CBC CEO Catherine Tait, whose salary costs Canadian taxpayers $497,000 a year, lied to parliament about budget hikes and millions in bonus money for executives, says an MP.Members of the Commons Heritage Committee voted 6 to 5 to summon Tait for questioning, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. The CEO has until April 9. Liberal MPs opposed the motion. “Miss Tait actually lied to the committee here,” said Conservative MP Kevin Waugh. “She has misled Canadians. She came in here saying, ‘I need to drop 10% of the CBC staff,’ over 800 jobs.”In December, Tait announced CBC layoffs due to what she claimed was a $125 million budget shortfall and in January she insisted the government-funded media outlet “faces chronic underfunding” and had to “stretch limited resources to meet our mandate.”Then in February a budget called Main Estimates confirmed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government was increasing CBC funding by a staggering $96.1 million this year to a record-high total of $1.38 billion. Access To Information documents released by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) March 12 show CBC shelled out more than $14.9 million in bonuses last year.“It is astounding to me how you can reduce 800 employees at CBC and still give out nearly $15 million in performance bonuses,” said MP Waugh. The committee motion to subpoena Tait back for questioning, which was put forward by the Bloc Québécois, states Tait must “answer questions concerning the increase in funding to the public broadcaster of nearly $100 million” and the payment of $14.9 million in bonuses.Conservative MP Rachael Thomas said, “The problem is the CEO of the CBC Catherine Tait came to this committee and seemingly misled us.”“Tait announced she would be cutting 800 positions. She said she was doing this because of what she called ‘chronic underfunding.’ It’s important to remember the CBC is given $1.3 billion annually and the heritage minister has actually increased that by another $100 million this spring. When asked whether or not millions in bonuses for executives would be out of the picture based on this hardship, she said: ‘It’s too early to say.’”“We have seen this time and again, the politicization of the CBC,” said Parliamentary Secretary for Heritage MP Taleeb Noormohamed. “We hear from our Conservative friends day and night that they want to defund the CBC, that the CBC is somehow the government’s mouthpiece.”“We need to be vigilant.”
