Ottawa — The federal government will cut the Canadian Magazine Fund in half, chopping it by $14.6-million this fiscal year and a further $2-million next year.
The industry subsidy — introduced by the Liberal government in 1999 as compensation for allowing U.S. magazines greater access to the Canadian market — will fall to $16-million, down from $32.6-million last year.
Overall support for Canadian publishers will fall to $61.4-million in 2005-06, down more than 21 per cent from the $78.1-million the Heritage Department spent in 2002-03.
"These new directions will enable us to address current realities and needs," Heritage Minister Sheila Copps said Tuesday in a release.
The Canadian Magazine Publishers Association immediately cried foul.
"The program funding announced [Tuesday], along with the $15-million already cut in February's budget, amount to a stunning 40 per cent decrease in federal cultural investment in Canada's magazine sector," said Mark Jamison, president of the association.
"These cuts to magazine programs are disproportionate and all the more troubling given the tremendous results that have been achieved with relatively modest levels of support."
The releases from Heritage said Canada's magazine and periodical industry is "now on a solid footing and enjoying healthy growth," meaning the fat federal subsidies offered since 1999 are no longer as critical to the industry's survival.
But the cuts may have more to do with departmental spending reductions mandated by Finance Minister John Manley this spring than with any dramatic change in the economic conditions of Canada's publishing industry.
Ottawa will reallocate some of the funding to subsidize community newspapers, particularly those catering to ethnic and aboriginal communities and French or English publications in regions where the language is in the minority.
"By directing our support to where the need is greatest, we are laying the groundwork for the growth of hundreds of smaller publications that all contribute to creating bonds between cultural communities and the rest of Canada," Ms. Copps said.
More than $4-million is expected to go to minority publications, the release said.
The Canadian Magazine Fund and the Publications Assistance Program help support more than 1,600 Canadian periodicals and the distribution of more than 215 million copies of magazines, community newspapers and other publications.
