“The greatest artists in history did not get money from the government. I cannot think of any great artist who did. Why do the Liberals support this?”

“Mr. Speaker, I was trying to think of great artists in history, such Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Cicero and Plato. Some of them had private benefactors, but none of them, to my knowledge, had government support behind them. I cannot think of any artist that had government support— Some hon members: Oh, oh! Scott Anderson: Mr. Speaker, on the other hand, I cannot think of any artist who did have government support and who is great. I cannot think of a great Soviet artist. I wonder if my colleague could tell us this: Is it because the Liberals hate Canadian culture?”

“I support Canadian artists, but the CRTC has too much power. It created a new tax that will drive away investment instead of helping creators. We need to keep Canadian entertainment affordable.”

“Mr. Speaker, I think we should all be so proud. I heard the names of a few bands shouted out. However, this is not about not supporting Canadian artists. I think there is a role to play. This is about the CRTC’s being handed a suite of powers by the Liberal government, saying that there is no chance, as a regulator, that it is going to overstep its boundaries, but then it went ahead and did that. The CRTC has imposed, at a terrible time, this new tax upon Canadians that is ultimately more likely going to drive away investment than create the opportunity for another Hallmark film to be made in Morden. This is about common-sense policy and making sure we are protecting the affordability of entertainment made by Canadians for Canadians.”

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“The CRTC is raising taxes on online streaming services from 5% to 15%. I want the government to cancel this tax. It makes life more expensive for regular people, hurts jobs in film and technology, and upsets our trade with the United States.”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of families in Quebec who are sick and tired of being bled dry. On May 21, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, made a unilateral decision that is out of touch with reality. It announced that it is tripling the tax on streaming platforms from 5% to 15%. That is aggressive taxation. Let us think about this for a second. The initial 5% tax is still being challenged in court, and the CRTC has not yet collected a single penny of it, but that is not stopping the CRTC from trying to triple the tax before the court has even ruled. This is madness. Let us be realistic. Who will end up footing the bill? I asked two of my Liberal colleagues about this earlier, and neither was able to answer me. The obvious answer is: consumers. Web giants will not absorb the cost; our own consumers will have to shell out. Once again, the middle class will get hit. I am talking about families in Saint-Pacôme, La Pocatière and the 73 other municipalities in my riding whose bills will go up yet again. Who else will get hit? Seniors who keep track of every dollar so they can make it to the end of the month. Subscriptions to Netflix, Spotify, Disney+ and YouTube will cost quite a lot more. Given the current inflation, the groceries that cost an arm and a leg, and the housing crisis, a bit of family entertainment will end up becoming a luxury. This tax hike is yet another punitive measure by the Liberal government. It is another tax that is driving up the cost of living. Let us talk about the regions. In many parts of Quebec, cultural offerings are rather scarce. Not everyone can have a large movie theatre, a theatre or a performance hall across the street. Online platforms are becoming a way for families in the regions to access new releases, both Canadian and foreign, and the same culture as everyone else at the same time. Taxing these services by 15% creates an additional geographic injustice for Canadians who live farther and farther away from major urban centres. It is doubly punitive for the regions. There is a fundamental principle in our democracy, and our parliamentary work has been clear for decades and centuries: Parliament alone has the power to tax citizens. The CRTC is a committee of civil servants appointed by people elected by the public. By what right can these bureaucrats decide overnight to tax Quebeckers and Canadians? The government has the power to reject this decision, and it must do so. If it refuses to act, it is complicit. The CRTC is becoming our very own Internet czar. People sitting in offices decide what is good or bad for citizens. It is an insult to consumers’ intelligence. Ultimately, it is consumers who decide what they want to consume. Freedom of choice is an important value in both Quebec and Canada. People are mature enough to decide for themselves what they want to listen to or support. Quebeckers are proud of their culture and have always shown it, as have the Conservatives. When a local show is good, we watch it in droves. When a song is good, we listen to it on repeat—which I do regularly, by the way. We do not need Ottawa to dictate what we should watch or listen to. The Quebec public is sovereign when it comes to its cultural choices. Furthermore, by imposing a 15% tax, Canada is totally shooting itself in the foot. Our country is becoming one of the most expensive and least competitive countries in the world for investment. What message are we sending to investors? What message are we sending to all the communications and culture giants and non-giants that are interested in investing in Canada? We are telling them to come here to be taxed. Who is going to pay at the end of the day? Once again, it is always the same people: consumers. The message we are sending companies that might want to invest in Canada is that they should not come here because it is complicated and unpredictable and they are going to be taxed to the hilt. This is impeding investment in this country, of course. It is threatening paying jobs in technology and film. Heaven knows that in Quebec and especially Montreal, the top global hub, especially for video games, there are all kinds of organizations making films and that world-class productions are also being created in Quebec and Montreal. In the long term, what message are we sending these people? Time and time again, the message is that the government is going to tax them. Some will say that the francophone minority in Quebec and across the country certainly needs the tax money to survive. That is a bad idea masquerading as a good one. That involves a misunderstanding of the reality of the francophone market. If we impose such a heavy tax, what is going to happen? The major platforms will make economic choices. Producing in French is expensive, and the content is intended for a smaller market. If the government slams them again with a 15% tax, these multinationals may simply cut their francophone production budgets to cover their losses. Instead of helping francophone culture, this tax will discourage platforms from commissioning new series or films in French. It is our own culture that we are stunting. Our technicians, directors, actors, visual effect experts and post-production studios also work with these major platforms. They are already funding, in part, some productions. These people earn their living through huge contracts with them, which brings new money into our economy. By imposing a punitive 15% tax, the government is halting this economic momentum. If Canada becomes hostile and unpredictable, these companies will simply go film their series and produce their projects somewhere else. Quebec cultural workers will lose good-paying jobs. The way to protect the francophone minority is not by putting our own people out of work. Quebec content producers, technicians and artists need solid partnerships, predictability and private investments to showcase our talent. The government, by waging war on the big platforms, is hurting our artists, pulling the rug out from under them, and denying them a unique opportunity to become known worldwide. To add to the absurdity, this decision comes at the worst possible time. The U.S. administration and its ambassadors have clearly warned us that they see this as an unfair provocation and trade barrier targeting their companies. Canada is getting ready to renegotiate CUSMA, a trade agreement that supports thousands of Quebec families, workers and businesses. Why is the government trying to pick a fight with our biggest economic partner? I am going to digress for a moment. In my riding, like everywhere else in Quebec and Canada, this agreement with the United States, the one that the Liberals are dragging their feet on renegotiating, offers Canada and our regions, especially Quebec, absolutely fundamental economic benefits. This holds true in all sectors, including the cultural sector, the industrial sector, the agricultural sector and the food sector. The U.S. is our biggest customer, partner and friend. Right now, we are putting up all kinds of barriers to stop these people from showing any interest in doing business with Canada. We have no idea why the government is picking fights with the United States like it is right now. It is sheer recklessness. Instead of making us competitive, it is damaging our ability to compete internationally. It is absolutely unbelievable. There is still time to backtrack. The minister and the government have the power to block this ridiculous CRTC decision. They need to heed the warnings of our trading partners. They need to stop thinking that every problem can be solved with a new tax. Once again, the Liberals are telling us that they are giving more and more money, but they are putting that on credit. Then they turn around and collect more and more taxes to be able to pay for it. In doing so, they are harming the Canadian cultural economy. Canadians are asking for a break, not for unnecessary tax hikes. I do not want to hear that the Conservatives need to be better informed. The Conservatives have our culture and the protection of the French language in mind and at heart. We are proud of our artists. We have always been proud of our artists. The government is saying that the Conservatives do not like artists and other such things, but that is not so. That is completely false. We refuse to believe that the only way to support homegrown talent is to punish consumers and drive away investment. That is absurd. That is not the way to build a strong, competitive economy. The more prosperous our economy gets, the easier it will be for our local businesses to fund, produce and disseminate homegrown works. Making people poorer and hurting economic growth is no way to help Quebec and Canadian culture flourish. The Conservatives are staunchly opposed to this tax, and we demand that it be eliminated outright. We need to give taxpayers some breathing space, encourage investment and stop creating taxes that make life harder for people.”

“The Liberal government keeps adding taxes and rules that make everything more expensive. Now they are adding another 15% tax on streaming services like Netflix. They always find ways to make everyday life cost more.”

“Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague that we can have regulations in Canada and that we can make all kinds of decisions. The problem is that all the decisions the Liberal government has made over the past 11 years have been to impose taxes, fees and all sorts of regulations, left and right, that inevitably have an impact on the cost of the products we consume. This is true for housing, it is true for food, and it is true for gas. It is true for everything. In this case, we are adding another 15% tax on a product that people consume at the end of the day, often in the evening, watching a movie on Netflix. The Liberals always find a way to add taxes and make consumers pay.”

“The government already spends over 1.2 billion dollars a year on culture. Lack of money is not the problem, and Canadians are tired of paying high taxes.”

“Mr. Speaker, I would simply say to my colleague that the federal government invests astronomical sums, more than $1.2 billion a year, in culture in Quebec and across Canada. I sit on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, and during our most recent studies, we were told that money is not currently an issue. Rather, more authority is needed to ensure wider distribution across Canada. I therefore believe that the crux of the matter is that, as we speak, the average consumer has had enough. People are fed up with paying taxes. It is the only way the Liberals have found to squeeze extra money out of consumers’ pockets, and people are sick of it.”

“I want my colleague to tell Canadians who will pay for this 15% streaming tax if the government does not cancel it.”

“Mr. Speaker, I simply wish to give my colleague the opportunity to remind all Canadians who will ultimately foot the bill for the 15% increase if the Liberal government does not reject this streaming tax increase proposed by the CRTC and does not scrap it.”

“Regular consumers are the ones who will end up paying this new 15% tax. The older 5% tax is still being fought in court, but if it goes through, ordinary Canadians will be stuck with the bill.”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his French. That is a really great question. I have anglophone colleagues who are making incredible efforts in French. In fact, some come to study in La Pocatière, in my riding, in the summer. The answer to that is the consumer. At the end of the day, it is the consumer who is going to pay this 15% tax, which used to be 5%. By the way, that 5% tax has still not been collected because it is being challenged in court. The legislation stemming from Bill C‑11 is still not enforced. This future tax will inevitably apply one day if the court settlement is finally reached. Once again, the reality is that ordinary Canadians are the ones who will end up paying the tax.”

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“I want the government to cancel the new tax increase on streaming services. The government is making streaming services pay 15 percent of their Canadian earnings. Families cannot afford higher costs right now, and this tax will drive away investment in our cultural industries.”

“Mr. Speaker, in the short time I have available to me, I want to say how pleased I am to speak on our Conservative motion that “the House call on the Liberal Cabinet to use their powers under the Broadcasting Act to reject the CRTC’s streaming tax increase and eliminate the streaming tax.” For the Canadians who are watching, the Liberal-appointed CRTC recently ordered online streaming services to pay 15% of their annual Canadian revenues to the government. That is up from the current 5%. There are three basic reasons why we are advocating for that to be rolled back and eliminated. First, it is an affordability issue. At a time when families are struggling to afford food, gas and housing, another tax hike makes no sense, particularly now. Second, it hinders investment. It does not do anything to enhance the competitive nature of our cultural industries in Canada. In fact, it will only hinder our cultural industries. It works against what we are trying to do. Earlier, when I was talking to a colleague, I said that in 1996, the Conservative government in the province of Ontario, the government of Mike Harris, introduced an Ontario film and television tax credit, which allowed the industry to grow and thrive and supported the cultural industries and artists. That is being put at risk by an increased tax burden that will only drive those investments away.”