Fire for Media Bailout Plan
The 2019 federal budget includes a $595 million package to help with the funding for the ailing news media industry. Recently the federal government announced a plan to establish an 8-group panel to decide how the money is divided up.
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) released a statement calling for transparency. It reads in part: “To ensure the panel has no appearance of partisanship, regardless of whether or not it does, the panel’s “full independence must be the rule.” Morneau responded: “I think that it’s important to have people from the private sector who are helping us to get the right conclusions,” he said. The panel includes members from the CAJ, as well as UNIFOR, a group representing media workers.
The policy has come under fire from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. Scheer called the package an election-year bailout plan. “If Trudeau is so worried about election interference, he can start by kicking Unifor off this panel,” Scheer tweeted in late May.
Here’s the ‘independent’ group Justin Trudeau has appointed to help decide how $600 million of taxpayer dollars will be spent on election-year media bailouts. If Trudeau is so worried about election interference, he can start by kicking Unifor off this panel. https://t.co/cT6q9L7zGN
— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) May 22, 2019
Canadians go to the polls October 21, 2019.
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