Official Hansard
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.
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