Audit Reveals $60M in Google News Funds Paid Before Checks Were Done

Canadian news outlets were paid 60 per cent of their first year of Online News Act funding before their applications were fully checked. That works out to roughly $60 million from Google’s $100 million annual pot.

The finding comes from an independent auditor’s report the CRTC released last week.

Google’s money is handed out to eligible news businesses by the Canadian Journalism Collective. It chose speed over a full review first. Starting in March 2025, it sent outlets a first cheque worth 60 per cent of what they were expected to get for the year, so the money would arrive on time.

Only the remaining 40 per cent went out after the collective finished verifying the paperwork behind each outlet’s claimed newsroom hours, the report says. An external accounting firm was brought in to test those claims against the Google-CJC agreement rules.

Under those rules, a news business could only claim a journalist’s hours if the journalist was an actual employee of the news business and not a freelancer operating as an independent contractor. “The external assessment revealed that some news businesses had received funding but did not meet these requirements,” the report says.

Overpayments followed when assessed hours or full-time staff numbers came in lower than what outlets had claimed, when supporting documents never arrived after repeated requests, or when an outlet no longer had enough staff to qualify. “Recovery actions have been undertaken, recoveries have been received, and any amounts deemed unrecoverable are being written off,” the audit states. Recovery and write-off totals are not published, to protect confidential financial details.

Full Year 1 funding from the Google deal reached $96.7 million for 445 eligible news businesses as of June 30, 2026, after the collective took less than its allowed 2 per cent for admin costs. Of that completed pot, publishers received $60.7 million, broadcasters received $29.2 million under a 30 per cent cap, and CBC/Radio-Canada received $6.86 million under a 7 per cent cap.

Google remains the only platform that struck a deal under the Act. Meta followed the Act by no longer supporting news sharing on Facebook and Instagram in Canada, which was completely within its rights.

For 2026, the pot rose to $102.5 million after a 2.5 per cent inflation bump, and the collective says it paid most of it in a single spring window. Recipient counts slipped slightly to 425. The CRTC, which oversaw Google’s exemption path and commissions the yearly audit, says the next report is due in fall 2027.

Should newsrooms get a big first cheque before anyone finishes checking the application?