Canada’s broadcast regulator has long been one of the most incompetent bodies in Ottawa.

On Thursday, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) proved why they deserve that title once again.

LILLEY: Carney looks to hike your streaming bill, pick fight with Trump Back to video

In a stunningly stupid decision that is sure to escalate the trade war with Washington, the CRTC announced that streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney need to pay 15% of their Canadian revenues towards Canadian content.

That’s not a 15% tax on the profits these companies make in Canada, and that’s not charging the GST/HST on what they sell in Canada. This is telling them to hand over 15% of all revenues to programming the government approves of.

There is no world where, if this stands, each of these streaming services doesn’t get more expensive for consumers. You can’t take 15% of any company’s revenues and not expect a price increase for the product or service they provide.

Picking another fight with Washington

What’s worse, though, is that this entire issue, the treatment of foreign, mostly American, streaming........

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