Commentary
By Kris Sims

CBC President Catherine Tait’s office might as well be in The Twilight Zone because her version of the state broadcaster seems stuck in an alternate dimension.

Tait recently testified again on Parliament Hill and made some noteworthy claims about the CBC.

She focused on three main points: that the CBC’s pay and bonuses are justified, Canadians are receiving good value for their money, and that defunding the state broadcaster would result in “huge impoverishment.”

First, let’s talk about the money.

“Will you share with this committee whether or not you will refuse a severance package or bonus at the conclusion of your term as president and CEO of the CBC?” MP Damien Kurek asked.

 “I consider that to be a personal matter,” Tait responded.

It’s not personal when it involves taxpayers’ money.

Tait is paid between $460,900 and $551,600 annually, with a potential bonus of up to 28 percent. That’s a bonus of up to $154,448 – more than the average Canadian family’s annual income.

This year, the CBC handed out $18 million in bonuses.

The CBC is getting $1.4 billion from the government this year. That amount could pay the salaries of about 7,000 paramedics and 7,000 police officers, buy 2,400 homes in Calgary, or cover groceries for approximately 85,000 families for a year. Or it could cover the federal income taxes of more than 80,000 households.

Second, Tait claims Canadians are getting good value for this money.

But how can Canadians see value when so few watch the CBC?

According to the CBC’s latest quarterly report, CBC News Network’s audience share is only 1.7 percent.

On the entertainment front, CBC doesn’t fare much better.

The Murdoch Mysteries, which isn’t produced by the CBC, garners the network’s highest viewership at about 812,000 people, roughly 1.9 percent of the population.

Ratings from Numeris for 2022 show that no CBC show cracked the top 10 most-viewed programs by Canadians. Its top-ranked show came in 16th: The Great British Baking Show, which, notably, is produced in the United Kingdom.

Tait did not acknowledge these low ratings during her committee testimony. Instead, she argued that, without the CBC, the show Son of a Critch would vanish, calling it a “huge impoverishment of our status and our place on the world stage.”

Son of a Critch, based on the biography of government-funded comedian Mark Critch, is in its third season. Last year, the show averaged an audience of around 592,000, or about 1.4 percent of Canadians.

Lastly, Tait defended the CBC’s role in sports and Indigenous programming. She told the committee, “There would be no Inuktitut in this country if not for CBC.”

However, last year, the CBC spent just $6.4 million on Indigenous services – about 0.3 percent of its total budget. This suggests that the CBC values executive bonuses more than twice as much as it does Indigenous programming.

In comparison, the Winnipeg-based Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN), which operates without a billion-dollar subsidy, offers newscasts, online reporting, and investigative journalism. APTN also recently launched a second channel, APTN Languages, broadcasting 24/7 in 18 Indigenous languages.

Tait also claimed that athletes rely on the CBC – and sometimes on her personally.

Tait was vacationing in France when she popped over to Paris and spent $6,000 on her trip.

“I interrupted my holiday and took the four days to go to the Olympics,” Tait told MP Jamil Javani. “It would be concerning if the CEO of CBC-Radio Canada did not attend the opening of the Olympics, given it was one of the most important events of the calendar year.”

In what kooky alternate dimension do Canadians sit up at night, concerned about whether Tait will attend the Paris Olympics while being thrilled to pay $6,000 for it?

The CBC is expensive, and hardly anyone is watching it.

It’s time to defund the CBC.

Kris Sims is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.