Carney says he won’t reverse digital services tax, streamers’ CanCon payments

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he is standing by his decision to eliminate the digital services tax and financial contributions from streaming services toward Canadian content.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet asked Carney in the House of Commons on Monday whether he would reconsider those decisions, given that they failed to produce progress in trade talks with the United States.

“No,” Carney replied.

Blanchet said in French that Carney’s strategy had failed and argued that major technology companies, whose revenues are larger than those of some countries, should be required to contribute to arts and culture.

Carney responded that it was the Americans who failed to accept restrictions related to the French language and Canadian culture.

Last month, Carney said the U.S. had pressured Canada to change its position on rules governing the discoverability of online content. He said those U.S. demands would have affected Canada’s ability to protect its culture, including the French language.

According to a report by The Canadian Press, he cited those demands as one of the reasons his government ended negotiations in August.

The discoverability rules, which have not yet been implemented, are enabled under the Online Streaming Act.

The CRTC previously said the legislation would require large streaming services such as Netflix to contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues toward supporting Canadian content.

The government said in June that it would eliminate the financial contribution requirement, although that process has not yet officially begun.

The digital services tax was a separate government measure that would have imposed a three-per-cent levy on revenue from Canadian users earned by major technology companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb.

Just before the first payment was due last year, Carney said he would eliminate the tax in an effort to restart trade talks with the United States.