Culture Minister Marc Miller pushed back on criticisms from stakeholders in the country’s film and television sector who have accused Ottawa of capitulating to U.S. tech interests over the Online Streaming Act.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Frustrations regarding lengthy regulatory timelines and concerns over affordability for Canadians are the driving forces behind Ottawa’s move to roll back years-in-the-making decisions by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regarding the Online Streaming Act, says Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture.
In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail Sunday in Banff, Alta., where Mr. Miller was attending the Banff World Media Festival, the minister pushed back on criticisms from stakeholders in the country’s film and television sector who have accused Ottawa of capitulating to U.S. tech interests over the Online Streaming Act as trade tensions persist with the Trump administration.
“Look, well, it’s wrong. There isn’t a chance that we won’t stand up and make sure that Canadian culture gets supported,” Mr. Miller said. “I certainly do understand the frustration, because there’s been a lot of blood shed and battles fought on these grounds. ... But you can have all the aspirations in the world to make sure that people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing, but if that doesn’t work, we have to act. And this reflects my impatience, and the Prime Minister’s impatience, to make sure that we are creating some stability in the system.”
Earlier this month, Ottawa ordered the CRTC to review its May policy regarding the Online Streaming Act (or Bill C-11), which would have tripled the contributions of foreign-owned streamers toward the production of domestic content, including local news, from 5 per cent to 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues. In 2024, MPA-Canada, which represents the interests of such major Hollywood outfits as Disney, Netflix and Paramount, launched a legal challenge to the CRTC decision, with the case still tied up in the courts.
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Upon learning of the abrupt shift, Warren P. Sonoda, president of the Directors Guild of Canada, said that “the entire industry has spent years participating in the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, with the understanding that major global streaming platforms benefiting from operating in Canada would finally be required to contribute fairly and consistently to Canada’s broadcasting system.”
Meanwhile, Kyle Irving, chair of the Canadian Media Producers Association, said that he was concerned Ottawa “has sold out Canadian culture.”
“For the last 10 years we’ve been trying to get to a spot that culminated with the passage of C-11 in 2023 to make sure that people were paying their fair share. I don’t fault people for having that opinion,” Mr. Miller told The Globe. “Respect to the CRTC, but they have been slow in some of their decision-making, which has contributed to, frankly, the frustration.”
Ottawa’s plan to help mend that frustration will come from an annual injection of $600-million to support Canada’s audio and audiovisual sectors. Details of this new taxpayer-sourced funding are still to come, though Mr. Miller confirmed that local news and niche broadcasters will be included.
“There are three broad categories, so one of them may need some work. I can’t give a definitive number. But the players in the system have been telling us that some things are fair and some things are unfair,” Mr. Miller said. “This is an opportunity to actually adjust a little on the fly. I want to get this out as quickly as possible.”
Earlier this month, Ottawa ordered the CRTC to review its May policy regarding the Online Streaming Act, which would have tripled the contributions of foreign-owned streamers toward the production of domestic content, including local news, from 5 per cent to 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues.Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press
As to whether public investment can adequately replace long-term structural obligations – and what might happen to the annual tranche of $600-million with a change in government – Mr. Miller countered that any new government could amend a law, albeit not as easily as it could cancel a direct contribution to the cultural sector.
“Can a government or public funder alone completely replace an ecosystem that is in profound transformation? The answer is no,” he added.
The Department of Canadian Heritage will also continue to pursue an undefined rate of domestic revenues from streamers toward Canadian programming, though likely not nearly the amounts currently required in such markets as France (which compels foreign-owned streamers to invest 20 to 25 per cent of local revenues in French film and TV production), Italy (16 per cent) and Germany (which is currently seeking 8 per cent).
In 2023, Netflix Canada’s then-director of public policy Stéphane Cardin told the CRTC that a mandated contribution should be “no more than 2 per cent.”
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“We have to have that conversation with streamers, which has yet to occur in any developed form. My colleagues in the Bloc Québécois assume that it will go down to zero. That isn’t the case,” Mr. Miller said. “We want people to pay what they would on a fair basis, and you can compare it to some other jurisdictions. It may be a staggered process of policy directions. I want to get it set out quickly, so we can get the ball rolling.”
In Canadian Heritage’s initial communication about reviewing the CRTC’s policy, the government said that new costs imposed by streamers “could ultimately fall on Canadian consumers through higher prices.” Yet the notion that regulatory changes will lead directly to significant increases in subscription costs is contested by a comparison of Netflix and Disney+ rates across North American and European markets over the past decade, which finds no direct correlation.
Asked whether Ottawa has conducted economic research on price elasticity – given that streamers have consistently resorted to price increases as they struggle with the long-standing problem of subscriber churn – Mr. Miller pointed to altogether different concern when it comes to affordability.
“Not to minimize the counterpoint that you’re making, but we have seen in some of those jurisdictions an increase in production costs, which is an affordability issue from another angle,” he said, before taking issue with the way that streamers take advantage of Canada’s varied tax credit systems.
“Some of the streamers that have criticized the decisions of the government, who were suing us as well for certain aspects of the CRTC, also benefit tremendously from very generous tax credits that add up to a billion dollars a year,” Mr. Miller added. “I get the sense sometimes that people are very happy to take the tax credits and continue their criticism without understanding where that tax credit comes from. We need to take a look at those and who they are rewarding and frankly who they’re not rewarding well enough.”
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The shift inside the Heritage Department regarding C-11 arrived the week after Prime Minister Mark Carney met in New York with various business leaders, including Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos.
“I don’t know what was discussed, to be honest,” Mr. Miller said. “I know they met, and he meets with a lot of people in the industry. I don’t think that any one meeting would shape policy in any way that’s material.”
As to how the government’s position on the Online Streaming Act may or may not be related to continuing trade negotiations between Ottawa and the White House regarding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Mr. Miller did not indicate the impact of the issue one way or the other.
“I get that people want to know everything that’s going on around the negotiation table for a lot of valid reasons. We have deployed a different approach as to how we talk to that publicly in Canada than the U.S. has,” he said. “You know the character of the President, and he is very free with his thoughts publicly. We don’t share that approach, and so I can’t and won’t share anything around what is happening around the commercial negotiations, for the very reason that Canadian jobs are on the line.”