Censorship and Taxation

By Damien Kurek
Battle River-Crowfoot MP

In the 2015 election, then-Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned that if elected, Justin Trudeau would introduce a tax that would be applied to entertainment. This prediction has turned into reality thanks to the NDP-Liberal coalition. What's worse is that it's not only a tax but another case of backdoor censorship.

The most recent example is the music streaming giant Spotify, which has been sent a massive bill from the CRTC. Its membership prices have skyrocketed due to the Online Streaming Act (passed as Bill C-11).

While the cost of everything is going up, this price increase is a concerning trend for consumers at a time when virtually everyone is using a streaming service of some type. The Online Streaming Act regulatory burdens are increasing costs. Under this legislation, streaming services like Spotify, are required to contribute 5% of their Canadian revenues to a fund controlled by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). It's clearly an attempt at a hidden tax. Further, one of the fears is that this fund will become yet another Liberal-controlled slush fund that sends dollars to Liberal insiders.

The irony of this Bill is that it limits the ability of Canadian artists to succeed based on merit, as success will no longer depend on consumer preferences regarding what they want to watch, listen to, and consume. Instead, the CRTC will decide who receives funding or a leg-up in the digital streaming landscape. Bills like C-11 do not encourage real diversity but create artificial barriers to natural audience growth and engagement. In that sense, it is backdoor censorship, which allows the government to choose what you watch. 

This not only affects what your choice of entertainment, but it will hurt the economy. Small startups aren't able to be competitive. Even major entertainment companies like Disney have withdrawn investments from Canada entirely due to increased costs, and now Spotify is raising prices again. These companies' decisions illustrate the two paths our digital streaming services will face because of the expensive legislation passed by this NDP-Liberal government: either they will offer fewer streaming options, or these companies will pull out of Canada due to unsustainable costs or they will have subscribers foot the bill, as affected companies pass these additional costs onto subscribers.

Bill C-11 reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how the digital economy operates and a cavalier attitude to Canadians' Charter rights. Instead of fostering innovation and organic growth, it imposes a top-down control that increases costs, stifles creativity, reduces consumer choice, and gives the government agency the ability to silence voices that it decides it doesn't want to hear.

Common Sense Conservatives will restore freedom to Canadians, enable Canadian artists to produce Canadian content, encourage a robust creative economy in Canada, and save Canadians costs.