CRTC chairman ‘surprised’ Netflix not forced to pay GST

The head of Canada’s broadcast regulator is surprised Canada hasn’t slapped a sales tax on foreign video streaming services like Netflix, a move the Liberal government seems to be inching toward despite previous promises not to do so.

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission chairman Jean-Pierre Blais remarked on the controversial Netflix tax Thursday during questioning at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage hearings on the future of local media in Ottawa.

Liberal MP Hedy Fry asked Blais to respond to previous assertions made to the committee by “all the telecoms” that they’re at a disadvantage when it comes to producing Canadian content because they have to pay GST on their services while Netflix doesn’t.

“I can see their argument,” Blais said, referring to Videotron Inc.’s Illico, BCE Inc.’s CraveTV and soon-to-be shuttered Shomi, the failed joint venture between Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.

“(They) are subject to GST payments, whereas other foreign services that still use our banking system through credit card set-offs don’t seem to be,” Blais said.

“Just as an ordinary citizen I’m a bit surprised by that, I know it’s not the approach taken in other jurisdictions.”

Blais, who was grilled on how to deliver local news and Canadian content in a digital age, has pursued a consumer-focused agenda at the helm of the CRTC. When the Conservatives were in power — they were adamantly opposed to a Netflix tax — the regulator did not heed calls from broadcasters who suggested a levy requiring foreign streaming services to pay into a Canadian content fund.