A free, strong and independent press is essential in informing communities, driving civic engagement and countering the rise of disinformation. However, for many years, the dominance of large digital platforms in the advertising market has been eroding the health of our news sector.
The Online News Act affirms the importance of journalism in our democracy and will help newsrooms across Canada receive fair compensation from dominant digital platforms in the years ahead. This compensation is critical in helping newsrooms continue to serve their local communities.
Today, the Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage, released the final regulations to support the implementation of the Online News Act. These final regulations provide clarity on which platforms are subject to the Act.
Google Search is expected to meet the regulatory thresholds and to be subject to the Act. Its contribution will be $100 million in financial support annually, indexed to inflation, for a wide range of news businesses across the country, including independent news businesses and those from Indigenous and official-language minority communities.
Under the regulations, Google will have the option to work with a single collective to distribute its financial contribution to all interested eligible news businesses based on the number of full-time equivalent journalists employed by those businesses. The regulations account for the dynamics of the Canadian news industry and the total amount that can be received by broadcasters as a group is capped in this scenario.
Proposed regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, for public consultation from September 2 to October 2, 2023.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will soon start consultations on its own regulations under the Online News Act. Information about how to take part will be available on the CRTC website.
