Heather McPherson, Edmonton Strathcona
“I support this motion. The government must make foreign web giants pay their fair share to support Canadian culture and media. Our arts sector creates over a million jobs, but the government gave tax breaks to big streaming companies instead of protecting local news, the CBC, and French-language media.”
“Mr. Speaker, the NDP has long been a champion of diversity in Canada. We have also long been defenders and promoters of Quebec’s cultural distinctiveness within Canada and the rights of francophones. The NDP has long supported the right of Quebec, as the only majority French culture in North America, to protect and promote the French language, including in broadcasting. We strongly support funding for media and cultural production sectors in Quebec and across Canada, and we are pleased to support this motion today. There is a major imbalance in Canada right now between the web giants operating in our country and support for actual Canadian media and culture. Canada’s culture sector is under serious pressure from underfunding and from American web giants that are profiting from our stories and our labour but not paying their fair share. The government has not done the work to protect the cultural sector across Canada. New Democrats have long demanded that the government ensure that web giants like Netflix contribute to the creation of French-language content at the same level that broadcasters are being asked to contribute in Canada. I want to talk a little about what this actually means, and I am going to speak a bit about what it means in my constituency of Edmonton Strathcona. In Edmonton, I saw just how important francophone media are to keeping our culture alive. Media outlets such as Le Franco, Radio-Canada Alberta and Radio Cité do more than just report the news. They tell the stories of Franco-Albertans, feature local artists and community activities and give a voice to francophones in Alberta. These media outlets are important to francophone families, keeping them connected to their language, their history and their community. They also help young people discover Alberta’s francophone culture. When a local media outlet closes its doors, we lose more than just journalists; we also lose part of our culture and history. Protecting Canadian media means helping members of every community, including Franco-Albertans, tell their stories and make their voices heard. Canadians overwhelmingly support our broadcasting sector. Recent polling shows that Canadians support the Online Streaming Act at 83%. That includes voters for all parties. That includes 65% of Conservative voters. Canadians understand this is about defending cultural sovereignty. It is about telling Canadian stories. It is about supporting jobs in the Canadian arts sector. The arts sector contributed $131 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024. The arts and culture sector supported 1.1 million jobs across Canada in 2024. The sector deserves the support of the government. Instead, what we are seeing is a government that is willing to give up our sovereignty, back down on our stories and stop support for our cultural communities. We saw that when the Government of Canada was willing to give up the digital services tax, income that should have gone to our cultural communities and to telling stories: francophone stories, indigenous stories, Canadian stories. Instead, the Liberal government bowed to Donald Trump and the tech giants that support him. New Democrats supported measures announced by the CRTC that would have helped ensure that Canadian stories continued to be told and made sure Canadian stories were available to audiences across the country. In May, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture overruled the CRTC after he had stood in this House and told us it was independent. He effectively gave a massive break to foreign streaming giants and instead replaced those potential revenues with a $600-million promise, none of which we have seen yet and none of which has benefited broadcasters. I want to be clear. That $600 million is our money. That is my money. Those are taxpayer dollars. That is not revenue being paid from the billions made by web giants. It is money that is coming from the pockets of Canadians to support Canadian industry. I am all in for supporting Canadian industry, but I sure would like the web giants to pay their fair share, and that is not what the government is demanding. I want to talk about another issue that is very close to my heart and very important. The CBC and Radio-Canada are the Canadian institutions we need in this country to tell our stories. We have a massive country, and having a public broadcaster is so vitally important. Mr. Speaker, I know you are an Albertan as well. I came out of the Alberta referendum on Monday thinking how dangerous it is that our media landscape is not getting the support it requires. At this moment in time, when misinformation, disinformation and foreign interference in our media landscape continue to rise, we do not see the commitments to our public broadcaster that we need to see. To show the cynicalness of the government, weeks before it called the 2025 election, the then minister of heritage brought forward a massive investment for the CBC. He said the government was going to invest in the CBC, our public broadcaster. It was going to make it permanent. It was going to make it stable. It was going to make it reliable. Well, the Liberals won the election and are still in government, yet we have not seen any of it. None of those protections for our public broadcaster came forward. We know the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are funded at a level so much higher than the CBC receives in Canada. I also met recently with representatives from Press Forward, an association of over two dozen news media publishers that employ journalists, editors, photographers, video journalists and other professionals dedicated to informing the public. Again, I will go back to the referendum in Alberta. Canadians are increasingly confronted with complex questions and this maelstrom of disinformation, fear and foreign interference. The lack of local, human-verified, quality journalism is a real problem that we need to address in this country. I fully support Press Forward’s three asks of the Government of Canada: to maintain the Canadian journalism labour tax credit at its current level of 35%, so that independent news publications can continue to provide value to the communities they serve; to expand the local journalism initiative by $6 million per year and have it go past 2035; and to defend the Online News Act to ensure sustained investment in Canadian news. This is not just about making sure we have local news. It is about sovereignty. It is about our democracy. A strong media landscape and the ability of Canadians to get the information and the stories they require to make good decisions are cornerstones of a strong democracy. Without those, we have an uneducated electorate that does not get the information they require to do their duty as citizens. Therefore, I urge the government to take this seriously, to start making the web giants pay their fair share, to make sure that cultural communities and our industry have the resources they need to tell our stories, to protect our sovereignty, and to ensure that francophone and indigenous stories are front and centre across this country.”
Mr. Speaker, the NDP has long been a champion of diversity in Canada. We have also long been defenders and promoters of Quebec’s cultural distinctiveness within Canada and the rights of francophones. The NDP has long supported the right of Quebec, as the only majority French culture in North America, to protect and promote the French language, including in broadcasting. We strongly support funding for media and cultural production sectors in Quebec and across Canada, and we are pleased to support this motion today. There is a major imbalance in Canada right now between the web giants operating in our country and support for actual Canadian media and culture. Canada’s culture sector is under serious pressure from underfunding and from American web giants that are profiting from our stories and our labour but not paying their fair share. The government has not done the work to protect the cultural sector across Canada. New Democrats have long demanded that the government ensure that web giants like Netflix contribute to the creation of French-language content at the same level that broadcasters are being asked to contribute in Canada. I want to talk a little about what this actually means, and I am going to speak a bit about what it means in my constituency of Edmonton Strathcona. In Edmonton, I saw just how important francophone media are to keeping our culture alive. Media outlets such as Le Franco, Radio-Canada Alberta and Radio Cité do more than just report the news. They tell the stories of Franco-Albertans, feature local artists and community activities and give a voice to francophones in Alberta. These media outlets are important to francophone families, keeping them connected to their language, their history and their community. They also help young people discover Alberta’s francophone culture. When a local media outlet closes its doors, we lose more than just journalists; we also lose part of our culture and history. Protecting Canadian media means helping members of every community, including Franco-Albertans, tell their stories and make their voices heard. Canadians overwhelmingly support our broadcasting sector. Recent polling shows that Canadians support the Online Streaming Act at 83%. That includes voters for all parties. That includes 65% of Conservative voters. Canadians understand this is about defending cultural sovereignty. It is about telling Canadian stories. It is about supporting jobs in the Canadian arts sector. The arts sector contributed $131 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024. The arts and culture sector supported 1.1 million jobs across Canada in 2024. The sector deserves the support of the government. Instead, what we are seeing is a government that is willing to give up our sovereignty, back down on our stories and stop support for our cultural communities. We saw that when the Government of Canada was willing to give up the digital services tax, income that should have gone to our cultural communities and to telling stories: francophone stories, indigenous stories, Canadian stories. Instead, the Liberal government bowed to Donald Trump and the tech giants that support him. New Democrats supported measures announced by the CRTC that would have helped ensure that Canadian stories continued to be told and made sure Canadian stories were available to audiences across the country. In May, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture overruled the CRTC after he had stood in this House and told us it was independent. He effectively gave a massive break to foreign streaming giants and instead replaced those potential revenues with a $600-million promise, none of which we have seen yet and none of which has benefited broadcasters. I want to be clear. That $600 million is our money. That is my money. Those are taxpayer dollars. That is not revenue being paid from the billions made by web giants. It is money that is coming from the pockets of Canadians to support Canadian industry. I am all in for supporting Canadian industry, but I sure would like the web giants to pay their fair share, and that is not what the government is demanding. I want to talk about another issue that is very close to my heart and very important. The CBC and Radio-Canada are the Canadian institutions we need in this country to tell our stories. We have a massive country, and having a public broadcaster is so vitally important. Mr. Speaker, I know you are an Albertan as well. I came out of the Alberta referendum on Monday thinking how dangerous it is that our media landscape is not getting the support it requires. At this moment in time, when misinformation, disinformation and foreign interference in our media landscape continue to rise, we do not see the commitments to our public broadcaster that we need to see. To show the cynicalness of the government, weeks before it called the 2025 election, the then minister of heritage brought forward a massive investment for the CBC. He said the government was going to invest in the CBC, our public broadcaster. It was going to make it permanent. It was going to make it stable. It was going to make it reliable. Well, the Liberals won the election and are still in government, yet we have not seen any of it. None of those protections for our public broadcaster came forward. We know the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are funded at a level so much higher than the CBC receives in Canada. I also met recently with representatives from Press Forward, an association of over two dozen news media publishers that employ journalists, editors, photographers, video journalists and other professionals dedicated to informing the public. Again, I will go back to the referendum in Alberta. Canadians are increasingly confronted with complex questions and this maelstrom of disinformation, fear and foreign interference. The lack of local, human-verified, quality journalism is a real problem that we need to address in this country. I fully support Press Forward’s three asks of the Government of Canada: to maintain the Canadian journalism labour tax credit at its current level of 35%, so that independent news publications can continue to provide value to the communities they serve; to expand the local journalism initiative by $6 million per year and have it go past 2035; and to defend the Online News Act to ensure sustained investment in Canadian news. This is not just about making sure we have local news. It is about sovereignty. It is about our democracy. A strong media landscape and the ability of Canadians to get the information and the stories they require to make good decisions are cornerstones of a strong democracy. Without those, we have an uneducated electorate that does not get the information they require to do their duty as citizens. Therefore, I urge the government to take this seriously, to start making the web giants pay their fair share, to make sure that cultural communities and our industry have the resources they need to tell our stories, to protect our sovereignty, and to ensure that francophone and indigenous stories are front and centre across this country.