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Should Canada give up the Online Streaming Act (OSA) in forthcoming CUSMA negotiations in order to preserve dairy supply management, as a former Vice Chair of the CRTC, Peter Menzies, suggested in a Globe and Mail oped earlier this month? Perhaps he was just being deliberately provocative although the question hits one of the raw nerves of Canadian politics. The cultural community– particularly in Quebec–would be enraged if this happened. But then if supply management is watered down to allow more imports from the US, especially in dairy, the dairy farmers–particularly in Quebec–will be equally enraged. Which group has the greater political clout? In both cases, Quebec-based interest groups have a card to play denied to others in Canada. It is called the Bloc Quebecois, and if enough support bleeds from the Liberals to the Bloc, that could just open the way to the Conservatives to form the national government they so desperately crave. The cultural mavens in Toronto have little choice; either support the Liberals or face a worse fate when those Conservative cowboys from Alberta take the reins of power.
The Quebec cultural community which insists that measures are needed to ensure that foreign streamers both contribute financially to support Canadian content (Cancon) and ensure that Cancon (when expressed in French) is “discoverable”, has yet another card up its sleeves. It is called Bill 109, Quebec legislation (that is probably ultra vires since broadcasting clearly falls within federal jurisdiction) that purports to regulate the discoverability of French-language cultural content in the digital environment. If Canada gives way on the Online Streaming Act in CUSMA negotiations, watch Quebec fill the void. So where does all this leave the Carney government? Between a rock and a hard place.
It is true, as Menzies has pointed out, that the CRTC has been very slow, plodding even, in dealing with implementation of the OSA. It may even be overwhelmed, with inadequate staff as he suggests. The fact that implementation is still a work in progress makes it easier for the US government to bring pressure to stop or at least to modify rollout of the legislation, whereas other objectives mentioned in recent USTR hearings, such as changes to the Bank Act to benefit US financial institutions or measures to terminate supply management would require significant legislative and regulatory change to undo measures that have been in place for decades. Best to nip it in the bud, or to kill it in the egg, as they say in Quebec.
Canada’s planned introduction of a Digital Services Tax (DST) is a prime example of a nipped-in-the-bud policy. A DST deals with tax avoidance measures implemented by large digital multinationals by taxing their in-country revenues rather than their manipulated profits. Some countries, such as the UK, France, Spain, Italy etc had already implemented a DST before Trump’s return to office and seem to have got away with it, even though Google, Microsoft, Amazon, META and others of that ilk have the Trump Administration’s ear. Canada intended to implement a DST several years ago but dithered and dragged its feet, finally passing legislation in 2024 that would have brought a DST into effect on June 30, 2025, backdated to 2022 when the law should have been put into effect in the first place. Unfortunately for Canada, the implementation date fell right in the middle of the Trump tariff war and Canadian efforts to negotiate some relief. But rather than postponing implementation yet again–and using the possibility of a future DST as negotiating collateral–Canada “bravely” announced it was going ahead with implementation (regardless of the consequences). Until it wasn’t. Trump tweeted that he was cancelling trade negotiations with Canada because of the DST and voilà, over a weekend, the DST was cancelled (on June 29, 2025).
Trade talks resumed and actually appeared to be making some progress with respect to sectoral tariffs such as steel until the next excuse Trump found to end them. This time it was over Ontario’s World Series free trade ads that ran on US television, using Ronald Reagan’s words from a 1980s era speech praising free trade and condemning protectionist tariffs. The content of those ads may have been accurate, but the result was one of Canada’s more prominent “own goal” moments. While Doug Ford may have derived some brief satisfaction from getting under Donald Trump’s skin, the steelworkers of Sault Ste. Marie, who might have benefited from a rumoured sectoral deal on steel, have been paying the price. I think this fiasco helps explain the public anger of US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra (who surely wins the 2025 “Bull in a China shop” award) who crudely vented his frustration that a deal so close to fruition got blown out of the water through Premier Doug’s ill-considered initiative.
But what about supply management? Canada should be taking a long, hard look at the wisdom of continuing to defend this 1970s policy that almost every other country has since abandoned. Instead, it should use the CUSMA negotiations as the reason to ditch a monopoly that protects a few chosen producers of supply managed commodities at the expense of consumers and the rest of the economy. Unfortunately, that won’t happen because of Canadian political realities but there is still scope for some wiggle room. In recent years, Canada has been forced as part of its trade negotiations to open slivers of the dairy market to EU countries, CPTPP trading partners, and to the US through the CUSMA. The dairy industry screamed blue murder but was paid off for having to face a bit more competition. As part of liberalizing as little as possible, Canada routinely plays games with its commitments by awarding import quotas to the same domestic dairy industry with which exporters of dairy products to Canada are competing. Some additional foreign cheese and dairy products become available to consumers but in effect the fox is in charge of deciding which chickens get let in, and at what price. Even though this policy is an albatross around Canada’s neck, such is the power of the dairy industry (which is reputed to control the outcome of no less than eight ridings in Quebec) that all political parties support keeping supply management off the table in all trade negotiations, and passed legislation to this effect. In a political environment where the government is one vote short of a majority, risking the ire of Quebec dairy farmers is a risky business.
Does that mean that supply management is completely off the table and instead there should be another sacrificial lamb, such as domestic broadcasting and cultural policy, as Peter Menzies has suggested? This is a doubtful proposition. Despite all the posturing about supply management being “off the table”, there will almost certainly be some concessions to the US, even if it is only in the way the tariff free import quotas are managed. The Carney government will claim it is defending supply management, while making some tweaks to the system. It can do the same for cultural industries. Defend the essence but find compromises that US industry can live with.
Like supply management, the Online Streaming Act also has wiggle room in its implementation. Already we have seen the CRTC announce changes to Cancon definitions that introduce greater flexibility and go some way toward meeting the concerns of the (largely US-based) content streamers, while preserving elements of protection for Canadian production. (Canadian makeup and hair design artists will be happy as use of their services adds an element of “Canadianness” to a production that could be useful in meeting the Cancon definition. This just goes to show that you can never discount the influence of a specific lobby). While the US has laid out some maximum wish-list objectives, including withdrawal of the Online Streaming Act (as well as the Online News Act), there are domestic political realities in Canada that will constrain Canadian trade negotiators from sacrificing the cultural sector to gain other objectives, just as there are with regard to supply management. The US may hold a big stick in the negotiations, but Canada is not without cards to play. It just has to be careful how to play them, and when mobilizing support inside the US to do so in a way that does not offend the touchy amour-propre of Donald Trump.
The end result for Canada will not be water or wine, but rather how much water to allow into the wine. Some dilution will be necessary but at the end of the day, for domestic political reasons (particularly in Quebec), the liquid in the glass still will still have to resemble wine more than water. This applies equally to cultural industries and broadcasting as well as to supply management. It is far from an either/or situation.
© Hugh Stephens, 2026. All Rights Reserved.
