The fight is not over yet
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Newspapers remain targeted by government
By Ken Waddell
President, MCNA
On Dec. 4, 2017, Cathy Cox, the provincial minister of sport, heritage and recreation, tabled Bill 8, The Government Notices Modernization Act, for first reading in the Manitoba legislature. It was recently given second reading in the Legislature and could soon be enacted as law.
The first part of the bill proposes that The Manitoba Gazette, the government’s official online portal for legal notices, be made available to the public free of charge. It then recommends amendments to 24 statutes relating to the government’s publication of official notices, removing requirements that such notices to be published in local newspapers and replacing them with the requirement or option of publishing them in The Manitoba Gazette.
This does not sit well with the Manitoba Community Newspapers Association (MCNA), nor should it sit well with all Manitobans.
The Manitoba Gazette is a little-known, online-only house organ which catalogues items of government business that must be legally published, such as notices to creditors or notices of legal name changes. It is used largely by people in government or legal circles and it is genuinely difficult to find online, even when using the search window on the government’s own website.
Making something accessible does not necessarily mean people will use it, and making The Gazette free to the public does not mean the public will visit the website.
The very point of a legal requirement to publish government notices is to ensure that the information is broadly distributed. The 49 member papers of the MCNA deliver hundreds of thousands of newspapers to Manitobans throughout the province each week. Our readers see the government’s public notices and thus learn of public hearings on issues such as flood prevention or the use of fertilizers and pesticides on nearby lands.
Bill 8 effectively buries such notices in an Internet backwater.
Yes, the MCNA is aware that the government has stated that the sections of Bill 8 which deal with mandatory publishing of public notices in newspapers will not be proclaimed at this time.
However, the government has not moved to strike the relevant language from the act. So, when Bill 8 is enacted, these sections will hang over the province’s newspapers like a dark cloud, especially since this government has repeatedly stated its mistrust of the media.
We in the media believe that expecting Manitobans to know when and where to seek out important information that will affect their daily lives — without notifying them that such information exists — is simply wrong. Such action simply makes government less open and less transparent.
We believe that open and transparent government is essential to maintaining democracy.
Please phone, email, write or visit your MLA and demand this government provide you with proper notice of important issues affecting you and your families.
