ALBERTA TOUTS BORDER PILOT
Kenney isolates as province hits new-case record
EDMONTON • On the same day the Alberta government announced a pilot project for testing international travellers for the novel coronavirus, the province’s top doctor announced further restrictions on non-urgent surgeries in the Edmonton region as record-breaking COVID-19 numbers put added pressures on the healthcare system.
Earlier on Thursday, a joint announcement between the Alberta and federal governments laid out a plan for travellers at the Calgary airport and a southern Alberta border crossing that would see people tested at the border and, should they test negative, not have to submit to a 14-day quarantine — provided they test negative again in six or seven days.
“This new pilot program will allow those who need to travel for work to have a safe path to a shorter quarantine period,” said Premier Jason Kenney in a statement.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has reached into the highest levels of the provincial government, with Kenney in self-isolation — though he has tested negative — following contact with Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard, who tested positive for COVID-19. One other minister and three United Conservative Party MLAS are also self- isolating because they came into contact with positive cases.
On Thursday, the province reported 4 2 7 n ew cases — a record since the pandemic began. There are now 3,519 active cases in the province.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said Thanksgiving can be blamed for the spike the province is seeing.
Between 2014 and 2019, newspaper revenues declined by 43 per cent, while Google's increased by 113 per cent and Facebook's by 387 per cent.
In the decade between 2008 and 2018, 250 Canadian papers shut down, and this trend has only accelerated due to COVID-19, which has led to many layoffs and the closure of an additional 50 papers. Only around 75 dailies still exist in this country, along with several hundred weeklies, monthlies and magazines.
The report's allegations about anti-competitive practices — which echo some of the U. S. Justice Department's allegations against Google — should be investigated by the Competition Bureau. But Ottawa must also immediately adopt some or all of the provisions contained in the Australian code.
For starters, Australia and France are legislatively expanding the intellectual property rights that publishers have over their content, to protect copyrights and establish a value for content that is republished by companies like Facebook and Google.
“Platforms would not be able to display publishers' content without first negotiating access to it — that is, payment for a licence to the content,” the News Media Canada report states. “In addition, Australia is levelling the playing field in negotiations by creating a formalized process, with a short time span, for establishing prices for licences and, if necessary, binding arbitration.”
Australia's code would also allow publishers to engage in collective bargaining, so newspapers cannot be divided and conquered, or excluded, by the tech giants. For these and other reasons, the report argues, a federal arbiter is required to prevent digital platforms from taking harmful actions against publishers, such as changing access to content, changing algorithms to bypass content or other moves designed to punish publishers. The Australian code would also impose massive penalties on the gigantic digital companies if they fail to comply.
Due to the asymmetrical nature of the newspaper- tech relationship, News Media Canada wisely recommends the creation of an ongoing federal digital media regulatory agency to oversee digital platforms and the digital economy that could help bring about reforms and police market fairness.
Not surprisingly, Australia's code has met with a great deal of resistance from Google and Facebook. They argue that clicks on ads from news-related searches yield considerably lower revenues than newspapers have estimated and that, if forced to pay excessive amounts for content, they may simply refuse to distribute any content from Australian media outlets.
Such threats may be a bargaining tool, but they underscore the fact that these data giants wield too much power over the marketplace. These companies, the report notes, “flatly refuse to pay for content, traffic or data,” and have refused to negotiate data-sharing or other terms with newspapers.
Ottawa must act quickly to salvage what's left of Canada's embattled media industry and must also join with other developed nations in order to take on anti-competitive practices everywhere. The European Union has already challenged the tech giants with some success, and Washington is now doing its part, as well.
Today's news marks a watershed of sorts. In June, Google extended an olive branch by announcing that it would start paying some publishers for their news content in Germany, Australia and Brazil, “with more to come soon.” This was an attempt to placate some, but nothing has materialized.
This is why Canada must act. Google's enticing “more to come soon” payments doesn't cut it. Fairness cannot come soon enough for the newspapers that serve their communities in a way that multinational monopolies never will.