A steep boost in Crown broadcaster funding proposed by the Department of Canadian Heritage is unappealing to taxpayers, admitted a Liberal-appointed senator.
Sen. Andrew Cardozo, a long-time CBC supporter, in a recent report recommended the state broadcaster be considered an essential service — but without additional millions, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“A renewed CBC must continue to operate with roughly the current budget and an inflationary increase going forward,” wrote Cardozo in his report.
“While of course a budget more in line with public broadcasters in other countries is desirable there does not appear to be political appetite as such for a significant increase. On advertising, it would be best to remove advertising from the main newscasts but without an increase in budget.”
Parliamentary funding for the CBC last year totaled a record $1.4 billion.
Management has said “we need in the $400 million to $500 million range” in additional grants, according to November 25 testimony by then-CEO Catherine Tait at the Commons heritage committee.
Even more funding has been proposed by the heritage department. Then-Minister Pascale St-Onge on February 20 proposed a 79% increase in CBC grants, from $1.4 billion to $2.5 billion.
“It’s now or never,” she said.
Cardozo, a former Toronto Star contributor and Liberal party organizer, said designation of the CBC as an “essential service” could be written into the Broadcasting Act without limiting employees’ right to strike or future governments’ ability to cut its budget.
“It would not disqualify any potential cuts in a legal sense,” he told Blacklock’s.
“I don’t believe there are any such mechanisms and I would not want to tie the hands of a government.”
Cardozo’s Essential Service report also recommended the CBC, like all other TV and radio networks in Canada, be compelled to answer audience complaints filed with the Canada Broadcast Standards Council. The CBC is currently the lone broadcaster granted an exemption that allows it to handle grievances in-house with its own ombudsman.
The CBC must also answer allegations of bias in its news coverage, wrote Cardozo.
“If the CBC is not biased it must provide the data to prove it.”
“Honesty and transparency are key to rebuilding trust. The public may forgive mistakes but they are unlikely to forgive opacity.”
“The CBC needs to attend to complaints of bias on an ongoing bias by having an external party conducting an annual review and public report on bias”
Management must “stop being defensive on the issue of bias and proactively identify its blind spots and how to address them,” he said.
“We need real data about this issue.”