Protect Our Culture and End Special Treatment for Web Giants

MONTREAL – Today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the NDP’s Quebec Caucus, showed once again they were listening to people in Quebec and announced the introduction of a campaign to put pressure on the Liberal government, so that once and for all, Justin Trudeau ends the preferential treatment that web giants receive.

“Quebecers have made it clear to the federal government that we must put an end to the preferential treatment received by web giants,” said Singh. “People are disappointed that due to their close ties with web giants like Google and Netflix, the Liberals do not have the courage to end the preferential treatment.”

Throughout the parliamentary session, the NDP will work on this important issue for Quebecers.

The people in Quebec deserve a government that will have the courage to apply the same rules to all, no favor for friends or the privileged:

• Tax web giants on profits made in Canada;
• Require web giants to charge the QST and the GST;
• Hold Netflix and other web giants to the same standards as Canadian cable companies;
• Legislate so that no more Conservative or Liberal governments can strike an agreement with a web giant without consulting Quebec, like what Mélanie Joly did with Netflix;
• Close the tax loopholes that favor Google, You Tube, Twitter and Facebook for advertising purchases

"The preferential treatment received by these foreign platforms threaten our small and medium-sized businesses, our artists, our culture and our French language, our media and the financing of our social services. As it stands, the Liberals are simply out of step, other industrialized countries are willing to tax these web giants,” Singh added. “By tackling these preferential treatments, the federal government would recover several billion dollars a year. This money could be used as a better investment to protect our culture, save our media and make life more affordable for all Canadians. For now, only the NDP has the courage to do it.”