![Pierre Poilievre promises to axe CBC after board approves bonuses Pierre Poilievre promises to axe CBC after board approves bonuses](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/torontosun/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Polls-Wp.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=biBi7-qzTM37kfFkEOujPQ)
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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has renewed his pledge to “defund the CBC” after the board of directors for CBC and Radio-Canada has approved bonuses for some staff for work they did in the most recent fiscal year.
The move, which was confirmed Monday, came amid outcry that 1,194 eligible employees working for the public broadcaster would receive bonuses in a year when 141 employees were laid off and 205 vacant positions were eliminated.
“I can’t wait to defund the CBC and sell off the headquarters for housing,” Poilievre wrote in a post shared to X along with a link inviting his followers to a link calling on the Liberals to end subsidies to the state broadcaster.
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“We the undersigned call on the Liberal government to defund the CBC,” the petition reads. “Whereas the CBC undercuts private sector and independent media and competes for advertising space while receiving more than $1 billion in direct taxpayer subsidies. And whereas the CBC mostly provides opinions and coverage that are widely available in a free and competitive media marketplace. Therefore, be it resolved that we call on this Liberal government to defund the CBC to save taxpayer dollars and ensure a free and competitive press in the Canadian media landscape.”
Poilievre’s post generated over 23,000 likes and hundreds of supportive comments. “This is the best thing you’ve ever said,” one fan wrote, with another cheering on, “We can’t wait!”
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On Monday, the Canadian Press reported that bonuses will be paid despite members of Parliament saying it would be inappropriate to do so after hundreds of jobs were eliminated.
“The board and the senior executive team acknowledge the views expressed by some that performance pay should not be awarded at CBC/Radio-Canada in times of financial pressures and associated workforce reductions,” the board said in a letter dated June 25.
In response, the board, which would not comment on how much money was being paid to the 1,194 eligible employees, said it would be assessing future compensation arrangements.
“This review will be conducted by a third-party human resources consulting firm, and recommendations to the board will be shared with the public,” the board promised.
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Last December, the CBC said it planned to cut 600 jobs, eliminate 200 vacancies and slash $40 million from its production budget to help mitigate a projected $125-million shortfall. This despite the Liberals handing over $1.38-billion to the public broadcaster in 2024-25 (which is a significant uptick from the $1.29 billion the CBC got for 2023-24).
But CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait, whose annual compensation ranges between $472,900 and $623,900, cried poor saying the public broadcaster was woefully underfunded, even though it shelled out $14.9 million in bonuses in 2022-23.
![Catherine Tait](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/torontosun/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/craft-cbc-20240715.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=eyUusL77m7zDUWScgRNmng)
“At $33 per Canadian — a dime a day — CBC/Radio-Canada is one of the worst-funded public broadcasters in the world, with four times less funding than the U.K. and France and eight times less than Germany,” Tait said. “Until that situation changes, we must continue to manage with what we have and do our very best to stretch limited resources to meet our mandate.”
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Poilievre has long maintained that if elected prime minister, he will end funding to the CBC.
“Almost everything the CBC does can be done in the marketplace these days because of technology,” he told True North host Andrew Lawton last year, while offering to keep funding in place for some French-language content.
“I would preserve a small amount for French-language minorities, linguistic minorities, because they, frankly, will not get news services provided by the market,” Poilievre said at the time.
At a rally in Toronto earlier this year, Poilievre taunted the broadcaster when he promised to turn the CBC’s headquarters in downtown Toronto into much-needed housing.
“We’re going to sell off 6,000 federal buildings and thousands of acres of federal land to build, build, build,” he said. “And you know something, it warms my heart to think of a beautiful family pulling up in their U-Haul to move into their wonderful new home in the former headquarters of the CBC.”
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With a federal election still over a year away, Poilievre is making the defunding of the CBC a main selling point.
Last year, data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute indicated that one-third of Canadians want to see the CBC’s funding cut off.
“Common-sense Conservatives will defund the CBC and we will restore balance for small, local, and independent voices in the media that have been crushed after nine years of Justin Trudeau,” said Sebastian Skamski, the director of media relations for Poilievre.
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