Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says a future Conservative government will eliminate federal funding for CBC’s English-language television, arguing the broadcaster should operate like a local non-profit funded by ads, subscriptions, or donations, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
Speaking to reporters on April 14, Poilievre reaffirmed his plan to defund CBC English TV while continuing support for Radio-Canada, the French-language arm of the broadcaster.
“We are going to defund the CBC and let Canadians enjoy it as a nonprofit, self-funded organization, which is what I’ve said all along,” he said. “We’ll protect services at Radio-Canada because without Radio-Canada the francophones across the country would not have access to that information.”
Asked whether he would make the cut within 100 days of taking office, Poilievre didn’t give a timeline but said his position “hasn’t changed.”
The CBC currently receives $1.4 billion a year in public funding. Despite the subsidy, CBC executives received $14.9 million in bonuses last year. Former CEO Catherine Tait told MPs in December the network needed an additional $400 million to $500 million to keep operations running. Former Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge later proposed increasing CBC’s budget to $2.5 billion annually.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has made the CBC a central campaign issue. On April 4, he pledged an extra $150 million for the broadcaster and said future changes to its funding would need full approval from Parliament.
“By strengthening our public broadcaster, we are protecting our identity and our culture,” Carney said. He called the CBC “the most important of Canadian institutions” and warned that Poilievre’s defunding plan “is an attack on our Canadian identity.”
Carney’s chief of staff Marco Mendicino echoed that view, calling CBC a “pillar of democracy.” At a 2023 House Affairs committee hearing, he said attacks on the broadcaster and media more broadly were “fundamentally wrong.”
