QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
May 8, 2024
Senator Gold, the Trudeau government, in its infinite wisdom, in the estimates in February gave an extra $100 million a year to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, or CBC, raising the taxpayer-funded subsidy to the CBC to close to $1.4 billion. In the meantime, the CBC has hit rock-bottom in terms of viewership, ratings and ad revenue, and the geniuses that your government appointed to the board of the CBC decided to issue management $15 million in bonuses for their wonderful work. Some executives at the CBC earn as much as half a million dollars with their bonuses.
Senator Gold, would you agree that if the Trudeau government and the CBC lived in the real world, that company would be bankrupt and closed?
Senator, thank you for your question and your ongoing criticism of and attacks on the CBC; I say that with as much seriousness as I can muster. The real world is simply not one where market decisions and forces not only dominate, but exclude all other forms of involvement in our collective life. The CBC, as a public broadcaster, serves an important function. There is no question that it is falling on hard times — that it and others around the world are facing increased competition from web giants and changes in the way that current and younger generations consume information and news. It does not, however, follow that it does not serve a useful public purpose.
Senator Gold, we already know your government doesn’t care about market forces. That is obvious; just look at your fiscal budget and your situation. But don’t you also care about ratings? No one is paying attention. No one is actually buying into or looking at this public service that you are offering and investing $1.4 billion in. Those are the facts.
Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts, which your government forced upon this institution, was supposed to change everything. You must agree that it has clearly failed. Will your government repeal Bill C-11 and go back to the drawing board?
You make it so hard to resist, reminding us that there are politicians south of the border who seem more concerned about ratings than good public policy. You know what I’m talking about.
The fact remains that if you speak to Canadians across this country, you’ll know that many of them, especially in smaller communities, continue to rely upon the CBC, and the CBC has dedicated itself to finding ways to adapt to this new reality.
