How should Canadians pay for the online surveillance bill?

Bill C-30 in its current form requires internet service providers to provide a way to monitor real-time conversations online and to keep records on their customers should police need the information later.

Higher taxes or higher bills? How should Canadians pay of Bill C-30? (Associated Press)Public Safety Canada says that it will cost at least $80 million to force ISPs to collect all that information.

The bill will cost $20 million a year for the first four years and $6.7 million a year after that, Public Safety said.

It's not clear if those are the only costs associated with the legislation.

It's also not known how the money to cover it will be raised. Ultimately, it will come from the Canadian public.

One way to pay for it would be to set aside federal taxpayer money to compensate communications companies - that's Rogers, Bell, Telus and smaller internet service providers (ISPs), as well as social networks, search engines and the rest - for the cost of complying with the bill.

That's how is has been done in the United States. Congress earmarked $500 million US to compensate companies, although the internet industry puts the real cost at up to $1.7 billion.

The government will set aside some money to compensate ISPs, but it's not known how much.

The other option is to pass all of the costs on to the service providers, who would in turn charge their customers more for internet service.

Assuming that Bill C-30 is passed (either in its current form or after changes are made in committee), how should Canadians pay for it? Let us know in the comments below.


(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)

Related:

• Should the controversial surveillance bill be scrapped?
• Community reaction to online surveillance bill $80M price tag