Magazines Canada has publicized its pre-budget submission to the Federal Finance Committee in Ottawa. The key recommendations with relation to government funding are:

• Transferring responsibility and funding (about $620,000) for literary and arts magazines to the Canada Council for the Arts, "which already delivers an effective program" for these titles. The 42 magazines with annual paid circulation less than 5,000 that received government money from the Publications Assistance Program and/or Canada Magazine Fund won't get any money from the new Canada Periodical Fund.
• Implementing the Canada Periodical Fund over a transition period, rather than immediately on April 1, 2010, to accomodate said arts and literary magazines, as well as large circulation titles that will receive less funding due to the $1.5 million cap on funding any individual title can receive. (According to our back-of-the-envelope calculations, titles such as Canadian Living, Chatelaine and Maclean's will lose upwards of one million dollars in funding when the CPF is implemented.)

Magazines Canada also offered suggestions related to Canada Post, following the recommendations that came out of a recent strategic review:

• MC agrees that "CPC’s rates for letter mail should not be capped at 2/3 CPI. This provision is too restrictive...[O]ther CPC services bare the brunt of greater rate increases as a result of the restrictions to CPC letter mail rates...[A] new formula, which provides more flexibility to CPC, should be developed."
• Canada Post should "review its approach to 'Distance Related Pricing' for Publications Mail because it "threatens the delivery of Canadian content magazines to rural Canada and goes against Canada’s magazines policy which works to ensure that Canadian content magazines are affordable and accessible in all regions of the country."
• A "'Universal Service Obligation' (USO) should be
  defined in a contractual relationship and...should include specific items with respect to the delivery of Canadian content magazines."

Magazines Canada also agrees that Canada Post needs to "modernize its network" and suggested the government do what it can to facilitate this.