It seems unreasonable, to me, for the government to force companies like Google and Facebook to have to negotiate individually with news agencies, particularly when the government chooses which news outlets are worthy of such consideration.
Why not stretch this requirement out... make Google have to negotiate with every website that they provide links to in search results?... Could Google just provide the option for websites to actively opt out of showing up in their search engine if they do not agree to Google being able to receive ad revenue, in its current form, from their own search list? Would news agencies opt out? I doubt it.
They whole proposed scheme seems similar to the NDP attack on groceries stores for "profiteering" during inflationary times when they have relatively low margins and increasingly rely on banking services as a revenue source (ex. PC Financial)... bread price fixing aside. It's as if the LPC is painting Google as some over powerful wealthy conglomerate stealing revenue from the poor, helpless major news conglomerates being propped up with federal funding.
I'd argue that Google has provided substantial benefit to users over the years, without directly charging us for it. Who else would "Street view" most of the world? Provide free online storage and office software (sheets, drive, etc.)? If a competitor were to offer better products, Google would go under. Look at Blackberry, AoL, etc. In contrast, these news agencies are getting millions of tax dollars and I don't remember it being in the party platform during the election.
