Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doesn’t want to increase the cost of internet or cell phone service for Canadians.
According to a CBC News story reporting on comments that Trudeau made on Thursday at a Montreal community organization, the prime minister didn’t want to propose taxing foreign “web giants” in the 2018 budget because he was worried about potentially harming Canadian taxpayers.
“We’re not going to increase the cost of internet service, we’re not going to impose more taxes on Quebecers, on taxpayers,” said Trudeau, according to CBC News. “It’s a promise that we made.”
Trudeau’s latest comments reflect the prime minister’s long-standing opposition to employing a tariff akin to a ‘Netflix tax.’ The prime minister previously took a stance against a Netflix tax in a House of Commons debate in February 2018.
During that particular debate, Trudeau criticized an NDP MP for suggesting that the government impose a tax on companies like Netflix. “We are not going to raise taxes on Canadians,” said Trudeau, at the February House debate.
“That is what the NDP is asking us to do. We recognize that the media environment and television viewing and production are changing rapidly.” “That is why we reached out and got Netflix to make historic investments in our content creators here in Quebec and Canada, to help them succeed in this changing universe. We have a great deal of confidence in our creators; the approach we have chose is a testament to that.”
This article was originally published on MobileSyrup