You're misunderstanding the reporting on that. Articles like this state that Meta is not negotiating, but what this actually means is "Meta is not negotiating contracts with hundreds of Canadian news publishers".
Three takeaways:
These negotiations have nothing to do with discussing the terms and wording of Bill C-18 prior to its royal assent;
These articles are all published after Bill C-18 received royal assent;
Meta isn't required to enter negotiations until (a) the Online News Act comes into force, and (b) the CRTC explicitely names Meta as a "digital news intermediary" per the terms of the Online News Act. (Not that they intend to either way, at least for the time being.)
As for discussing the terms of Bill C-18 prior to its royal assent, both Meta and Alphabet have equally and, in both Meta's case and Alphabet's case, publicly shared their concerns, feedback and recommendations on the Bill. No amendments to the legislation were ever made.
The only reason Meta is getting more flack from Canadian News is because they acted now, while the topic is hot, whereas Alphabet will act later. Articles like the one OP linked to can't be used to villify Alphabet because they're not yet blocking news.