Canadian Broadband → New Internet Tax Coming

Liberal MPs call for 5-per-cent tax on streaming services
»www.theglobeandmail.com/ ··· 5313367/

Media execs already have their hands out for hundreds of millions in new funds to produce... not much of anything at all.

Call it what it is, a rip-off tax. You don't pay enough.

Wonder how Google minister Mélanie Joly is going to sell this?

If the content is worth watching people will watch it

Let's subsidize all private companies who fail to catch the publics attention

Let's save sears while we are at it

As i understand it, and someone can feel free to correct me, the gov would have to scrap the current telecom and broadcasting act and put out a new unified act that defines the internet as a broadcasting system in order to charge us a broadcasting tax. In effect, they would have to somehow state that ISP's are broadcasters. No?

Considering you have v big media companies, Big Telco's and ACTRA with their hands out and screaming for free corporate welfare money, it would appear that these group of people bought the Liberal government to sell us all out, and it would seem the Liberal gov will indeed do that.

Ramifications of ISP's being broadcasters to collect broadcasting taxes would be the likes of the Klass decision being nullified, and maybe the zero rating decision. This could affect some big consumer wins.

Has to be a new Telecom Act coming out for this to work, and you can bet the likes of Bell has their hands in it.

Liberal gov sold us all out to big telco's and big media/advertising companies (which are the big telco's).

You may want to tweet Joly/Justin you will remember this come vote time.

If this passes, I hope all the ISPs like TekSavvy and Start keep it on a separate line on their bill with a line that says exactly what it is, so the masses know what BS reason their bills are going up.

People are watching it. The problem is they aren't paying for it.

I don't relish the idea of paying an added tax on my Internet bill, but this is akin to the blank media levy from the 90's - some people are abusing it for piracy, but because there's not really a mechanism for properly identifying/billing those who are using it for piracy they spread the cost out to everybody.

I disagree to an extent.

This is a way continue an archaic model versus adapting to the needs of the current market.

The same was true of the CD tax, but finally the music industry realized the way they were doing business was no longer sustainable and adapted to it. Teleivision and Film are starting to realize this as well but are still desperately clinging onto their holy cash cow by any means necessary. They need to realize that their days of gouging their customers is very quickly coming to an end.

The article makes no mention of this tax being introduced because of piracy.

They just want to tax people who are watching online content from Youtube, NetFlix, Facebook, or other streaming services that are NOT owned by Bell Media, Rogers, Shaw...

Simple as that.

I will be contacting my MP, as this is an old model that does nothing to encourage quality and does everything to half ass Canadian content as normal, and fund it via these types of things.

The time has come to take the baby off the nipple, and let it run free in hopes it grows up to be an adult and stand on it's own. If it's good, it will survive.. If not, it won't.

I have no issue with a fund to help start ups... but after it's going... CUT THEM OFF!

Artists in music like Drake, do not need Cancon funding (which he gets), does not need free airplay in Canada via the CANCON requirements (which he gets), and does not require any support by anyone (because he's grown past that).

This needs to end.

That's terrible logic. "We don't know who the real criminals are so let's just lock everyone up"

I think this new tax is simpler than that...

Bryan Baumler's wife's trust fund ran out.

So, when the government was pushing for more rural broadband HS internet access, it was just to increase its tax base ?

If this goes through, I'd be paying this so-called media levy on my $100/mo satellite TV bill, and my internet bill as well?
That's nice; it be contributing twice. It makes me start to seriously consider reducing my satellite TV service, and load up Kodi on a spare RPi.

It could have been worse,we could have been like India (that now pays a 15% tax)....
»www.bgr.in/news/be-prepa ··· n-sites/

Michael Geist's article on it »www.michaelgeist.ca/2017 ··· -policy/

First post on the forum, long time lurker but this really ticks me off.

Its not mentioned in the article, but this will have to affect cell phone plans as well. Data rates on most plans are already horrible unless they put an exception and only tax home dedicated lines but then that would bring up preference issues as well. LTE is just as fast as many home connections.

The news articles should say, 5% increase to cell phone plans in Canada. Then we'll see how long this liberal tax lasts.

I don't watch CBC. I don't subscribe to TV because it's overpriced garbage but I do watch stuff on Youtube and Netflix. I don't want to pay for stuff that I don't watch. That's why I cut the cord years ago.

The last paragraph sums it all.

quote:

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Instead, the Liberal MPs on the committee including Hedy Fry, Julie Dabrusin, Seamus O’Regan, Pierre Breton, Darrell Samson, and Dan Vandal reportedly adopted the worst possible option (even a Netflix tax would be preferable), one that is non-compliant with the law and that would help put the Internet further out of reach for four out of every ten low income households in Canadians. Given its importance to virtually all aspects of modern day life, there are few policy goals more essential than ensuring that all Canadians have affordable access to the Internet. That goal would be badly undermined by an Internet tax that would increase consumer costs and stymie Canadian innovation

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Dumb dumb dumb idea.

Just heard on CTV Newsnet that Minister Joly said that this tax is not a happening thing. So apparently it's going to be dead in the water.

Only because it got leaked and the outrage it is causing. If they are able to quietly push this through, you can guarantee they will.

It's just another new REVENUE SOURCE for the Feds. Plain and simple.

They're BILLIONS and BILLIONS in the hole and the money has to come from somewhere.

They know all they have to do is tell the sheeple some bullshit righteous excuse to implement a new tax and the vast majority will fall for it hook, line and sinker.

Bottom line is at the end of the day it's simply more cash for the Feds to piss up the wall.

Next year it'll be ANOTHER new righteous cause and ANOTHER new tax.

Rinse and repeat................

Do you really think that a G&M print article is the first I've heard about this announcement? Hell, even the CBC radio news blurb on it had more information than the Globe does.

This is them trying to extend the 5% tax that people already pay on their cable TV bills to Internet services, and will go to the same heritage fund that the 5% levy on cable TV goes, and it is explicitly because of cord cutters - there's not enough money being paid into the fund from cable TV subscriptions to support the industry in the way that it's been historically.I didn't say it was good logic, I said that the time to point out that it was insane reasoning was back in 1976. This isn't new reasoning. Personally I'd rather see the money come from the Canada Council for the Arts (include TV/Movies in their mandate as art to support), but ultimately that money comes from the same place - Canadian taxpayers.

These production rules have built the industry in the first place, and if we stop maintaining a favourable situation, there's fear that the industry will go somewhere else where labour laws are weaker and where employment is cheaper. Given the amount of TV shows that I actually like which are Canadian-made, I don't want that to happen.

They will pass it cause other countries are trying to monetize the Internet (through taxes).It's a game of follow the leader.A global Internet Tax and Internet Tax in general is always a BAD idea.

Then the industry has to adapt & change, and not keep expecting handouts. Times have changed, and people ware watching what they want to watch, not what's displayed for them.

Also I'd be a lot more sympathetic if the industry wasn't run by filthy rich companies like Bell, Rogers, etc and how they control the content distribution.

NM, misread

However, I will say that cord cutters do not equal pirates.

We collectively have no control over how that tax money will be used. Blind trust.

In 2015, 1.133 million subscribers were paying $16 to $19 per month for The Movie Network / HBO Canada channels package. CRTC's financial report reveals Bell Media is receiving an average of 9$ per subscriber per month meaning the cable provider makes a 100% profit for the simple task to relay re-compressed signals to customers. From $120 million revenues, TMN/HBO spent 27.76 million on canadian content, minus foreign acquisitions, salaries, technical upgrades and promotions/advertising. The remaining money is pure profit (for Bell's shareholders, I guess), ranging between 4 to 27 million.

Remember, Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Cogeco, Videotron, etc., also made $120 million that year by relaying them TMN/HBO signals. Add 100% profit to each and every specialty channel sold (sports channels subscription revenues average 5$ per month! Ethnic channels are 200% and more!), check each of those company's yearly revenues, their respective CEO's salary...

Here we are, scratching our heads to find ways to finance canadian content productions, looking down at internet subscribers who may have more spare money for a 5% tax. Personally, if I was still paying for cable TV, I'd cut the middle-man (cable TV provider), feels like Bell Media, Corus Media and Rogers Media are double-dipping. Bell may use that extra money to pay airplane tickets for exclusive eTalk interviews, while still cutting off newscast jobs at "little, tiny" local stations, mainly CTV2.

Trudeau says no:

»www.cbc.ca/news/politics ··· ?cmp=rss

quote:

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"To try and replicate the ways of the analog world in a new digital world. This is a fool's errand; the world is changing (and) change means disruption.

Higher taxes and government control of the news is not the answer to the problem."

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Lets hope he doesn't flip flop on that.

I have low expectations about that. Justin is a liar just as much as Wynne,I think he'll sneak in a Internet tax IMHO

I don't have any problem with the tax. I have big concerns about how the money is spent.I have even bigger concerns about the fact that our law makers don't understand the technology. Even Cable 5, the lowest plan available, can handle media streaming with no problem.

Yeah, that's a very good point.

The ironic part is so much of the original content Netflix et al show is produced in Canada due to the cheap dollar.

And we'll pay HST on top of that, you watch.

Yeh - I can see Prime Minister just saying it now to offset any criticism...

Come Sept, it will be on the table.

I mean we already pay premium price for internet speed, why not add a tax on top of the HST we already pay .. they might as well tax the tax as well