OTTAWA — Canadian taxpayers have every right to be furious.
Current and former editors told Parliament yesterday that seven straight years of federal subsidies have done exactly what critics warned: permanently compromised the independence of the very outlets supposed to hold government to account.
The 2019 bailout was sold to the public as a short-term bridge to help newsrooms survive tough economic times. It was never supposed to become a permanent pipeline of public money. Yet here we are in 2026, and the program has not only continued — it has quietly expanded.
One hundred and forty-one news corporations now receive secret federal payments. Unlike virtually every other Ottawa spending program, this one refuses to tell taxpayers exactly how much each outlet gets or why. The government alone decides who qualifies as a “journalist” worthy of the cash.
Media outlets that take the money enjoy better access to ministers and officials. Those that refuse it are frozen out.
The result, the editors testified, is exactly what you would expect: newsrooms that depend on Ottawa’s goodwill are far less likely to bite the hand that feeds them. As one witness put it bluntly to MPs: “Sooner or later, news media will run out of other people’s money.”
That day has clearly arrived.
Alberta taxpayers, who already feel Ottawa treats the West like an afterthought, are now watching their own dollars help underwrite a national media landscape that rarely asks the hard questions about federal spending, energy policy, or equalization. When every major outlet has its hand in the same public trough, the incentive to dig, challenge, or even report inconvenient facts simply evaporates.
This isn’t about left or right. It’s about basic accountability. When the government becomes the largest single advertiser and benefactor for the press, citizens stop watching the news and start watching the government’s investment.
Taxpayers didn’t sign up to bankroll their own echo chamber. It’s long past time this “temporary” program was shut down and real transparency imposed on every dollar. Canadian journalism’s credibility — and the public’s trust — depends on it.
