The Minister of Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, still believes that the government can reach an agreement with Google regarding the Online News Act, even if the digital giant says it is dissatisfied with the draft regulations relating to the legislation.
This regulatory proposal aimed in particular to respond to Google’s concerns and requests. However, after a 30-day consultation on the subject, the company concluded that “the proposed regulations do not sufficiently address the critical structural problems of C-18”.
“I still have confidence that we will come to an agreement with Google. The communication channels are open,” Mme St-Onge.
Speaking to reporters on her way to a Liberal caucus meeting, she reiterated that she believes the digital giant “has taken a really different attitude than Facebook.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has been preventing the sharing of journalistic content for Canadian users of its platforms since August, in response to Bill C-18.
Google has threatened to do the same, but has not yet taken action, except temporarily, last spring, to conduct “tests”.
The company said Monday that it remains “engaged” with the government. “We are awaiting the publication of the final regulations,” a Google spokesperson said.
Platforms that do not allow news sharing in Canada when C-18 comes into force, scheduled for next December, will escape the provisions of the law.
The legislative piece aims to force digital giants to enter into compensation agreements with news media for sharing their content.
The draft regulation, presented in September, clarified that any platform with a turnover of at least one billion Canadian dollars per year and with at least 20 million users in Canada each month will be subject to the law.
The exact contribution to be paid for any digital company to be subject to Bill C-18 will be established based on a formula which could still be modified.
Under the current federal proposal, compensation will be established based on the amount of the company’s overall revenues multiplied by the Canadian share of global GDP, then multiplied by 4%.
Non-monetary contributions, such as training, may be taken into account in the calculation.
To be considered fair, an agreement must provide for compensation that is within a range of at least 20% of the average, for all agreements, of the ratio between the compensation paid and the amount representing the journalists’ salaries. full time.
Comments submitted by Google to the Trudeau government as part of consultations on the draft regulations are expected to be made public in full soon. In the meantime, the “web giant” gave an overview of its impressions in a written statement provided to The Canadian Press on Monday, the day the consultation ended.