{"id":700837,"date":"2026-05-29T04:55:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700837\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T04:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:55:19","slug":"liberals-say-they-cant-reject-rules-tripling-streamers-contributions-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700837\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberals say they can\u2019t \u2018reject\u2019 rules tripling streamers\u2019 contributions – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Conservatives called on the Liberals Thursday to \u201creject\u201d the CRTC\u2019s<\/a> recent decision tripling streamers\u2019 financial contributions, but the government says it doesn\u2019t have that power.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The broadcast regulator said last week large online streaming services must contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content.<\/p>\n

Conservative MP Rachael Thomas put forward a motion in the House of Commons calling on cabinet to use its powers under the Broadcasting Act to reject that increase.<\/p>\n

The motion says the cost will \u201cbe passed on to consumers who are already struggling with the rising cost of living,\u201d will discourage investment in Canada and will act as a trade irritant with the United States.<\/p>\n

But Kevin Lamoureux, parliamentary secretary to the government House leader, replied that the government doesn\u2019t have that authority.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

The Broadcasting Act only allows the federal cabinet to set aside CRTC decisions if they involve broadcast licences. It gives cabinet the ability to set aside or refer back to the commission a decision made \u201cunder section 9 to issue, amend or renew a licence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision on financial contributions doesn\u2019t fall under that provision, Culture Minister Marc Miller\u2019s office confirmed. Miller said last week the government was \u201creviewing\u201d the decision.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t0:39
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCRTC orders Netflix, Apple TV to boost Canadian content spending\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Monica Auer, executive director of the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, said the current Broadcasting Act does not allow the government to overturn the CRTC\u2019s financial contribution decision.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n

Auer said in an email it is \u201cnot a licensing decision and consequently cabinet cannot overturn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the CRTC\u2019s ruling on financial contributions for foreign streamers can\u2019t be interpreted as a licensing decision because the CRTC is prohibited from issuing licences to non-Canadian applicants.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

The CRTC\u2019s decision has drawn criticism from the Motion Picture Association, the U.S. group representing streamers like Netflix and Amazon, which has called on cabinet to \u201creconsider\u201d the current approach.<\/p>\n

Later in the afternoon in the House of Commons, Thomas pointed to the powers the government has to guide CRTC policy.<\/p>\n

Under the Broadcasting Act, the government is able to issue a general broadcast policy direction to the CRTC.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the government issued a policy direction to the CRTC setting out how to implement the Online Streaming Act. The CRTC said in last week\u2019s decision that it was guided by that policy direction.<\/p>\n

Auer said if cabinet wanted to issue a policy direction saying the CRTC shouldn\u2019t implement last week\u2019s decision, it would have to cancel that 2023 order, which \u201cstill binds the commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that process would be \u201ctricky and time-consuming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t5:37
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStreaming companies are asked to contribute more for Canadian content\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in the House of Commons his party wants to \u201cfight this latest Liberal tax hike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cTo give Canadians a break, let them choose freely what they like to watch when they are at home recreating with their families. Let\u2019s get rid of the Netflix tax,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, NDP MP Heather McPherson accused the Conservatives of \u201ctaking up the cause\u201d of U.S. web giants and U.S. President Donald Trump and said their motion would put an end to CRTC levies that support Canadian media and artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cNDP believe in making the ultra-wealthy and giant corporations pay their fair share,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois said the idea behind the financial contributions was to establish fairness in the cultural system.<\/p>\n

Bloc MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe accused the Conservatives of wanting to make concessions on culture during the upcoming trade negotiations with the U.S. and Mexico. He also pointed out the government eliminated a three-per-cent digital services tax after the U.S. took issue with the policy but has not yet seen any benefits from that move.<\/p>\n

The U.S. ambassador to Canada also took aim at the policy Thursday and called for it to be rescinded.<\/p>\n

Pete Hoekstra said he met with U.S. streaming companies who \u201cstressed the (CRTC\u2019s) Online Streaming tax will drive away investment and job creation in Canada\u2019s creative sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis unfair tax will drive up costs for Canadian consumers and targets U.S. companies. This law should be immediately repealed,\u201d he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Conservatives called on the Liberals Thursday to \u201creject\u201d the CRTC\u2019s recent decision tripling streamers\u2019 financial contributions, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,180567,45993,75,251889,714,106272,64],"class_list":["post-700837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-content","tag-crtc","tag-entertainment","tag-online-streaming-act","tag-politics","tag-streamers","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}