OTTAWA – The federal Liberals want multinational tech giants, such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple, to “pay their fair share” and presumably help offset the $9.3 billion in new investments the Liberal Party announced for 2020-21 in its detailed platform released on Sunday.
If Justin Trudeau’s Liberals hang onto power, they plan to introduce a 3% tax on revenue generated through the sale of online advertising and user data by digital companies with global revenues of at least $1 billion a year, and Canadian revenues of at least $40 million a year. This new tax would apply starting in April 2020.
“During the recent G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Japan, all countries pledged to reach a consensus on a common set rules on digital taxation by 2020,” Liberal spokesman Pierre-Olivier Herbert said in an email to Cartt.ca, noting that the companies targeted would follow the approach taken by France.
“We will work with international partners to ensure that global technology giants pay corporate taxes in the country where they generate their revenue. We will also work to achieve the standard set by the OECD to ensure that international digital corporations whose products are consumed in Canada collect and remit the same level of sales taxation as Canadian digital corporations,” he added.
John Lawford, executive director and general counsel of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa (PIAC), told Cartt.ca he wonders how the federal government would collect the tax. “I guess the idea is that there would be some political and moral pressure,” he said in an interview.
The Liberals expect to receive $540 million in revenue from the tech giants in 2020-21, rising to $730 million by 2023-24.
A spokeswoman for Facebook said the Menlo Park, Calif.-based social media colossus pays “applicable taxes in the countries,” in which it operates, and that includes Canada.
“New rules for the internet should protect people while also supporting innovation, the digital economy and free expression,” Erin Taylor, communications manager for Toronto-based Facebook Canada, said in an email to Cartt.ca. “These are complex issues, so we welcome the opportunity to have conversations with policy makers, including Canadian parliamentarians and the Government of Canada, to make sure that we get it right.”
The federal Liberals also devote attention to privacy and data protection in their election platform, and say they will introduce regulations for online platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and “companies that possess large amounts of data, like banks and credit-card companies,” overseen by a new “data commissioner.”
Canada’s Digital Charter will proceed and will be overseen and enforced by a “more powerful” federal privacy commissioner, says the platform, and will establish a new set of online rights, including the right to:
- data portability, so that people can take their data from platform to platform;
- withdraw, remove, and erase basic personal data from a platform;
- know how personal data is being used, including knowing who has access to it, supported by a national advertising registry where companies would have to report with whom your data is being shared or sold, with the ability to withdraw consent at any time;
- review and challenge the amount of personal data that a company or government has collected;
- data security, compelling those who use personal data to take proactive steps to adequately protect it;
- be informed when personal data is breached, and to be compensated accordingly; and
- be free from discrimination online, including bias and harassment.
PIAC’s Lawford believes it will be “administratively impossible” for the privacy commissioner to manage the Digital Charter.
“There are a lot of borderline cases where someone says something is hate speech and another says it’s free expression. I wouldn’t want to leave that it in the hands of the people who do the investigation on privacy stuff because they have a particular viewpoint, probably – and it seems like more of a court kind of function or a tribunal kind of thing,” he said, suggesting that if the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is given oversight for data rights, the investigative and adjudicative responsibilities could be divided along the lines of the Competition Bureau and the Competition Tribunal.
“New rules for the internet should protect people while also supporting innovation, the digital economy and free expression." – Facebook
In the area of consumer rights, the Liberals plan to create a two-in-one, review-and-enforcement position in the form of a “Canadian consumer advocate,” who will “serve as an independent, single point of contact for people who need help with banking, telecom or transportation-related complaints, and will be empowered to review complaints and, if founded, impose appropriate penalties.”
Lawford would like to know how that “one-stop shop” will affect the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS), but conceded that the PIAC would happily assume the consumer-advocate role if asked and given the resources to fulfil it.
“I don’t think it’s fair that companies continue to inconvenience and maybe rip-off a large number of customers, but because there’s no funnel to bring it to one place, these companies can continue to do so without any consequence, which I think a lot of consumers feel is going on in telecom, even with the CCTS,” he said, adding that such an advocate body could also address systemic issues within the telecom industry.
On social media, the Liberals plan to create regulations for platforms, beginning with a requirement that they remove “illegal content, including hate speech, within 24 hours or face significant financial penalties. This will also include other online harms, such as radicalization, incitement to violence, exploitation of children, or creation or distribution of terrorist propaganda. Because hate speech continues to harm people offline as well, we will also look at options for civil remedies for victims of hate speech,” according to the party’s platform.
The 85-page document also features their plan to cut monthly cellphone bills by 25% over the next two years “using the government’s regulatory powers,” along with their national target to provide high-speed internet to all Canadian homes and businesses by 2030, “no matter where they are located in the country.”
"We welcome this commitment and urge the next government to partner with smaller, locally-based companies to help connect Canadians who otherwise might not have access to these essential communications services," said Canadian Communication Systems Alliance president Jay Thomson, in a release. "In order for any political party and government to achieve the national targets set this year, many more dollars are needed in investments. Studies have shown that at least $6.5 billion is needed to support rural broadband and we are calling on all political parties to commit to spending at least this amount in order for all Canadians to access adequate broadband services."
On the arts-and-culture front, the Liberals pledge to introduce legislation, in the first year of their second term in government, to “ensure that all content providers – including internet giants – offer meaningful levels of Canadian content in their catalogues, contribute to the creation of Canadian content in both official languages, and promote this content and make it easily accessible on their platforms.”
A Liberal government would also increase Telefilm Canada’s annual funding by nearly 50%, and strengthen the regional mandate of CBC/RadioCanada, so that local stations can broadcast more local news.”
CBC/RadioCanada would also be required “to open up its digital platform, so that journalism start-ups and community newspapers can access affordable technology to develop and distribute local content.”
That could mean local news sites have to be given CBC content for free, or that the CBC has to offer low-cost hosting to local news organizations.
