The federal government will “eliminate” the financial contribution requirement for streamers set by the CRTC and replace it with government funding, it said in a court document.
“We are instructed to inform the court that the government’s intention is to eliminate the base contribution requirement on streaming services and to provide government funding to replace those contributions,” the attorney general’s office said in a document dated July 17.
But the Canadian Association of Broadcasters says it has heard a different message.
“The language in the letter does not align with what we have heard from the government, and we believe it would be premature to reach any definitive conclusions from this administrative communication between the court and one of the respondents,” Kevin Desjardins, the association’s president, said in a statement on Wednesday.
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The office of Culture Minister Marc Miller declined to comment when asked to clarify the government’s stance. A spokesperson also did not respond when asked whether the government plans to eliminate the contribution requirement permanently or temporarily.
“As announced in June, we are developing a new policy direction. We have nothing further to share at this time,” Hermine Landry said in an email.
In early June, the government said it would issue a new policy directive to the CRTC after the broadcast regulator increased contributions for large streaming services from five per cent to 15 per cent of Canadian revenue.
The government also said at the time it would instead provide the industry with $600 million in annual funding.
The contributions, which became known as the “Netflix tax,” followed the passage of the Liberal government’s Online Streaming Act in 2023.
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The July 17 court document said the government would publish the new policy directive to the CRTC in the coming weeks. It was submitted in a Federal Court of Appeal challenge of the CRTC’s rules by streamers.
While Ottawa changed course after the U.S. identified the Online Streaming Act as a trade irritant, the United States Trade Representative said recently Canada wouldn’t “really get credit” for the move.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is in Washington this week after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on an array of Canadian goods.
On Tuesday, LeBlanc attended a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and Toronto Blue Jays. The “Canada-U.S. Friendship Day” event was sponsored by Google, Netflix and Amazon.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked about the decision on streamer contributions.
“We made that decision two months ago,” Carney said, interrupting the question. He said the government made that move because of concerns about affordability.
“Most Canadians have one or two or so of these streamers, this stuff adds up,” he said.
“We took the judgment there was a better way to to it, made the investment in culture and we’ll give the direction accordingly.”
Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO of the Canadian Media Producers Association, said in an emailed statement that “we’re still waiting on the specifics of the policy direction, but the Canadian government must continue to stand up for Canadian stories.”
“That means requiring foreign streamers to invest a portion of the significant revenue they generate from Canadian audiences back into Canadian content,” Mastin said.
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Recalling what he said were exchanges with government officials, Desjardins said that “it seems clear to us that the long-term intent is for the streamers that are operating in Canada and generating revenues in Canada to contribute back into the system in some way.”
He said there is “no way” the government could completely eliminate contributions from foreign streamers but keep them in place for Canadian players.
Hélène Messier, francophone co-chair of the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, said in a statement the government “will have to permanently guarantee the funding that the audiovisual and music sectors had every reason to expect under the base contribution requirement, estimated at no less than $200 million annually.”
“Simply replacing the amounts currently at stake will not be enough: this funding must also grow in step with the revenues of online streaming services,” Messier said.
In an emailed statement, NDP MP Heather McPherson said the Liberals are “cancelling the fees charged to U.S. companies, forcing Canadians to subsidize the U.S. tech and media companies that directly compete with Canadian media.”
“This is nothing more than an act of appeasement to placate Donald Trump and his tech billionaire supporters and it threatens the future of Canadian media and content,” she said.
Conservative culture critic Rachael Thomas said her party opposes the CRTC’s rules imposing contributions on streamers.
She said in a statement the Liberals “are letting American streamers off the hook and making Canadians pay for a massive $600-million subsidy instead.”
