CANADIAN HERITAGE MINISTER James Moore told reporters at the Canada Media Fund announcement that CBC will receive "record" funding from the government this year, something his parliamentary secretary – Dean Del Mastro – later repeated in the House of Commons.
Sort of true.
In 1990-91, the CBC received $1,078 billion from the government. In today’s dollars, that would be $1.5 billion. Those were the days when the public broadcaster still had a very strong presence in local markets across the country. And because of the apparent lack of flexibility from the government this year, the CBC will likely have to reduce its local and regional services yet again, at a time when the private media conglomerates are doing the very same.
A little over a year ago, the Heritage Committee recommended increasing CBC’s parliamentary allocation by about $200 million – and that was before the economic crisis that has crippled advertising revenue. The government’s real record on the CBC will be written this year and will depend on whether it does what is needed to protect Canadians’ broadcaster or sits on its hands and watches as services are cut and public assets are sold at fire sale prices.
Karen Wirsig
Canadian Media Guild
(Ed note: This letter, a version of which was posted yesterday, has been corrected by the author.)
