It’s past time to put to bed some silly rumours regarding the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI).
This is a national program that uses federal money to fund journalism positions across the country – hundreds of them.
The idea, which came to fruition just prior to the pandemic, is to provide on-site reporters at news outlets where there is a shortage of reporters for investigative journalism. In many cases, the investigative efforts that came out of the LJI system resulted in stories that showcased government wrongdoing or terrible habits.
However, some people seem to think that every news outlet to benefit from using the LJI funding to hire a reporter is now a puppet to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
We can only speak to the situation at The Chatham Voice, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The funding came with no strings, other than to produce investigative content. Nowhere did any contract state we were beholden to the federal Liberal government.
Yet, people such as Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre love to play with such statements.
In a recent stop in the Niagara Region, he said he doesn’t believe news media outlets in Canada in areas with a shortage of investigative journalists deserve financial help to continue providing accurate and important information; information that can be vitally pertinent to the readers of these various publications.
Here at The Chatham Voice, we are a hyper-local newspaper. What is happening in Chatham-Kent is of paramount interest to us, and our readers. We don’t cover national news outside of local events that have or are a result of national implications.
We are not a sounding board for Trudeau. The proof lies in our news coverage.
What the LJI did for us – initially – was to allow us to remain operational due to the pandemic and provide important information of COVID-19 developments and other issues such as the plight of Erie Shore Drive residents to our readers.
As normalcy returned, we covered and questioned municipal spending, renovictions, health-care challenges, and reported on our growing opioid and homelessness problems.
And we will continue to report on important local issues.
You can’t make informed decisions without information, and our job is to provide our readers with that information. The LJI has and continues to help us provide that knowledge, without any overarching bias.
