Canadian Heritage committee  That's correct. Again, I'm not an expert on that, so I imagine that we all like to watch good content. The idea that people are losing subscribers is maybe because there is not enough good content or that we've watched it all too quickly. I don't know. I'm not an expert on algorithms.

Canadian Heritage committee  When we're talking about a revenue threshold for regulating content, we were looking at $10 million, so I don't think anyone had any concerns about those types of regulations for TikTok users—

Canadian Heritage committee  It is absolutely not.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. When we talk about the fund that we're asking to be enshrined in this act, it's a dedicated revenue stream. Between between 2009 and 2014, the LPIF was a fund that took cable company revenue and directed it into local news. From 2015 to 2021, the impact of Netflix, Amazon and the rest was about $400 million.

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't now the context of Howard's comments, but there's been a lot of discussion about discoverability. We take the position—like Michael Coteau mentioned earlier—that Canadian content is important and it ought to be supported. The discoverability of that content ought to be supported.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Peter. Employment, obviously, is a big issue for Unifor. Our members work in media and work in local news and also work in the film industries. When we talk about local news, the only real way to ensure that local news is funded correctly is if we talk about feet on the street, we talk about reporters, we talk about editors, and we talk about people in our communities writing about the things we need written about and shooting the things we need shot.

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. I said in 1999 that this had to happen. When I was local president in 2009, we sent a submission to the CRTC saying they absolutely had to regulate the Internet. Broadcasting over the Internet is broadcasting, and it needs to be regulated. We have advocated for a revenue threshold, which I think would take care of all the concerns that, say, Mr.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, we don't want to confuse the two. This is about broadcasting. I know Bill C-18 is platform-agnostic, which is great, but this isn't about Facebook and Google. This is about Netflix and Amazon. The CRTC and successive governments have allowed these foreign broadcasters and foreign streamers to come into Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. The Broadcasting Act and the CRTC prevented foreign broadcasters from entering our market for decades, allowing a thriving media industry that heavily supported local news. This committee got it right again when taking on the Rogers-Shaw merger, when you said, “it is essential that Canadians have access to local news that reflects their identity and reality.”

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and provide comments today. I'd like to acknowledge that I am on the unceded territories of the Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit first nation. Unifor is Canada's largest private sector union, with more than 310,000 members across Canada working in 20 economic sectors.