Sherbrooke, QC, May 19, 2020 – Several people heavily involved in the English-speaking community of the Eastern Townships met on Tuesday by videoconference to take part in the announcement of funding totalling nearly $ 89,000 from Canadian Heritage by the Member of Parliament for Compton-Stanstead Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The funds announced are intended to promote local journalism and the resilience of the English-speaking community in the region.

The Townshippers’ Association and The Townships Sun will receive $ 81,165 and $ 7,664, respectively, to carry out their activities. For the Townshippers’, in addition to hiring a person by creating a job, the funds from the Community Cultural Action Fund will be used to develop programs so that organizations have the necessary tools to meet the specific needs of linguistic minority communities. As for the Townships Sun, the assistance from the Canada Periodical Fund will be used to support its publishing and journalism operations.

“The Townshippers’ Association is delighted with this new project and the opportunity offered by Canadian Heritage to work with partners in the region to create targeted resources that can contribute to the capacity of our region to increase the vitality of our minority language communities,” said Rachel Hunting, Executive Director of the Townshippers’ Association.

Through this funding, Ottawa reiterates its commitment to ensuring the vitality of the two official languages in Canada, both in urban and rural areas. Official Language Minority Communities “are an integral part of Canadian identity,” said the Minister responsible for Official Languages, Mélanie Joly.

“The contribution of the English-speaking community to the socio-economic fabric of the Eastern Townships is well known. Whether they are toponymical, historical or philanthropic legacies, the community and linguistic duality constitutes a real treasure for our region that we make it our duty to encourage and support in government,” added her colleague Marie-Claude Bibeau.

Please note that the Aid to Publishers component of the Canada Periodical Fund provides recurring funding to support quality journalism, whose role is crucial “particularly in times of crisis,” insisted Canadian Heritage Minister, Steven Guilbeault, responsible for helping the media in Canada. Due to the current situation with COVID-19, the deadline for submitting a request for funding to the Community Cultural Action Fund – Development of Official Language Communities, from which the Townshippers’ Association received its grant, has been extended to May 25, 2020. Organizations are invited to apply.

Quick Facts
– As part of the government’s response to deal with COVID-19, the federal government recently announced emergency assistance totaling $ 500 million for the culture, arts and sports sectors:
o In this context, additional funding is being deployed to help Canadians become more resilient and to be critical of the COVID 19 pandemic misinformation;
o The exemption from license fees imposed on broadcasters by the CRTC will provide the broadcasting industry with immediate financial relief of more than $ 30 million;
o And includes expedited processing of annual funding requests from the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Periodical Fund.
– The media plays an indispensable role in the community. The penetration rate of local newspapers is higher than that of the national media. This is even more true for the minority language community media.
– Since the beginning of the pandemic, federal assistance has been directed first to the most vulnerable. Funding from Canadian Heritage follows this line. Indeed, speakers of official languages in a minority situation (OLMC) are more likely to live on social isolation due to the slowdown in the activities of their main community and educational institutions.