NO NETFLIX TAX IN THE OFFING, BUT THE LIBERALS’ CANADIAN CULTURE POLICY — TO BE RELEASED ON THURSDAY — IS EXPECTED TO ATTEMPT TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR TRADITIONAL BROADCASTERS.
Plans don’t include tax on Netflix
OTTAWA • While it won’t go as far as a new tax on Netflix, building new relationships with digital media companies is part of the plan Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will unveil Thursday to revitalize Canadian culture.
The theme will be revving up the creative economy and it’s the product of months of consultations with an eye toward how to best promote and position Canadian culture in a digital world.
For many, the answer has been to find a way to level a playing field massively disrupted by the dominance of U.S. media giants like Netflix and even Facebook.
“As digital disruption changes the way people watch TV and movies, we need to adapt our broadcasting system to ensure new internet broadcasters are playing by the same rules as traditional broadcasters,” said David Sparrow, president of ACTRA, the performers’ union.
“As our economy changes in an information age, we need to support creative talent who will be critical in future economic growth.”
One option long on the table has been the so-called “Netflix tax,” which could take the form of anything from forcing Netflix to add sales tax to its subscription prices or Internet service providers to add a fee to theirs. The funds would then go into the same media production funds that traditional broadcasters are required by law to support.
But there will be no tax changes put forward in Joly’s remarks, sources tell The Canadian Press.
She’ll lay a course, however, for the review of the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act promised in the 2017 federal budget. Both could open the doors to some measure of regulation.
Except there’s no time to wait, argues Kirwan Cox, executive director of the Quebec English-language Production Council. Legislative reviews could take years and, in the meantime, U.S.-based media giants are eating away at the Canadian market.
While Joly is expected to discuss new relationships with those companies, it can’t be a voluntary system, he said.
Joly’s speech will be divided into three themes: investing in creators, helping their content get discovered and distributed and — because no conversation on Canadian culture could be complete without it — a discussion of the future of public broadcasting.
Among the likely announcements — a more robust fund to help Canadian film, television and music producers get their material seen far and wide. Some money was allocated to two programs in the 2016 budget, but the expectation for Thursday is that they’ll be supported with additional funds, in a section of Joly’s speech that focuses on “distribution and discoverability.”