fighting the decision<\/a> in court.<\/p>\nLate last month, the CRTC announced its decision to triple the amount, from five per cent to 15. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe CRTC\u2019s new requirements would impose new costs on the companies providing these services, which could ultimately fall on Canadian consumers through higher prices,\u201d reads a news release from Canadian Heritage announcing the review order. \u201cAt a time when Canadians face cost-of-living pressure, now is not the time to make culture and entertainment more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. administration, meanwhile, has continued to push back against the legislation. In April, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer\u2019s office released its annual longlist of trade irritants, with several pages specifically relating to Canada, and pointing to liquor, supply management, Buy Canadian procurement policies, and the Online Streaming Act, among others, as key sticking points. <\/p>\n
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra also called out the CRTC\u2019s decision last month, calling it \u201cdiscriminatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCRTC is targeting and taxing U.S. companies, putting up new, discriminatory trade barriers, and worsening the investment climate for American businesses,\u201d Hoekstra wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters on his way into a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill Wednesday, Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller said \u201cthe reality is the sector\u2019s been suffering,\u201d and pointed to the ongoing litigation for preventing the funds from being collected and distributed to the sector. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no secret to anyone that\u2019s been paying any attention to this that the USTR has identified these issues as a trade issue,\u201d Miller also said. \u201cIt would be disingenuous to suggest that this is the single issue.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is we\u2019re impatient to make sure that that sector stays vital and stays supported,\u201d he also said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why we\u2019re making that investment of $600 million into the industry that again needs it, and can\u2019t wait for the litigations to be solved before people and jobs get lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
The minister added that affordability is \u201can important aspect\u201d to the discussion. <\/p>\n
Asked on his way out of Wednesday\u2019s caucus meeting about the review order appearing to be a capitulation to the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said it\u2019s about affordability. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the time to raise the costs for Canadians,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the CRTC takes decisions as they did last summer with respect to telecom and telecom sharing on broadband, which helped to lower costs for Canadians, we\u2019re very much in support, but this is not the time to make Canadians pay (more).\u201d <\/p>\n
In an email statement to CTV News, CRTC spokesperson Mirabella Salem said the independent quasi-judicial body makes decisions on telecommunications and broadcasting matters based on public consultations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CRTC is aware that the government intends to issue new policy directions to adjust the implementation of the Online Streaming Act,\u201d Salem wrote. \u201cThe CRTC will review any new policy directions as they are released.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canadian broadcasters pay more<\/p>\n
The new rules announced by the CRTC last month affect broadcasters and streamers differently. <\/p>\n
In a press release late last month, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) pointed to a \u201csignificantly higher financial burden\u201d on private Canadian broadcasters, which, under the new rules, must contribute 25 per cent of their revenues, down from contributions as high as 45 per cent.<\/p>\n
While the CRTC categorized the reduction as a \u201crelief,\u201d the CAB said the rate remains higher than that imposed on streamers.<\/p>\n
The press release from the federal government Wednesday does not specify whether the private broadcasters\u2019 rate change will also fall under the review. <\/p>\n
With files from CTV News\u2019 Abigail Bimman, Annie Bergeron-Oliver and Luca Caruso-Moro<\/p>\n
CTV News, BNN Bloomberg, and CP24 are owned by Bell Media, which is a division of BCE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CRTC says the new rules will increase the amount of revenue Canada earns from streaming services, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[45,49,48,75,295,713,7607,47,66],"class_list":["post-712879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-justice","tag-media","tag-national","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712879","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=712879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}