The intention of bringing forward this amendment, CPC-21, is to make sure that we're contending for eligible news businesses that are here in Canada.
We heard from a number of witnesses that they were concerned that if we allowed for foreign entities to be able to enter into negotiations, they would then be essentially taking away from what was possible for Canadian-headquartered news outlets. We heard from many of them that this change was desired and we're here to advocate on their behalf.
On this language we use in this amendment, it's on clause 27, and changes line 11 on page 10 by saying:
is effectively owned and controlled by Canadians
This phrase, “is effectively owned and controlled by Canadians”, is actually taken from the Broadcasting Act. It is consistent with that.
The next component we're offering, under proposed subparagraph 27(1)(b)(ii.2), goes on to say:
receives no funding from a foreign state as defined in section 30 of the Competition Act, an agent of a foreign state or an entity that is controlled by a foreign state
Our goal there is to make sure outlets in Canada are protected and that we don't have foreign outlets receiving funding by being able to enter into these negotiations and be protected by, or within the confines of, Canadian law. That seems very unfair—