PAP topped up as part of federal budget

It appears that lobbying by the magazine industry has resulted in $15 million being injected into the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), replacing the contribution that was being withdrawn this spring by Canada Post. The funding is part of a substantial $335 million in new funding flowing to Heritage as part of the "stimulus" budget.Representatives from the industry have been vigorously arguing that, if Canada Post must remove the $15 million, Heritage should replace it. That's apparently what's happened.

The proposal by Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore has been to roll the PAP and the Canada Magazine Fund into a single, $75 million, envelope -- the new Canada Periodicals Fund (CPF).

That new fund has been approved as policy, and the commitment for the funding is for two years while the details of the new program are worked out. That means, for magazine clients of PAP and the CMF, it will be business as usual until April 2010 when the new program begins.

"We're very appreciative of the support we're getting. Clearly this minister is being listened to where it counts," said Magazines Canada president Mark Jamison.

Now, the magazine industry will want to make its voice heard in the development of the new program so that the $75 million is retained (that is, so the whole is not less than the sum of the parts) and, it would be hoped, enlarged.