Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, left, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take part in a photo opportunity during the Fall Economic Statement on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Nov. 21, 2023.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Ottawa’s fall economic statement includes a $129-million boost for eligible news organizations through an increase to a tax credit allowing them to claim up to $29,750 per journalist.
The extended tax credit is aimed at helping newsrooms that have been forced to make staff cuts. Some local papers have closed altogether, as advertising has migrated to the big tech giants.
The federal government increased the cap on eligible salaries from $55,000 to $85,000, allowing employers to claim more newsroom labour costs. The move announced Tuesday will start in 2024-2025, and will not apply to broadcasters.
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However, the extension of the Canadian Journalism Labour tax credit will allow news groups to retroactively claim the costs of employing journalists at the higher rates from Jan. 1 this year.
Extending a tax credit introduced in 2019 to help news publishers, the changes increase the maximum tax credit that can be claimed per journalist per year from $13,750 to $29,750. The tax credit rate rises from 25 per cent to 35 per cent for four years, returning to 25 per cent in 2027.
News Media Canada, which represents 570 news publishing titles across Canada including The Globe and Mail, welcomed the tax credit changes.
“Local news is vital, and this targeted investment is both timely and necessary,” said Paul Deegan, president and chief executive officer of News Media Canada.
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge is in talks with Google about the Online News Act, which was designed to inject millions of dollars into news organizations by making tech giants strike deals to pay them for using their work.
Meta has blocked Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram, so the act, also known as Bill C-18, does not apply to them.
Google has also voiced serious concerns about the legislation, which gained royal assent earlier this year. It has warned it may also block Canadians’ ability to search for news unless Ottawa makes changes to proposed regulations on how the law will apply in practice, including how much the company will have to pay news groups over all.
Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa’s Canada Research Chair in internet law, said the fall economic statement amounted to the public being “asked to bail out the government’s epic miscalculation on Bill C-18.”