Dozens of Unifor members were in Ottawa this week as part of two separate lobby efforts, meeting with Members of Parliament to discuss challenges facing the media industry, and the future of medicare.
“Consumption of news and information in Canada has never been higher,” said Unifor Media Director Howard Law, who led a delegation of 20 journalists and workers.
“Never before has there been such incredible access to media, including news, television and movies, whenever and wherever wanted.”
The challenge however is that the ad-driven model for funding production of the news and ensuring Canadian content in our media is deteriorating in the face of cheap digital ads from tech giants such as Google and Facebook, Law said, making it increasingly difficult to pay for all that content being consumed at record levels.
“Canadians must have access to reliable national and international news and to local news and programming that will inform them about their communities,” Law said.
Also in Ottawa were about 50 Unifor members engaged in a lobby organized by the Canadian Health Coalition to urge parliamentarians to bring in a national pharmacare program.
“Despite universal medicare, we need a national pharmacare program to not only increase access to health care, but to lower overall drug costs,” said Katha Fortier, Assistant to the National President, who took part in the CHC lobby.
Unifor has been a strong advocate for improving medicare, including establishing a pharmacare program.