Magazines Canada has announced the formation of a new organization that will represent the interests of publishers based in Canada’s most populous province. The new Magazines Ontario committee will begin its work on behalf of Ontario magazines this September. 

Over the years, Magazines Canada has lobbied for Ontario magazines on a number of issues, including:

• The Stewardship Ontario program (a blue-box tax levied against magazine publishers)
• Tax credits from the Ontario Media Development Corporation
• “Unfair competition” from the LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine

This lobbying, though, has always taken place under the national Magazines Canada banner. The creation of Magazines Ontario will change that, Mark Jamison, CEO of Magazines Canada, says.

Up to this point, Ontario was the country's only region without its own all-inclusive magazine association/committee, something of an oddity, since over 75% of the industry is based there. Unlike Magazines Ontario, however, the remaining provincial associations—BCAMP in British Columbia, AMPA in Alberta, MMPA in Manitoba (also serving Saskatchewan), AQEM in Quebec and AMA in the Atlantic region—are not under the Magazines Canada banner, though they do work closely with the national association.

Ontario-based Magazines Canada members will not have to pay any additional fees to be a part of Magazines Ontario, Jamison says.

Wallie Seto, president of the Independent Publishers Association of Ontario, thinks Magazines Ontario is a great idea. “Magazine publishing is a very tough business and it's important for magazine professionals to have as many opportunities to meet and network with peers as possible,” Seto wrote in an e-mail.