(Quebec) The Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, was open to the proposal from Québec solidaire (QS) to create a fund financed from the taxation of web giants in order to help the media .
“Is this something we should think about? I think so, because excluding resources at this time, I don’t think it would be the best strategy,” said Mr. Lacombe during the study of his ministry’s budgetary appropriations on Tuesday.
QS proposes the creation of a fund to help the media which would be financed from a new tax on the turnover of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft). The left party proposes that the allocation of funding be done through a decision-making board of directors independent of the government. It was the solidarity MP Sol Zanetti who questioned the minister on the subject.
“Now we have to think about it carefully and we have to look at what is already being done and see how we can be complementary,” added the minister.
Mathieu Lacombe recalled that there is work being done at the level of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regarding the taxation of GAFAM.
“There are a lot of initiatives being put in place everywhere. And we are thinking about how we are able to insert ourselves and provide Quebec solutions to this issue,” he said.
Remember that Ottawa passed Bill C-18 in June 2023, which aims to force GAFAM to pay royalties to media whose content is found on their platforms.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, counterattacked by blocking Canadian media content on its platforms on 1er August 2023.
Last November, Ottawa managed to conclude a $100 million agreement with Google to help the media.