CBC CEO Catherine Tait told the House of Commons’ Heritage Committee on Monday that’s she’s “entitled” to a bonus.
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This comes as the CBC’s viewership collapsed 50%, forcing her to cut 800 jobs last December
“Catherine Tait is already the highest-paid CBC executive in Canadian history, earning over half a million dollars in her base salary,” the Conservative Party said in a statement.
“After failing to produce content that Canadians actually want to consume, and after missing 79% of the key performance targets that they made for themselves, it’s clear that the last thing CBC executives deserve is more bonuses.”
While Tait asked the Liberal government for even more tax dollars during the committee hearing, the Conservatives pointed out the last time the CBC received an emergency $42 million taxpayer-funded top-up she quickly paid out $18.4 million in bonuses, with $3.3 million of it awarded to 45 executives, which averaged out to $73,000 per executive.
“This is more money than the typical working Canadian will see in an entire year,” the Tories said.
Tait is already the highest-paid CBC executive in Canadian history, earning more than $500,000 as her base salary.
The CEO also admitted on Monday that “several” CBC employees also make over a half-million dollars per year as a direct result of these bonuses.
At the meeting, Conservative MP and House leader Andrew Scheer thanked Tait for helping advance Conservative plans to defund the CBC.
“I think outside of the Conservative caucus, you have been the most successful person in creating the demand to defund the CBC,” Scheer said.
He pointed how “out of touch the CBC can be with Canadians,” saying Tait gave out executive and senior management bonuses during “an affordability crisis” while laying off frontline workers.
“Something that even Peter Mansbridge called out the CBC for,” said Scheer.