QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
May 8, 2024
Senator Gold, I want to go back to the CBC, because the CBC has announced 800 pending layoffs. When you talk about the fact that the CBC has hit hard times, it’s not new. The CBC’s ratings have been crashing for many years, and if they lay off these 800 employees, their ratings will probably go down to zero. You talk about hitting hard times, but the only people who have hit hard times are taxpayers who are paying for a service, Senator Gold, that they clearly don’t want.
My question is very simple. Why is there an ideological hang‑up in your government with regard to spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars every year on a service that Canadians have turned their backs on? They’re not watching. You talk about consumerism as if it’s some kind of a negative. Do you know what consumerism is? It’s taxpayers. That’s who the consumers are. Why is your government forcing taxpayers to pay for a service they’re not receiving and don’t want? Why are you forcing them to pay for it?
I said nothing negative about consumerism. I simply mentioned that there are different ways in which a country as vast as Canada can choose to support — or not support — public, non-commercial broadcasting. Historically, the government and Canada have made a decision to have a national public broadcaster, as other countries have done. It is challenged by changing times and by, if I can use your words, those with an ideology that is, if not indeed hostile — although that might be a fair term — certainly indifferent to the values and virtues of something that is not exclusively driven by market forces. These are political choices that parties and governments are entitled to make.
The CBC is struggling, and they will continue to work to become more relevant to Canadians. There are a lot of Canadians who still benefit from the CBC and want to see it continue.
Senator Gold, your government professes to care about broadcasting in general. Private broadcasters are struggling as well, yet you’re subsidizing a public broadcaster to the tune of $1.4 billion and allowing them to compete for private advertising against those private broadcasters. Do you see the problem? Do you see how it doesn’t add up? If you care about the health of broadcasting, let it grow and prosper by pulling out an organ like the CBC that is just competing in the marketplace and being paid by your government to compete against broadcasters.
What I see, Senator Housakos, is that there is a serious policy challenge facing public broadcasters in this 21st century. The question is simply this: What is the responsible way to address it? You and your party have a particular view. It is not one that is shared by the Government of Canada.
