The government will likely have no difficulty in promptly returning to the Senate Bill C-18 aimed at forcing “web giants” to compensate the news media for sharing their articles and reports.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals can count on the support of the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois (BQ) to ratify the motion they are proposing to respond to the ten amendments submitted by the senators.
The two opposition parties have confirmed their intention, which ensures that the motion, debated on Monday, will be adopted by a majority. This brings the bill that much closer to its finish line for it to become a reality over the next few days.
With the motion, the House is preparing to “respectfully” reject two amendments specifying that negotiations between digital media and platforms must focus on “the value that each party derives from news content” and what should be of a transfer.
Without the amendment, this “value”, which may be monetary or otherwise, will only be mentioned as having to be considered at the arbitration stage of the framework for negotiations that will be put in place with Bill C-18.
This three-step negotiation framework is expected to begin after a period during which Google and Meta can voluntarily agree with a range of players, including local media, to be exempted. Arbitration is the last element of the negotiation framework.
In the eyes of the government, the “value” amendments “undermine the objectives” of the bill and “reduce the scope of the negotiation process and the key factors that guide final offer arbitration decisions”, perhaps we read in the motion proposed by the Liberals.
In a written statement, the Minister of Canadian Heritage and sponsor of the bill in the Commons, Pablo Rodriguez, insists that he accepts “a large majority of the amendments” adopted by the Upper House.
“As promised, we accept the amendments that ensure that the web giants pay their fair share for the local, regional and national news they use on their platforms and we refuse those that undermine the objectives of the bill,” he writes.
Asked to comment on the amendments when he arrived during question period, Bloc heritage spokesman Martin Champoux said he was “generally satisfied” with the changes proposed by the Senate.
“For now, the urgency is that C-18 be adopted,” he said during a brief scrum. We will certainly support the government in its response to the Senate. »
The New Democrats also confirmed to The Canadian Press that they will vote in favor of Mr. Rodriguez’s motion. The Conservatives had not announced their intentions at the time of publication, but they have opposed Bill C-18 from the start.
A majority of senators last week gave the last green light needed for the legislative proposal to be sent back to the House of Commons. Both Houses must agree on the same version of the legislation for it to become law.
The government wishes, with this bill, to oblige Google and Meta to conclude “fair compensation” agreements with the Canadian media according to several criteria. The two digital companies strongly oppose it.
Meta funds a limited number of grants that support emerging journalists at The Canadian Press. This text was not written by a Meta Fellow.