Medical marijuana users set lobbying push on federal cannabis tax proposal
Torstar Corp. is more than doubling the pool of reporters at its western Canadian Metro free daily newspapers, an unusual move in a shrinking industry that puts it in direct digital competition with one of its biggest rivals.
The initiative represents a major investment in journalism outside of the company’s Toronto headquarters, where it publishes the daily Toronto Star, Torstar CEO John Boynton said Monday.
Twenty reporters are being added to the current 15 at the Metros in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton and an undisclosed number of people are being added in Toronto to act as a support team, Boynton added.
“It’s an exciting day for news in Canada,” he said in an interview.
“Everybody seems to be going one way, which is a slow, eventual, continual decline in costs and a degradation of the product, and a retraction. I think we’re going completely the opposite direction, which is we’re going to invest in what we do best.”
He said the moves are designed to win new readers as well as lure audience from existing publications. He wouldn’t give financial details and said no deadline has been set to determine if the initiative is successful or not.
Torstar’s focus on western cities in which Postmedia Network Canada Corporation owns both major daily newspapers suggests it sees a competitive opportunity there, said April Lindgren, an associate professor at the Ryerson School of Journalism.
“I suspect this is a recognition of the deep cuts that have happened at the Postmedia papers in those communities,” she said.
She added “round after round of layoffs” at those newspapers have affected their ability to produce quality local and investigative news.
At the same time Torstar is ramping up competition in Western Canada, the Competition Bureau is alleging anti-competitive behaviour by the two companies in its investigation of a non-cash newspaper swap late last year between the two that resulted in 41 titles changing hands and 36 being closed, mainly in Ontario regions served by multiple publications, at a cost of nearly 300 jobs.
As part of the deal, Postmedia bought Torstar’s Metro Winnipeg and Metro Ottawa dailies and closed them, while Torstar did the same with Postmedia’s 24Hours Toronto and 24Hours Vancouver.
No charges have been laid and the Competition Bureau’s allegations have not been proven in court.
Boynton wouldn’t comment on the Competition Bureau investigation. He said the initiative announced Monday has been in the works for some months and, although its five remaining Metro newspapers are being rebranded StarMetro, the focus is really on the digital product.
“This is not a newspaper launch. This is a ‘news’ launch in those markets,” said Boynton. “And it’s a digital-first launch.”
He said the newspapers will be used to direct readers to cityspecific versions of thestar.com that will feature regional news along with national and international news and columns. Consumers outside the target markets will see a national edition of thestar.com.
Boynton said Metro Halifax will be included in the transformation but the company doesn’t yet have details on specific changes there. It also publishes a Toronto Metro daily.
He said “contrary to conventional wisdom,” there is an appetite in Western Canada and the Maritimes for a “progressive voice” in media, adding the StarMetros will endeavour to match the Star’s focus on social issues and in-depth investigations.
The company has no immediate plans to bring in a paywall for its enhanced digital news products, said Torstar spokesman Bob Hepburn.
The investment is an unusual move in the Canadian newspaper industry, which has been losing titles and workers for years.
Ryerson’s Lindgren said a database she helps moderate shows that 244 local news sources of all types in 181 communities – including 213 newspapers in 168 communities – have closed since 2008 in Canada.
Medical marijuana patients are bracing for an uphill battle in their bid to convince the federal government to exempt medicinal cannabis from excise taxes.
Their lobbying effort will begin once MPs start debating the government’s budget implementation bill, which in its current form would apply the taxes to all but a small group of cannabis-based drugs.
Patients and doctors groups fear that, as a result, those cannabis medications not exempted from the tax will be too expensive for patients who already struggle to make ends meet.
They say they are planning to lobby federal officials to change the bill before it becomes law.
Gerald Major, president of the Canadian Spondylitis Association, says he and other patient advocates plan to push federal officials for a change, even though the Liberal government has so far refused to budge.
“What we can do, and what we will continue to do, is to continue to be at the table, continue to act reasonably and responsibly and try to look for solutions,” Major said.
The government says exempting medicinal cannabis could lead to abuse of the existing medical marijuana system.
The government wants to tax legal marijuana at either $1 per gram or one-tenth of a product’s price, whichever is greater.
The February budget outlined
■ plans to waive that new tax for some cannabis-based pharmaceutical products, including oils that contain low amounts of THC, the primary psychoactive element in marijuana.
Jonathan Zaid, founder of Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana, said his advocacy group met ministers, department officials and various MPs to explain the merits of exempting all cannabis-based pharmaceuticals from the excise tax.
Zaid said he believed the message had been heard.
What was in the budget came as something of a surprise to Zaid and his colleagues.
“There is still time before it’s implemented to work within the proposal to make it the best possible for patients,” he said.
The Liberals heard concerns about the proposal to apply an excise tax to medical cannabis products through two separate consultations held last year - one by the Finance Department, the other by Health Canada. A summary report of the Health Canada consultations noted most respondents opposed applying excise taxes to medical cannabis products.
Major said the taxation proposal could also create two classes of medical marijuana patients: those who can cover the extra costs, and those who will have to decide between their medicine and rent or hydro.
“You’re really limiting patients to what they can afford, not what their condition requires,” said Major, whose condition forced him to give up his career as a hedge fund manager six years ago.