Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage, rises during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. The amount of funding private broadcasters will get through the Online News Act will be limited — with an even lower cap for the CBC — a federal government source confirms final regulations will say today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
OTTAWA – Final regulations for the Online News Act shows the amount of funding private broadcasters will get through the government’s $100-million deal with Google will be limited, with an even lower cap for the CBC.
The regulation released today show broadcasters will get $30 million at most from the fund, with CBC/Radio-Canada getting no more than $7 million.
The rest of the money is earmarked for other qualifying news outlets such as newspapers and digital platforms.
Google agreed last month to contribute $100 million a year, indexed to inflation, to Canadian news publishers, in a deal that had the Liberal government bending to the tech giant’s demands after it threatened to remove news links from its search engine.
As a result, Google will be exempt from the legislation, which compels tech companies to enter into compensation agreements with news publishers for linking to their content, if it generates revenue for those digital giants.
Google will instead enter into a single collective bargaining group that will serve as a media fund.
A Google spokesperson says the company believes the law is “fundamentally flawed,” but pleased it was able to find “a viable path to exemption in the final regulations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2023.
