“No common sense” in defunding CBC, broadcast president tells MPs

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OTTAWA — CBC President Catherine Tait accused MPs who summoned her to Ottawa on Monday of hurling “insults” her way to try to discredit the public broadcaster.

That day marked the fifth time she had appeared before the parliamentary committee on Canadian Heritage within the past 12 months. What began as a cross-partisan summoning of Tait to answer for job cuts announced last year while at the same time CBC/Radio-Canada’s board of directors approved paying out millions in bonuses, including to executives, had by Monday devolved into a testy confrontation.

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“Would you categorize your term at the CBC as a success?” Opposition house leader Andrew Scheer asked the outgoing CBC president.

“Yes,” Tait replied.

“So you believe that you’ve left it in a better place than how you found it?” Scheer asked.

“Absolutely,” came the swift response.

“You must have quite the echo chamber there if you believe that,” Scheer said, as he accused her of being “out of touch,” saying the corporation paid out executive bonuses during an affordability crisis while laying off staff. He also said other metrics were down, including trust in the institution.

“Based on all of that, Ms. Tait, I just want to say on behalf of the Conservative party, I want to thank you for your efforts in helping us promote the campaign to defund the CBC.”

Tait responded by saying: “I must say that it really does shock me, the extent to which certain members of this committee … seem to make me the target and throw insults to my tenure at CBC/Radio-Canada in order to discredit the organization.”

While it may be insulting to hear the dollar amounts about executive bonuses, Scheer said, “I’ll tell you who is really insulted: the front-line workers that were laid off when the CBC was claiming it didn’t have enough money to keep that entire workforce.”

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Tait said that of the 800 jobs the CBC had forecast to cut, it used the extra $42 million the Liberals gave the corporation in its latest budget to save many of them. It ultimately cut around 141 jobs and eliminated another 200 vacant positions.

Following her appearance, Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office circulated a statement pointing out how Tait had once refused to rule out accepting a bonus herself, which has been the subject of previous committee meetings.

Tait told MPs she has not received one for the past two fiscal years, saying the decision to award her one lies with the federal government. The Liberals rely on a recommendation from the corporation’s board of directors. CBC/Radio-Canada has declined to say whether it has, citing privacy.

Poilievre has long promised to “defund” the roughly $1 billion in funding the corporation receives annually from Parliament, criticizing it as a waste of taxpayer dollars and accusing the broadcaster of operating with a “bias” toward the governing Liberals.

Tait in past testimony has pointed out the corporation operates independently from government, and that its editorial independence is enshrined in laws.

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Despite his vocal criticisms, Poilievre has pledged to keep Francophone news services. How exactly he plans to do that remains unclear, given how on Monday Tait outlined to MPs how CBC and Radio-Canada “are not two separate companies.”

The committee heard how the corporation divides its annual funding from Parliament between its English and French services, with its English services receiving around 56 per cent and French services some 44 per cent.

“That’s where the division stops,” said Tait.

“These are not two separate companies. They are one with obviously very profound editorial independence, but with a shared infrastructure.”

Luc Berthold, the Conservatives’ deputy house leader in Parliament, suggested to Tait that its English programming was dragging down the French service, Radio-Canada, because it was spending more money on CBC, saying in French that Radio-Canada was “really exemplary in being a public broadcaster in our region.”

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Responding in French, Tait suggested his proposal would mean the broadcaster only deliver services to a minority of Canadians.

“Are we going to ask all Canadians to support an organization for only 20 per cent of the population?” she asked.

Under questioning by Liberals, Tait outlined the possible impacts of losing CBC’s English services, saying it would deprive most Canadians of access to local news, including in many rural areas.

Not only would it also mean losing upwards of 3,500 employees, it would hurt the “thousands” of musicians, authors and others in the fields of arts and production, who rely on the corporation to help promote their work, Tait testified.

Cutting CBC English would also result in taking away the ability for Indigenous people living in the North to “hear their news in their languages,” given how it broadcasts in different Indigenous languages.

“There is no common sense for eliminating CBC,” Tait said.

“We do not see defunding the CBC as a solution, we see it as making Canada worse, not better.”

Poilievre himself often wields the term “common sense” as a slogan to describe his plans to restore the country back to what he says was a better time, before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were elected in 2015, saying the PM has taken Canada down a “radical” path.

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Tait at times acknowledged that not all Canadians like CBC, but defended the corporation as trying to listen to those voices by deciding to give more resources to newsrooms in Western Canada to create more content like local podcasts.

Tait is soon set to step down as CBC/Radio-Canada president after six years.

Quebec television executive Marie-Philippe Bouchard has been appointed as her replacement, effective January 2025.

staylor@postmedia.com

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