Netflix, Amazon, Apple launched lobbying blitz ahead of Liberal retreat on streamer rules
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The Liberal government’s decision to scrap funding requirements for major American streamers came amidst a barrage of facetime with corporate executives and industry representatives.
In recent weeks, Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc., Apple Inc., and the Motion Picture Association Canada (MPA-Canada) secured meetings with, among others, Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.), Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller (Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Sœurs, Que.), and Janice Charette, chief negotiator for the ongoing Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) discussions.
The lobbying blitz came after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced last May that large streaming companies would be required to earmark 15 per cent of Canadian revenues to help fund domestic cultural programming. The decision was expected to bring approximately $2-billion into the Canadian media ecosystem each year, and marked a considerable increase from the original five per cent contribution requirement announced under the Online Streaming Act in 2024.
U.S. political and industry players immediately pushed back against the policy, which has been consistently framed by President Donald Trump’s administration as an “irritant” during bilateral CUSMA discussions.
As first reported by The Wire Report, a court filing from July 17 revealed Ottawa’s plans to “eliminate” the base funding requirements for streamers, which critics have framed as a Canadian concession at the negotiation table.
During a press conference last month, Carney said the decision was made “two months ago.”
“We took the judgement there’s a better way to do it and made the investment in culture,” said Carney, referencing a recent $600-million commitment to the cultural sector.
However, Ottawa’s retreat was never made public. The Liberals asked the CRTC to review the 15-per-cent decision, but provided little clarity on the fate of the initial five-per-cent policy, which would still provide hundreds of millions in new funding.
In fact, Miller told the Globe and Mail in June it “isn’t the case” that the contribution threshold would be dropped entirely.
Those comments were made more than a month before Michael H. Morris, a lawyer in the attorney general’s office, told the Federal Court of Appeal he had been “instructed to inform the court that the government’s intention” is to remove the requirements.
In the interim, senior government powerbrokers held a string of meetings with C-suite streamer representatives and lobbyists.
The initiative was spearheaded by MPA-Canada, whose membership includes Netflix, Amazon, Walt Disney Co. and Paramount Skydance Corp., all of whom may have been captured by the Online Streaming Act.
MPA-Canada president Michele Austin, a former staffer in then-prime minister Stephen Harper’s government, met with Miller and Charette to discuss “policies, negotiations and initiatives related to trade” and “broadcasting legislation, regulations and policies.”
Hermine Landry, a spokesperson for Miller, told The Wire Report that the meetings took place at the Banff World Media Summit, held June 14-17, “where the minister met with a number of stakeholders from across the audiovisual sector as part of his participation in the event.”
In the weeks following the CRTC decision, Austin also held meetings with Francis Bilodeau, deputy minister of Canadian Heritage, and Miled Hill, senior policy advisor to Carney, as well as Isabelle Mondou, assistant secretary to cabinet in the Privy Council Office.
There has been a significant uptick in lobbying activity for the industry association, which communicated with 20 public officeholders in the month following the CRTC’s announcement. In the previous five months, MPA-Canada held only published five communication reports under the Lobbying Act on a variety of subjects.
All communications between government officials and private sector representatives must be documented before the country’s lobbying commissioner who makes communications reports publicly available.
Netflix scored meetings with Miller (June 15) and Mondou (June 30) to talk about “the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, including regulations, policies or other conditions relating to its implementation.”
On June 30, Netflix officials met with Brandan Rowe, chief of staff to Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour, N.B.), Carney’s pointperson in cabinet for CUSMA negotiations. LeBlanc and Charette have repeatedly travelled to Washington, D.C., in recent months to meet with White House representatives.
Rowe also communicated with Amazon—on the same day the CRTC announced the 15 per cent threshold—to discuss, among other things, “broadcasting” and “international trade.”
Additionally, Jasmin Begagic, president of Amazon Canada Fulfillment Services (ostensibly the company’s warehousing and logistics branch), held meetings with Miller, Tim Krupa (Carney’s policy director at the time), as well as CRTC broadcasting lead Scott Shortliffe and commissioners Nathalie Théberge, Nirmala Naidoo, Ellen Desmond, and Claire Anderson.
Meanwhile, Heslie Chua, Apple Canada’s finance lead, met with Carney and Krupa, who has since been promoted to the prime minister’s deputy chief of staff, to discuss “policy and legislation in the digital age” on June 11.
In a statement, Renée Proctor, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, said Carney’s meeting with Apple occurred “in the lead up to the G7, where online safety for youth was a key focus of discussion.”
“To that end, the PM met with the CEO of Apple to discuss Apple’s latest online safety tools,” said Proctor.
“The prime minister, his staff, and cabinet regularly meet with a wide range of stakeholders and industry leaders on all manner of topics.”
Davis Legree is the editor of The Wire Report where this piece was first published. The Wire Report, owned by Hill Times Publishing, covers the intersection of business, technology, and government, with a special focus on the regulatory sphere. Sign up here for a free trial.
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