Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will not reverse his move to eliminate a proposed digital services tax and streamer Canadian content requirements.
The Story
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will not backtrack on decisions to eliminate Canada’s proposed digital services tax and to remove the requirement for streaming services to make Canadian content contributions, despite pressure in the House of Commons tied to recent trade negotiations with the United States.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet asked Carney in Parliament whether he would reconsider the changes after they failed to produce progress in the government’s trade talks with the U.S. Blanchet’s question centred on whether the elimination of these measures should be revisited in light of the stalled negotiations.
Carney’s comments come against the backdrop of a tax that would have applied a three-per-cent levy on revenue generated in Canada by some of the largest technology companies operating in Canada. The companies cited in the reporting include Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb.
The digital services tax was linked to an effort to restart trade talks with the United States. Just before the first payment was scheduled to be due last year, Carney said the government would eliminate the tax as part of the approach to restart negotiations.
In addition to the digital services tax change, the government has also moved to eliminate a streamer financial contribution requirement created under the CRTC’s Online Streaming Act. The requirement was designed to generate support for Canadian content from streaming services.
Carney pointed to the United States’ continued objections to the Online Streaming Act as a factor in the decision-making around the broader negotiations. According to the reporting, U.S. concerns persisted in the most recent round of trade talks, and Carney cited those issues as one reason his government ended negotiations in August.
The question in the House of Commons reflects continuing political scrutiny over how Canada’s digital and content rules interact with trade priorities. While Carney said he would not change course, the Bloc’s position underscores that the issue remains a live political debate in federal politics.
For Canadian audiences, the outcome is particularly relevant because the digital services tax and streamer content contributions were intended to target revenues associated with major platforms and to support Canadian cultural and content objectives, at least in their original forms.
Carney’s insistence on not reversing the measures signals that the government intends to leave both elements off the table as negotiations continue to evolve, even though the U.S. position on the Online Streaming Act has continued to influence the broader trade context.
← More stories