Is Bill 194 a Worry?

The Miscellaneous Municipalities Status Amendment Act, 2019, otherwise known as Bill 194 is a bill that is one of the many currently in front of the Saskatchewan legislative assembly.
What is Bill 194 and why does there seem to be a bit of concern and talk among newspapers across Saskatchewan?
Essentially, Bill 194 aims to amend The Cities Act, The Municipalities Act, The Northern Municipalities Act and make consequential amendments to other acts, as Bill 194 states, but what is in it that might alarm newspapers?
(2) Subsection 2 (2) is repealed and the following substituted:
(2) If this Act requires notice of a matter to be published in a newspaper, ‘newspaper’ means:
A publication or local periodical that is distributed as least weekly in a city or area that is affected by the matter, but does not include a publication primarily for advertising or an advertising supplement to or contained in a newspaper; or
If a council is of the opinion that the requirements to publish in a newspaper are not feasible or practicable, the council may decide on other means of publishing or otherwise providing notice, including publishing the notice on a website or by other electronic means as long as the notice is given within the same time period and with the same frequency required by this Act and the means are set out in the public notice policy adopted by council bylaw.
There seems to be a concern with the language used and that it may allow councils not to use local newspapers, the words “of the opinion” and “are not feasible or practicable”.
“Of the opinion” is a very broad term and is very open to interpretation, especially when municipalities may all have different opinions or understandings of what is feasible and practicable.
Newspapers rely on several things like readers, well-informed articles and advertising. Municipalities make up a lot of what keeps a newspaper financially afloat and the notices are a way residents stay informed regarding updates to important local legislation.
If a newspaper does not have municipalities running advertisements or public notices, it could make it hard to keep the doors open. If these notices are not published the public, the readers of the newspaper, they lose some of the ability to be informed and stay aware of what is happening in their area.
Thankfully, after some email conversations with a few of the local municipality offices, Bill 194 will not affect your local newspaper.
Like a lot of readers, municipalities subscribe to the Four-Town+ Journal for several reasons. Advertising notices shows tremendous support for local newspapers and continuing this practice will continue to support the paper and the community.
It is great to have this sort of support from local municipalities, and readers as well, and the newspaper is very appreciative of it.
Where Bill 194 and the subsection about “newspapers” will possibly change, is in areas where there is no local news coverage, something that unfortunately is happening more and more.
This bill will allow those municipalities in “news deserts” to still properly follow the various legislation that governs the day-to-day operations of these offices.
By Gary Horseman
(Local Journalism Initiative Reporter)
garyfourtownjournal@gmail.com
Four-Town+ Journal