Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge unexpectedly announced that the Online News Act would start being enforced by the end of the year, which skips months of planned public consultations..In a legal notice released on Saturday, St-Onge admitted that the schedule for making these changes was "aggressive" and “accelerated.”.“The Act will come into force on December 19, 2023,” said a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement by St-Onge’s department. .“This aggressive implementation timeline requires the department of Canadian Heritage to seek pre-publication of the regulatory proposal as soon as possible.”.On June 22, Parliament passed Bill C-18 the Online News Act. .“This accelerated timeline limited the department of Canadian Heritage’s ability to consult during the development of the regulatory proposal,” said Analysis Statement. .According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Bill C-18 requires Google and Facebook to give back some of the money they make from ads on linked news stories to Canadian news organizations..The CRTC, as late as August 24, said it intended to “launch a public consultation this fall to gather views,” publish draft regulations in the summer of 2024 and begin enforcing the Act as late as 2025..“There is going to be a consultation process around regulations,” Minister St-Onge told reporters on August 21. .“Facebook and Google and all the other media and the public are invited to comment on these regulations when they come out.”.No explanation was provided for why the Act would be enforced so quickly. On June 23, Facebook started blocking all free links to news stories from Canada to avoid paying for them..On June 29, Google Canada announced it would stop providing free links to news stories. This move collapsed any plans of revenue sharing..“Bill C-18 has become law and remains unworkable,” the company said in a statement..In a technical briefing with reporters on Friday, the department of Canadian Heritage said full compliance would see Google and Facebook pay publishers $234 million a year, a fraction of earlier estimates. The Budget Office last October 22 in a report Cost Estimate for Bill C-18 put revenue sharing at $329 million. .“Those are estimates,” said Thomas Owen Ripley, associate assistant deputy Heritage minister..“How do you compel a company to pay this?” asked a reporter. .“Companies have been vocal about some of their criticisms of the legislation,” replied Ripley..“As we have seen, there is a question of whether platforms remove themselves entirely from the digital news marketplace to avoid being subject to the Act. The government remains focused through this regulatory process on putting forward what it sees as a reasonable, viable framework.”.Many independent news organizations spoke against the Online News Act at the Senate Transport and Communications committee. According to the Heritage department, the CBC would benefit the most from this new law.
