By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The House Canadian Heritage committee yesterday unanimously adopted an NDP amendment to the Online News Act, bill C-18, that would give technology platforms an interim one-year exemption from negotiations with news organizations to host their articles until they can be granted a full five-year exemption.
The five-year moratorium on negotiations with news organizations was adopted in a committee hearing on Friday, and the committee was looking to define the limit on an interim exemption that exists in the current version of the bill.
So yesterday, the committee decided that the interim period should be limited to one year as a temporary measure if the platforms fulfilled parts of their obligations but did not completely satisfy all requirements for a full exemption.
The rationale for the exemption is to give the platforms some reprieve from having to constantly negotiate with news organizations on a rolling basis indefinitely.
A platform can be granted an interim moratorium if “(…)the Commission [CRTC] is of the opinion that it will be able to change its opinion because the operator is, in good faith, taking measures that will permit the criteria to be satisfied within a reasonable period,” the bill read before the amendment.
The committee also adopted another amendment that defines the timeline for negotiations, which will include 90 days for the negotiation period, 20 days beyond that for mediation, and, if the two sides still cannot come to an agreement, 45 days for final offer arbitration in which the two sides will present a price and the CRTC will choose which offer is best.
The purpose is to ensure that the platform don’t drag the puck, as NDP MP Peter Julian quipped.
On Friday, the committee will study amendments on the designation of eligible news businesses.
