OTTAWA – Appearing before a Parliamentary committee, Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore applauded CBC/Radio-Canada for its new five-year strategic plan, but his testimony shed little light on whether the public broadcaster can expect to see any increases in funding from the federal government.
Moore said the government plans to continue its support of the CBC by either maintaining or increasing its budget as it committed to doing in previous election campaigns.
“The Minister of Finance has tabled five budgets in this parliament and in every single one of those budgets we have kept our word. The CBC currently receives the most secure levels of funding in its history,” he said during his opening remarks. This support has continued even when Canada and the world was suffering through the worst economic recession since the Second World War, he added.
“Not only have we brought the stability that we said that we would, but we’ve obviously done so after obviously a period of, frankly, cuts from the previous government that were devastating to the CBC. And I can also say that since 2006 we’ve also delivered steady, predictable funding that Canadians have asked for to the public broadcaster,” Moore said.
Under questions from Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez, Moore reiterated the government’s commitment to continue to support the CBC, while also taking an opportunity to slam the Liberals. “You can rest assured that we will continue to maintain our campaign commitment and we won’t do what the Liberals did which was cut the CBC by 40%,” he said.
Moore refused to be goaded into making the $60-million adjustment fund a permanent part of CBC’s core funding. Numerous MPs pressed the Heritage minister on the matter, but he stayed on message, saying that details of CBC funding will be contained in the upcoming budget.
“We made a commitment to maintain our funding for the CBC and we kept our commitment in spite of incredible budgetary pressures in other directions. We maintained our commitment and we’re going to continue to do so,” he said in response to a question from Liberal MP Bonnie Crombie. “I will commit today that the budget will be a great one delivered by minister Flaherty and you’ll have an opportunity for it if you see there’s money in it.”
The Heritage minister also lauded CBC/Radio-Canada for its recently released five-year strategic plan that focused on the regions, digital platforms and Canadian programming, saying that Canadians “want to hear local news and discussion of local issues, the kind of regional programming that a public broadcaster is uniquely qualified to provide.”
In response to a question from Rodriguez, Moore reiterated his satisfaction with the CBC’s strategic plan, noting that it was what the government was looking for.
“It’s what I’ve articulated what we want to see with the CBC, which is a greater shift towards digital content, greater shift to mobile devices, more Canadian content,” he said.
Liberal MP Scott Simms pressed Canadian Heritage on its funding commitment, noting that financial support for CBC hasn’t taken into account the rise in salaries or increases in production costs.
Canadian Heritage deputy minister Daniel Jean responded by saying that all Crown corporations have had to deal with this. Just as CBC is being asked to absorb the increased costs whether they be from salaries or other expenses, other Crown corps are in the same situation. But, he added, when other countries were cutting the budgets for their national public broadcasters, Canada wasn’t.
Moore pointed to the significance that CBC/Radio-Canada has and the government’s commitment to support it.
“The CBC is one of Canada’s largest and most important cultural institutions. It’s the heart of Canada’s cultural infrastructure,” he said. “And I would like to say that our government will continue to ensure that the CBC is supported, accountable, effective and most of all, ensures that Canadians in all parts of the country are informed, entertained, and connected with one another.”
Unfortunately, the MPs didn’t mention the costs of the digital transition for CBC’s hundreds of OTA TV transmitters.
