This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 16 wordsI rise today on behalf of Canadians who feel that every month brings yet another bill.Procedure Claims · 88 wordsHowever, they cannot afford it. Canadians are tired of opening their bills and finding them higher than the last month. Families are tightening their belts, reducing subscriptions, delaying purchases and working overtime, yet somehow their bills keep growing and they cannot get ahead. What frustrates Canadians most is that so many of these rising costs are not accidents. They are policy choices.Partly on point Today, we are talking about the CRTC’s decision to triple the streaming tax from 5% to 15% on online platforms like Netflix, Spotify, YouTube and others.1 Procedure · 10 wordsHowever, let us be honest about what this really is.Procedure Positioning · 23 wordsThis is another example of a government and its agencies believing they know better than Canadians how Canadians should spend their own money.Positioning Procedure · 8 wordsLet us be clear about what just happened.Procedure Claims · 34 wordsOn May 21, the CRTC announced it was tripling the levy on online streamers, not increasing it modestly, not adjusting it to inflation, 2but tripling it, going from 5% to 15% in one announcement. Procedure · 8 wordsHere is what makes that even more remarkable: ProcedureClaims · 39 wordsThe original 5% levy has not even cleared the courts yet.3 Streamers launched legal challenges against the original rate, challenges that are still before the courts today.4 The CRTC has not collected a single dollar from those original obligations, 5Positioning · 6 wordsso what did the CRTC do?Positioning Claims · 4 wordsIt tripled it anyway. Positioning · 24 wordsThat is a government agency operating without discipline, without accountability and without any apparent concern for the consequences its decisions have on real Canadians.Positioning Procedure · 6 wordsLet us talk about those consequences.Procedure Reasoning · 30 wordsWhen we triple the tax on online streaming services, we do not hurt Netflix shareholders. We do not inconvenience executives in California. We do not stress out shareholders or investors. Claims · 94 wordsIt is the single mother in Aurora, using Netflix at the end of a long day with her kids. It is the senior in Newmarket who cancelled cable years ago because streaming was more affordable. It is a young couple already wondering how they are going to manage rising rent and grocery prices in the dimming dreams of starting a family. For many Canadians, streaming is no longer a luxury. It is one of the few affordable forms of entertainment left. The government talks constantly about affordability. The Prime Minister himself campaigned on it, Procedure · 4 wordsyet here we are: ProcedurePositioning · 18 wordsanother tax, another cost, another burden placed on the backs of Canadians who are already carrying too much.Positioning Procedure · 10 wordsLet us not pretend that this is the only one.Procedure Claims · 25 wordsIt is the latest, in fact, in a long list of punitive measures from the Liberal government that, together, are squeezing Canadians in every direction. Positioning · 17 wordsThe cumulative weight of all these decisions lands on a family’s kitchen table, and they feel it.Positioning Procedure · 16 wordsNow let me turn to the longer-term damage, because this is where it truly gets serious.Procedure Claims · 48 wordsWhen we triple the tax on online streaming services, Canada becomes one of the most expensive operating jurisdictions in the entire world for streaming services; not the most expensive in the G7, not among the most expensive in the western world, but among the most expensive on earth. Positioning · 40 wordsWhat does that signal to investors? What does that say to a company sitting in a boardroom in Los Angeles, London or Seoul, deciding where to put its next production studio, its next animation facility or its next regional headquarters?Positioning Claims · 17 wordsIt says Canada is expensive. It says Canada is unpredictable. Canada is harder to do business in. Procedure · 30 wordsI want to give the House a concrete example of exactly what is at stake here, because I think sometimes these debates can feel abstract. Let me make it tangible.Procedure Claims · 40 wordsNetflix recently opened Netflix Animation Studios in Vancouver.6 That facility created more than 450 good-paying jobs.7 It brought significant investment to British Columbia. It put Canadian artists, animators and storytellers to work doing world-class creative work right here at home. Reasoning · 25 wordsThat is exactly the kind of investment we should be encouraging. That is exactly the kind of economic activity we should be competing to attract. Claims · 77 wordsThe Online Streaming Act, combined with this triple levy, sends precisely the opposite message. It tells companies like Netflix to think twice before they build something here and to think twice before they hire here. If a company succeeds in Canada, we will tax it for it. That is devastating, not just for Vancouver and Toronto but for every Canadian who works in the film and television industry, and for every community that benefits from that investment. Procedure · 6 wordsThere is then the trade dimension.Procedure Positioning · 9 wordsThis may be the most reckless aspect of all.Positioning Claims · 64 wordsWhen one triples the tax on online streaming services, it is not in isolation. We are in the middle of a critical review of CUSMA, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.8 Our trading relationship with the U.S. is under more scrutiny than it has been in a generation. The Trump administration has been clear and consistent. It views the Online Streaming Act as a trade irritant. Procedure · 10 wordsThis is not speculation. This is not opposition talking points.Procedure Claims · 8 wordsThe Americans have said so directly and repeatedly. Procedure · 9 wordsJust recently, the United States Ambassador to Canada stated, ProcedureClaims · 55 wordsand I am going to be careful to represent this accurately, that the “CRTC’s decision to triple the tax rate on leading streaming services is making a bad situation worse”, that it targets and taxes American companies, puts up new discriminatory trade barriers and worsens the investment climate for American businesses.9 That is a warning. Positioning · 15 wordsWhat is the Carney Liberal government’s response? Its response is silence, indifference and a shrug.Positioning Claims · 46 wordsAt the exact moment when Canada needs to be demonstrating to our largest trading partner that we are a serious, reliable and competitive economy, the government is escalating a fight that nobody in the country asked for over a policy that helps nobody in the country. Positioning · 3 wordsThat is negligence.Positioning Procedure · 15 wordsI want to address something directly because I know that the government will raise it.Procedure Claims · 20 wordsWhen one triples the tax on online streaming services, it is a tax on investment in the arts and culture. Positioning · 41 wordsConservatives believe in Canadian culture and have defended it for a decade, over a decade, from Liberal postnational attacks. We believe in Canadian artists, storytellers and creators. We are proud of what the country produces in music, film, television and literature.Positioning Reasoning · 132 wordsThat pride is real and it is not a partisan position. It belongs to us all. One does not strengthen Canadian culture by punishing investment. One does not support Canadian creators by driving away the platforms and production companies that employ them. One does not build a vibrant, creative economy by making Canada one of the most expensive places in the world to operate a streaming service. Real support for Canadian culture means creating conditions where great Canadian content can be made, can find an audience and can compete with the best in the world on its merits. It does not mean turning a government agency into an Internet czar that picks winners and losers, removes choice from viewers and tells Canadians what they should be watching. That is not cultural policy. Positioning · 7 wordsThat is paternalism and Canadians deserve better.Positioning Procedure · 10 wordsLet me say something about the constitutional dimensions, as well.Procedure Claims · 94 wordsFor over 800 years, the parliamentary tradition we have inherited, the tradition that is the foundation of this very institution, has been clear. The power to tax belongs to Parliament, not to agencies and regulators, not to appointed officials who are not accountable to the people of this country at the ballot box. The CRTC does not have a mandate from Canadians to triple a levy on streaming services. It was not elected and cannot be defeated at the polls, yet here it is making decisions with real tax consequences for millions of Canadians. The ask · 11 wordsThe Prime Minister and the Liberal government must reject this decision.
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