The CBC last year paid nearly $12 million in raises in addition to $15.4 million in bonuses while management complained it was under “immense pressure” due to the pandemic, records show. Access To Information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation confirmed pay hikes and perks were paid even as cabinet qualified the CBC for a COVID bailout..“It’s not fair to ask struggling taxpayers to pay higher taxes so the taxpayer-funded CBC can give itself millions in bonuses and pay raises during a pandemic,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Taxpayers Federation..“If it has enough money lying around to hand out millions in bonuses and pay raises during a pandemic, then taxpayers have every right to question why the CBC is taking so much money from us.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the parliamentary grant for the CBC last year totaled $1.36 billion. It included an extra $21 million in “immediate operational support” due to the pandemic, according to a November 8 Department of Canadian Heritage briefing note Role And Mandate Of CBC..The note said the CBC's funding would ensure stability through the pandemic and enable it to continue proving news and entertainment.“ CBC management did not explain what it did with the extra $21 million..But records indicated the CBC last year approved $11,989,307 in pay raises to 6,700 employees. Salary hikes this year totaled another $9.2 million. Over the same period, the Crown broadcaster paid $30.4 million in bonuses..“It is tone deaf for the CBC to hand out pay raises and bonuses while many taxpayers and workers in the private sector took pay cuts and lost their jobs,” said the Taxpayer Federation’s Terrazzano..The CBC since 2018 has repeatedly asked Parliament for more money, $400 million a year more, to compensate for declining advertising revenue. The heritage department in an April 20, 2021 briefing note Funding Support For The CBC claimed the network was under “immense pressure” despite ongoing aid..“The COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of covering it put immense pressure on CBC’s workforce, operations, finances and systems,” wrote staff. Ongoing subsidies were needed “in order to support Canada’s public broadcaster and ensure it can continue to report local and national news.”.Disclosure of CBC pandemic pay raises and bonuses follow Senate demands for a parliamentary inquiry into CBC spending. “It’s high time and critical in the spirit of transparency to call a parliamentary inquiry and a review of CBC operations,” Senator Leo Housakos (Que.) told the Senate in 2020.
