THERE WILL BE A COST ATTACHED TO BILL C-18

I EXPECT THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF PEOPLE DISPLEASED WITH BILL C-18, SHOULD IT EVENTUALLY GET PASSED INTO LAW, SAYS ROGER BELGRAVE

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There will be a price to pay for the proposed legislation designed to return some of the dollars Canadian newsrooms are losing to the social media giants.

If struggling community newspapers and other news outlets get our way, it will be the Internet giants like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Google paying the tab when Bill C-18 finally comes to pass.

Taxpayers are also paying to craft and implement the legislation, but the government expects that funding won't be ongoing and costs recovered.

Canadian news organizations have been lobbying Ottawa to pass Bill C-18, Canada's Online News Act, for well over a year. The bill would require online media corporations, such as Meta and Google, compensate news outlets for their content shared and disseminated on these types of social media platforms.

The legislation passed in House of Commons last Dec. 14 and is currently under review at the Senate, where a standing committee is hearing stakeholder concerns from news organizations, the journalism industry and the social media companies.

Recently, questions were raised about small news outlets getting their fair share in any reimbursement agreement with the tech giants. The committee was also cautioned to ensure the legislation or multimillion dollar financial agreements do not allow for government overreach or corporate influence in Canadian newsrooms.

Clearly, the legislation in its current form does not please everyone. I expect there will be plenty of people displeased with the bill in its final form as well, should it eventually get passed into law.

Social media companies definitely don't want to part with the revenue. Last fall, a report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated they could end up paying news organizations a total $329.2 million a year in compensation.

The same report indicated the total public cost to develop and implement the bill, through Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), would be an average of $5.6 million a year over five years.

Beyond the dollars and cents, government intrusion and corporate influence would be unacceptably high prices to pay for any newsroom that wants to survive as a credible and trusted news alternative in a media landscape where reliable sources are becoming more difficult to find.

As the act crawls through the legislative process on Parliament Hill towards implementation, more newsrooms will likely close before it gets there and probably afterwards as well. There will be a cost to pay no matter what happens with this bill. We continue to wait to see what that price may be for news organizations like ours, the social media conglomerates and you.