In late 2023, Heritage Minister Pascal St-Onge said the time had come for the federal government to redefine what the CBC does and how it does so.
A year later, and with a federal election scheduled for this spring, her office promises ministers will announce planned changes to the public broadcaster’s remit “in due course”. But with parliamentary action on hold until late March due to the adjournment of parliament and opposition parties desperate to call elections, passing legal changes to the CBC’s mandate may be a tall order.
Meanwhile, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poièvre is sticking to his promise to “stop funding” the CBC if his party forms the next government.
“Yes, we will do it,” he said in a recent interview with the Toronto Sun, adding that he intended to make good on his promise “very quickly.”
This means that the CBC’s current role, prospects for reform, and its very existence will be an electoral issue in the next election campaign.
Peter Menzies, a senior research fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, predicted that the CBC would be in the “very ticklish position” of covering an election campaign that would be a major feature.
Sarah Andrews, director of government and media at the advocacy group Friends of Canadian Media, said public broadcasting will be a “big issue” in the election for Canadians.
“We’re talking about the very existence of the CBC,” she said. “For some people, it’s as Canadian as maple syrup or beaver. It’s fundamental to our identity.”
The Conservatives have not provided details about how the plan will work. Damien Cleck, the party’s current history critic, said in a media statement that the Conservative Party will “stop funding the CBC while preserving funding to ensure French-speaking Canadians continue to receive news services.” “I will.”
He called the CBC a “broken and failed propaganda machine” and said his party would “transform CBC headquarters into a beautiful home for Canadian families.”
In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Poilievre was asked if his plan included “shutting them down.” He renewed his pledge to defund the CBC to save the government $1 billion a year.
From 2023 to 2024, CBC/Radio-Canada received $1.44 billion from the federal government and generated revenue of $493.5 million.
For the Conservatives, Menzies said, pledging to defund the CBC “speaks to a huge part of their base. It lights up the crowd. It’s stimulating fundraising like crazy.” he said.
But that message may not resonate equally with all voters. Jessica Johnson is a senior research fellow at McGill University’s Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, whose research found that most Canadians (including Conservative voters) want to keep the CBC. did.
Overall, only 11% of people surveyed between late August and early September 2024 supported defunding public broadcasters.
Mr Johnson said if a party put a defunding promise on its platform it would be an “ideological decision and a statement that we would have to defend to the country”.
She said most Canadians don’t want fundamental changes to public broadcasting, but “they want improvements.”
“They want to do even better what they are doing now.”
Critics of Poièvre’s plan say it would be difficult to cut funding for English-language services alone. The English-language CBC and French-language Radio Canada share many resources, including buildings.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s new CEO Marie-Philippe Bouchard told a parliamentary committee in November that the two services are “obviously very interconnected.” She said, “All the support services outside of Quebec are actually provided by the English services. Without that support, there would be no services.”
The CBC’s mandate is set out in the Broadcasting Act 1991. It says public broadcasters should “provide a broadcasting service that incorporates a wide range of programming that informs, educates and entertains”.
“What this legislation does is simply create or establish that this organization exists,” said Monica Auer, executive director of the Communication Research and Policy Forum.
“If an entity is completely defunded, it technically still exists. It just can’t operate.”
In 2021, the Liberal government tasked then-Minister of Culture Pablo Rodriguez with modernizing CBC/Radio-Canada and renewing its decades-old mandate.
“Over the last 30 years, the proliferation of the internet…the platform on which the CBC operates has clearly changed,” Andrews said, noting the addition of online news and the CBC Gem streaming service to the old television and radio services. I mentioned it.
“We need to carry this mission into the modern world.”
The Liberals haven’t given much indication of how they intend to do that. The government will not launch a public consultation on the CBC’s new mandate, saying there has been sufficient feedback from previous proceedings, including the Broadcasting and Communications Review Board, which considered a wide range of communications-related issues between 2018 and 2020. selected.
Mr Auer said there were several important takeaways from the consultations so far.
“The first conclusion is that the vast majority of Canadians value our national public broadcaster,” she said. “I think it’s fair to say that many people participating in these proceedings have expressed concerns about their performance.”
He added: “Many people have criticized the Corporation for being similar in many ways to publicly funded commercial private broadcasters. But that is a symptom; the cause is a lack of public funding.” It’s there,” he added.
Auer said Canada has “very poor” funding for public broadcasting compared to other countries.
In December, the House of Commons Heritage Committee called on the government to “significantly and permanently increase” funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, “remove paid subscription services, and phase out its reliance on commercial advertising revenue.” It recommended that it be terminated.”
The report said defunding the CBC would result in thousands of layoffs and “many more indirect job losses.”
The newspaper said that in some parts of Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada “is often the only station providing news service.” The report found that public broadcasters had in some cases “failed to meet their obligations in this regard.”
Conservative MPs on the committee opposed the report and called for funding to the CBC to be cut.
A spokesperson for St. Onge said in a statement that the minister “has been working closely with experts, Canadians and caucus colleagues for many months on potential policy changes for CBC/Radio-Canada. I look forward to speaking more about this topic.” Of course. ”
Bouchard only started work earlier this month, the statement said. Bouchard replaced Catherine Tate, who was controversial over executive bonuses and other issues. Saint-Onge’s office said Bouchard “is doing important work at this time to advance public service media.”
A CBC spokesperson said the broadcaster “looks forward to hearing the fruits of the minister’s work.”
Mr Menzies said the Liberal government may have “missed an opportunity” to introduce new obligations, which is causing problems for Mr Bouchard.
“She may have her own vision, but I don’t think she’ll be able to express it to her staff until she gets a new assignment, which she might not get now. It’s left hanging.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2024.
