The CBC is making the best case for why it should be defunded.
The CBC rubber-stamped a fresh batch of bonuses for 1,194 executives, managers and non-union staff.
According to the Canadian Press, this year’s bonuses will cost taxpayers more than $18 million.
That includes $10.4 million in bonuses for 631 managers, $4.6 million for 518 other employees and $3.3 million for 45 executives.
The average bonus for those 45 CBC executives is $73,000, which is more than the annual salary of the average Canadian worker.
CBC dished out these bonuses despite elected MPs on the parliamentary heritage committee issuing a report stating: “Given the job cuts announced at CBC for 2024, it would be inappropriate for the CBC to grant bonuses to executive members.”
It’s not like CBC executives are struggling.
CBC President Catherine Tait’s annual pay is between $472,900 and $623,900, which includes her salary, bonus and other benefits.
The CBC won’t disclose how big Tait’s bonus is this year. But in 2014, Tait’s predecessor, Hubert Lacroix, told a Senate committee his annual bonus was “around 20%.”
Tait’s “maximum bonus is $145,880 if she is at the top end of her salary range,” according to Global News.
This year’s bonuses come on the heels of the CBC crying poor and begging the feds for more taxpayer cash.
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Tait told a parliamentary committee the CBC is plagued by “chronic underfunding,” despite taking $1.4 billion from taxpayers this year.
What’s worse? The fact Tait thinks the CBC is chronically underfunded, but refuses to end bonuses for CBC executives. Or the fact she thinks the CBC is chronically underfunded even though it takes more than $1 billion from taxpayers every single year.
This year’s bonuses are just the tip of the iceberg.
In 2015, the CBC rubber-stamped $8 million in bonuses. This year, the CBC is handing out $18 million in bonuses. That means the cost of the CBC’s taxpayer-funded bonuses has more than doubled in a decade.
In fact, the CBC has been rubber-stamping bonuses every single year. Since 2015, CBC’s bonuses cost taxpayers $132 million.
Then there’s the CBC’s inflated salaries.
In 2015, 438 CBC staffers were taking home a six-figure base salary, according to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. There are now 1,450 CBC employees taking a six-figure salary.
That means the number of CBC employees taking home a six-figure salary has increased by 231% under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The CBC is about to waste even more tax dollars.
The CBC acknowledged “the views expressed by some that (bonuses) should not be awarded.” So, its bright idea is to hire a “third-party human resources consulting firm” to conduct a “comprehensive review” of its bonuses.
Translation: The CBC is going to spend more tax dollars on consultants to tell them whether they should keep rubber-stamping bonuses for themselves at taxpayers’ expense.
The CBC shouldn’t waste more tax dollars hiring consultants to review its bonuses. The CBC should end its bonuses.
Unfortunately, Tait and the CBC brass seem completely unwilling to do the right thing. So, Trudeau, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge must step in and force Tait and the other CBC fat-cats to end these taxpayer-funded bonuses.
Or better yet, they should defund the CBC once and for all and save taxpayers more than $1 billion every year.
Franco Terrazzano is federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation