The House of Commons recorded Division No. 181 on Monday 26 October 2026, a vote deferred from the Bloc Québécois opposition day on 22 October. The motion was moved by Martin Champoux (Drummond) and seconded by Christine Normandin (Saint-Jean).

What the motion asked

The motion text, as recorded by the House, said that culture is central to Quebec’s identity, that the cultural sector plays a critical role in Quebec’s economy, that media and cultural production face serious pressures, and that “the government nevertheless abolished the Digital Services Tax levied on the U.S. digital corporate giants”. It then called on the government to:

  • (a) uphold the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s decisions imposing levies on streaming services, as set out in the Broadcasting Act; and
  • (b) make the interim payment of $600 million promised to the cultural sector for the current year.

The vote

  • Result: Negatived. Yeas 23, Nays 298, Paired 10.
  • Yea: 18 Bloc Québécois MPs; four NDP MPs (Don Davies, Leah Gazan, Gord Johns, Heather McPherson); Green leader Elizabeth May.
  • Nay: Liberal and Conservative MPs, including Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The motion is put and negatived on the following division: Yeas 23, Nays 298. — Journals of the House of Commons, No. 155, 26 October 2026 (our translation of the unrevised French text)

Why it matters

The CRTC decisions the motion refers to require large online streaming services to contribute a share of their Canadian revenues to funds for Canadian and Indigenous content. The motion asked the House to put on record that the government should keep them. With Liberals and Conservatives both voting no, the House declined to do so. The vote does not by itself change the CRTC’s decisions or any funding; opposition motions do not bind the government.

Citizen impact: Subscribers and the cultural sector are watching the same question from opposite sides: whether the levies on Netflix-type services stay, and whether Ottawa pays the $600 million it promised culture this year. Monday’s vote shows the two largest parties declined to commit to either in the House. The decision on the levies rests with the CRTC, the courts and the government.

What this piece refuses

We do not call this a vote on a “Netflix tax” bill: no bill was before the House, and the levies are CRTC decisions, not a tax law. We do not report why individual parties voted as they did; neither party issued a statement we could read before publication. We do not say the levies have been scrapped.

Bottom line

298–23 against a non-binding Bloc motion to keep CRTC streaming levies and pay $600 million to culture. The levies’ fate is still open.