Support Community Radio (Nationwide): contact your MP

Make supporting community radio one of your New Year's resolutions, and send a message to the federal government about the importance of campus/community radio stations like ours. 

The federal government is currently working on the budget for April 1, 2023, to March 30, 2024, and the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the three main Canadian community radio associations, including the National Campus and Community Radio Association/Association nationale des radios étudiantes et communautaires (NCRA/ANREC), is calling on all supporters of community radio to speak out in favour of two crucial, proposed programs that will help campus/community stations to not only survive but thrive nationwide:   

  1. The extension and expansion of the Local Journalism Initiative, which has to date supported 41 stations with paid journalists on the ground but is now nearing its fifth and final year. We are looking for funding for that program to expand to $20 million a year, and for the program to be made permanent.
  2. The establishment of a $25 million annual Community Broadcasting Fund to be distributed among all community radio stations in Canada. This fund would support all licensed broadcasters, with core and stable funding of around $90,000. 

Visit https://ncra.ca/help to learn more about this campaign! Want to take part in it yourself? You can copy and send this template letter on our behalf, which we've pre-filled with the name of and contact info for our local MP (Terry Beech, Burnaby North—Seymour) - please find it below, and feel free to edit it as you wish:

Mr. Terry Beech, M.P. for Burnaby North—Seymour
3906 Hastings Street
Burnaby, British Columbia
V5C 6C1
terry.beech@parl.gc.ca

Insert date here

Dear Mr. Beech:

I am an active and dedicated listener to CJSF 90.1 FM Radio, located in your riding.  This station provides critical local news, information and entertainment to me which I cannot access through any other medium.  I am writing to ask that you support this very important station that serves this community and fights against disinformation. You can do so by:

  1. Increasing the Local Journalism Initiative to $20 million a year and making it permanent. 
  2. Establishing a 25 million dollar annual Community Broadcasting Fund to be distributed among all community radio stations, including this one.

Without access to my local community radio station, I would not be able to stay connected to the community that I live in and love.  

Thank you, 
Insert your name, contact Information and location here

CC: hon.pablo.rodriguez@pch.gc.ca, chrystia.freeland@fin.gc.ca, minister-ministre@infc.gc.ca, president-presidente@tbs-sct.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, alex@crfc-fcrc.ca, barry@ncra.ca, cjsfmgr@sfu.ca

Date: 
Saturday, January 7, 2023 - 22:30
  • Posted on: 7 January 2023
  • By: cjsfpr