Kirkland Lake is hoping the province will update the Legislation Act, 2006, to update the definition of “newspaper” for the 21st century.
During the Dec. 19 council meeting, Mayor Stacy Wight brought a successful motion to the table that asks the province to amend the current legislation to include digital formats as acceptable means of publication and notice requirements for provincial acts and regulations.
“As media changes and new streams are used, legislation should really keep up and include these new technologies and methods of sharing municipal information to the public,” Wight said.
“This came out of a different municipality who has unfortunately lost their local newspapers. Thankfully, we still have our print media, but we are moving into a digital age and legislation should keep up with new technologies as they come forward.”
The Legislation Act currently defines “newspaper” as something “(a) printed in sheet form, published at regular intervals of a week or less and circulated to the general public, and (b) consists of news of current events of general interest.” This definition limits where municipalities can post notices, advertisements and announcements.
With many news media going entirely digital and with some communities having no print news media at all, municipalities want the act updated to account for digital news media.
“The landscape of print media has changed with the evolution of digital news.”
Wight said some small, rural Ontario municipalities like Kirkland Lake won’t have the means to bring an application to court to ask for directions and approval on an alternate manner of providing notice if local print publications transition to digital format only.
Coun. Rick Owen, a former journalist, said it’s sad to see what’s happened in relation to print editions of newspapers.
“That's my old business. When I moved here just over 40 years ago, we had a daily newspaper. Albeit, the second smallest in Canada, but we had a daily newspaper. And then it went to three times a week and when I started, there were more than 40 people working in that building. Now it's down to once a week with one employee in town, and very little local news content,” he said.
“It's sad to see and based on that, I don't think it's unreasonable to foresee the day in the not too distant future when we no longer have the paper edition coming out. They can put out an online edition much cheaper and let's face it, newspapers are businesses, they're there to make money, so I think it's important that the legislation keeps up with the current situation.”
A copy of Wight’s motion is going to be sent to Timiskaming-Cochrane MPP John Vanthof, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) and all municipalities within the District of Timiskaming.
