Question Period Note: Implementing the Online News Act

The Online News Act (the Act) received Royal Assent on June 22, 2023, and on December 15, 2023, the Online News Act Application and Exemption Regulations (Regulations) came into force. The Regulations provide additional direction to the CRTC about how platforms can obtain an exemption from the mandatory bargaining and final offer arbitration provisions of the Act. Google has been granted a five-year exemption from the Online News Act in recognition of its agreement to pay $100 million dollars per year (adjusted to inflation) to the Canadian Journalism Collective, which has started distributing funding to news businesses.

• A healthy news media sector helps Canadians stay informed and access reliable information while staying connected to our communities. A free press is a pillar of our democracy.
• The Online News Act helps support the sustainability of Canadian news outlets in the digital environment where platforms play a growing role in how news is consumed.
• The Act catalyzed Google’s agreement to pay $500 million over five years to support journalism in Canada. News businesses have already received their first year of funding.
• The Government remains open to working with Meta on ways that it can constructively participate in the Canadian news ecosystem.

• News and journalism are crucial to democracy as they serve to inform communities, drive civic engagement, and counter the rise of disinformation. The Canadian news sector has seen a significant decline in advertising revenues and an increase in the closures of news businesses over the past decade. In 2024, online advertising revenues in Canada reached $18.4 billion, with Google and Facebook receiving nearly 75% of these revenues.
• The Online News Act (the Act), which came into force on December 19, 2023, was enacted to address the growing imbalance between digital platforms and news businesses in Canada by establishing a bargaining regime to ensure news businesses are fairly compensated for the news they produce.
• The intent of the Act is to ensure digital platforms contribute to the sustainability of the Canadian news marketplace, while upholding press independence and promoting diversity and innovation. The Act: ensures fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news businesses by supporting voluntary commercial agreements between the parties; establishes a mandatory arbitration framework as a last resort where voluntary agreements have not successfully been reached; stipulates that the CRTC may issue an exemption from the mandatory arbitration framework provided that the platform can demonstrate that voluntary agreements with news businesses have met the requirements of the Act; and allows news businesses to bargain collectively and defines the powers, duties, and functions of the CRTC as the regulator in the process.
• In August 2023, Meta announced that it would permanently end the provision of news to Canadians on its platforms. In recent months, Meta has signaled interest to entering agreements with Canadian news publishers for the use of their content in its AI products, and potentially participating in the Online News Act framework, conditional on obtaining an exemption and legal clarity regarding the use of news content in its AI products.
• On December 15, 2023, the Online News Act Application and Exemption Regulations came into force. The Regulations outline which platforms will be subject to the Act and provides additional direction to the CRTC about how they can obtain an exemption from the mandatory bargaining and final offer arbitration provisions under the framework.
• Google meets the regulatory thresholds to be subject to the Act. On October 28, 2024, the CRTC granted a five-year exemption from the Online News Act to Google, after it reached an agreement with the Canadian Journalism Collective to contribute $100 million annually (indexed to inflation) to the Canadian news sector.
• The Canadian Journalism Collective is a federally incorporated non-profit organization created for the purpose of distributing funds allocated under the Online News Act to eligible news organizations. Funding decisions are made solely on the basis of eligibility criteria directly informed by the Act and its regulations. The Collective distributed more than $96 million in first year funding to 459 eligible news businesses representing a broad cross-section of Canadian news outlets and a wide range of editorial perspectives. In January 2026, the Collective received $102 million from Google for the second year of funding and began making payments to eligible news businesses in March 2026.
• In February 2025, the CRTC issued its cost recovery regulations under the Online News Act. The majority of the CRTC’s operations are funded by fees charged to the companies it regulates. Starting April 1, 2025, Google, as the only platform subject to regulation, must pay fees to cover the cost of overseeing and enforcing the framework.
• On February 26, 2026, the CRTC published for comments, a Part 1 application from the Local Independent Televisions Stations group to compel Meta to bargain under the Online News Act. The group is seeking compensation from Meta for making their members’ news available on Facebook and Instagram since the Act came into force. While the majority of intervenors expressed support for the group; Meta did not respond to the application. In a previous response to the group, Meta indicated that it was not subject to the Act applies and it would take no further steps to in relation to the group’s demands. The Department is closely monitoring developments.
• Budget 2024 reiterated the Government’s support for the media industry. To support the production of independent, reliable, and diverse local news across the country, the Government announced $58.8 million over three years, starting in 2024–25, to the Department of Canadian Heritage for the Local Journalism Initiative. This support would be available to written press, community radio and television, and online news services.
• The Online News Act has been identified by the United States Trade Representative as a trade irritant in relation to the review of CUSMA and discussions around tariffs imposed by the United States government.

None