“The Prime Minister gave up on making big tech companies pay taxes and fees that support Quebec culture. He gave in to Donald Trump too quickly. I want to know why he is not protecting Quebec culture.”

“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is neglecting culture yet again. After scrapping the digital services tax last summer without getting anything in return, yesterday he scrapped the proposed increase in levies on tech giants for Quebec cultural production. His first instinct in dealing with Donald Trump was to hand out billions of dollars in gifts to the tech giants and pass the bill on to taxpayers. It took less than 24 hours of negotiations in Washington for the Prime Minister to agree to that sacrifice. Why is he so eager to capitulate when it comes to the future of Quebec culture?”

“The government is using $600 million of taxpayers' money instead of making big streaming companies like Netflix pay their share. Other countries and Quebec made these companies pay without driving up costs for people. The federal government should do the same.”

“Mr. Speaker, the minister’s $600 million is paid for by citizens. The minister is replacing billions of dollars in contributions from platforms like Netflix with $600 million from taxpayers’ pockets. Regardless of whether citizens are subscribers or not, they are still going to pay. However, other countries around the world are demanding significant payments from streaming platforms and they have not seen a significant increase in bills. Quebec had the courage to stand up to the web giants. When will the federal government show the same courage?”

“I want online streaming companies like Netflix and Amazon to pay into Canadian and Quebec culture. The government should not make taxpayers cover this cost instead.”

“Mr. Speaker, ADISQ later came back to say that this was not a permanent solution. The entire cultural sector is calling for a long-term solution that involves contributions from digital platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. In the meantime, Ottawa is still exempting them and turning to taxpayers to make up the $600-million shortfall. We have been talking about this for 25 years. The future of culture depends on the web giants paying their fair share. This decision is clearly yet another capitulation to the digital billionaires at the expense of Quebec culture. What will it take for the Minister of Culture to defend culture?”