(Ottawa) The Minister of Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, does not exclude the possibility that the federal government could acquiesce to the idea of Google financing an independent fund intended for Canadian journalism. This does not mean, for the moment, that Ottawa is ready to abandon the formula of Bill C-18 supposed to force “web giants” to compensate the media for sharing news on their platforms.
Google has been insisting for months that it would prefer to pay money into such a fund than to pay funds to the media through compensation agreements which must be made obligatory with the entry into force, scheduled for December, of Bill C-18.
As the window of time for Ottawa and Google to find common ground shortens, media reports are urging both parties to find a way through. In this context, the idea of a fund could be recommended.
“The ultimate goal, obviously, is to ensure that we bring more money into the system to support newsrooms across Canada and therefore my intention is to continue to move forward with C -18, but to find the way through,” said Minister St-Onge on Tuesday as she went to a cabinet meeting.
She stressed that she “never said (that the government) was backing down on C-18.”
“We look at the comments that have been provided and we are going to make the best decision possible in the situation,” she continued.
The minister was thus alluding to the fact that consultations ended at the beginning of the month regarding the draft regulations surrounding C-18.
The federal government, when it presented its proposed regulations in September, sought to respond to Google’s concerns and requests. The digital giant signaled a little over a week ago that it was unhappy with Ottawa’s proposal.
Google therefore maintains its threat to start preventing the sharing of links to journalistic content in its search engine in Canada. This blocking, if implemented, would allow the company to escape the provisions of C-18 since this law will only apply to platforms where this type of content is shared.
“We are looking for a way out that can avoid this,” a Google representative nevertheless said during a technical briefing for journalists in early October.
Bill C-18 aims to force digital giants to enter into compensation agreements with news media for sharing their content.
The draft regulations clarified that any platform with a turnover of at least one billion Canadian dollars per year and with a minimum of 20 million users in Canada each month will be subject to the law.
Ottawa expects the legislation to apply to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, and Google, provided they allow news sharing.
Meta has already been blocking Canadian users of its platforms since August. Google has threatened to do the same, but has not yet taken action, except temporarily, last spring, to conduct “tests.”
The company did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment from The Canadian Press.
For weeks, Justin Trudeau’s government has been emphasizing that Google’s attitude was different in this matter from that of Meta. However, time is running out for an agreement to be reached before December, the time scheduled for the law to come into force.
Under the current draft federal regulations, compensation to be paid to media outlets 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%.
Google calls this rate “an arbitrary figure that overestimates the commercial value of news links.”
According to government estimates, the digital giant could have to pay 172 million per year. Google vigorously disputes the validity of this amount.
