Parliamentary Budget Officer floats the idea of a 'Netflix tax'

According to a report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the government could be making upwards of $1 billion over five years if they began taxing online services like Netflix. As it stands, foreign-based online services like Netflix sell their goods and services in Canada without charging federal sales taxes; it is consequently up to the individual to pay the outstanding amounts to the Canada Revenue Agency, which rarely happens.

That ought to change, says PBO Yves Giroux.

The report, however, does admit that consumers may change their habits if they start facing new costs from the federal government's decision to tax these services - a decision which would render this estimate useless.

The PBO has also published a report estimating the amount of money the federal government owes to dairy, poultry and egg producers due to income lost by the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA under the Trump administration. The amount? $786 million for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Giroux's report also describes how other supply managed sectors (in agriculture) will be compensated, although an exact amount hasn't been released yet.