The high-handed manner in which CBC executives dismiss taxpayer concerns about their bloated salaries, expenses and bonuses leaves the impression they have a death wish for the Crown corporation.
Last week, it was revealed CBC paid $18.4 million in bonuses to senior executives while cutting hundreds of jobs.
More than $10.4 million was paid in bonuses to 631 managers and another $4.6 million was paid to 518 other employees.
The head of the Privy Council Office wouldn’t say if the CBC board of directors had given a bonus to CEO Catherine Tait. The CBC falls under the auspices of the Canadian heritage ministry.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to defund CBC if he becomes prime minister in the next election. CBC’s arrogance just makes that easier.
Tait has twice refused to tell a committee of the House of Commons whether she’ll get a bonus this year and, if so, how much.
Also revealed was that the number of CBC employees with salaries of more than $100,000 hit a new high last year.
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Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation through a freedom of information request found that of the CBC’s 7,477 employees, 1,450 earn annual salaries above $100,000 — an increase of more than 230% since 2015.
In 2015-16, the year the government of Justin Trudeau came to power, only 438 employees of the public broadcaster made a six-figure salary.
Conservative critic Rachael Thomas condemned the lack of transparency by the government and the CBC.
“Clearly Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government are content to give CBC executives and their hand-picked CEO huge multimillion dollar, taxpayer-funded bonuses amid dwindling viewership and increasing irrelevancy so long as they remain good servants to their masters and continue to act as the propaganda arm of the Liberal Party,” she said.
As for performance, CBC’s Olympics coverage turned a spectacular sporting event into a tedious bore.
Meanwhile, private broadcasters are struggling in an ever more difficult media environment. Most of them have made massive cutbacks and some have been forced off the air. Yet they must compete with a bloated public broadcaster. When the CBC needs more dough, it just goes cap in hand to taxpayers.
It’s not so much a gravy train as a Champagne limo.