Bill C-18 aims to force “web giants” to enter into deals with Canadian news companies to share a portion of the revenue they generate from publishing journalistic content on their online platforms. The agreements already concluded with press companies remain unaffected.

“This is the future of journalism in our country,” Rodriguez said on Friday. The law aims to ensure that news organizations in Canada receive fair remuneration for their work. »

Under the bill, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) would be responsible for developing regulations establishing the framework, investigating complaints and imposing administrative penalties if parties violate the law.

Canada’s decision to make “web giants” pay for news and subject them to CRTC arbitration follows similar legislation passed in Australia last year.

As Australia’s bill was finalized, Facebook, which has since renamed itself Meta, removed news content from its platform in that country for several days, but restored it after the government made changes to its law.

Meta Canada did not appear before the Commons Committee. According to a statement from its head of media partnerships, the company was “surprised not to receive an invitation to participate, particularly in light of public statements by lawmakers that this law is targeting Facebook.”

Marc Dinsdale’s statement outlines Meta’s concerns, arguing that the bill would essentially force the company to pay for content that media companies voluntarily share on the platform, which she says already amounts to “gratuitous marketing” for news content.

“We think it’s important to be transparent about the possibility that we need to consider whether to continue allowing news content sharing in Canada,” Dinsdale said, adding that Meta is “open to working with the government.”

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu asked Minister Rodriguez if Canada was doing anything to prevent a ban on Facebook content. “This is a business decision to be made by the platform,” Rodriguez replied.

“The world is watching us”

Under the new framework, Canada would follow a similar approach to Australia but with more transparency mechanisms, the minister said. “To the point where even Australians look at us and say, ‘Wow that’s good, let’s see if we can do the same,'” he added. The world is watching us and I hope we’ll be up to it. »

News companies have broadly backed the bill, but associations representing smaller news outlets have complained that eligibility criteria requiring newsrooms to have two full-time reporters could exclude many newspaper syndicates.

Minister Rodriguez said on Friday that the law is not meant to be a “quick fix” and that the government is investing money in other programs that support local journalism. But he also said he was open to discussing changes that would address any concerns.

He added that a collective bargaining provision in the bill aims to support smaller media outlets by allowing them to band together when they face the big platforms.

Google Canada this week criticized the legislation, saying a provision under which platforms would not “unduly favor” certain media would prevent the search engine from collecting trusted news sources about “lower quality” content and misinformation.

And documents Google provided to the Heritage Committee point to other concerns about how the bill defines “eligible” news outlets.

Too vague a definition means companies headquartered elsewhere that don’t meet journalistic ethics standards could still qualify as long as they have two employees in Canada, the documents say, increasing the possibility of inadvertently including foreign propaganda .

When asked if he would support amendments that would specifically add provisions on journalistic integrity to the bill, Rodriguez said he was always open to discussing amendments.

He said the bill is trying to be as “independent” as possible and that the government has no role to play in selecting and deciding which media outlets can enter the negotiation process, aside from the criteria set out in the bill. “I don’t think it’s up to me to decide and nominate which organizations will be admitted. »

CRTC officials who testified before the committee on Friday said they would only review the legislation itself to determine which media outlets qualify.

Rachelle Frenette, the CRTC’s General Counsel and Deputy Director-General, confirmed that the inclusion of “journalistic integrity” in the list of criteria must be expressly enshrined in law.

CRTC Chair Ian Scott told the committee earlier Friday that his agency is well-equipped to iron out the details of the bill and oversee its grievance mechanisms, although there will be challenges along the way. Mr Scott said he had already sought advice from colleagues in other countries with similar laws, such as Australia.

An assessment by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) earlier this month suggested that the measures in Bill C-18 could bring Canadian news organizations $329.2 million a year. According to the PBO, 247.7 million would go to broadcasters with an online presence and 81.6 million to other news organizations.

Meta funds a grant that supports journalistic positions at The Canadian Press.