NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh questioned CBC/Radio-Canada executives’ outrageous airline ticket prices, “especially in times of inflation.”
“Why did they spend enough money in these times of difficulty for the vast majority of people?” he asked himself at a press briefing in Parliament on Wednesday.
“It clearly shows that we have to be really careful with spending, particularly with a public agency like Radio-Canada,” he continued.
The “Journal de Montréal” revealed that former senior vice-president of Radio-Canada Michel Bissonnette, who announced his resignation on Tuesday, claimed from taxpayers between $7,649 and $9,107 for each of the six round-trip flights to from Paris since July 2019.
“I saw that he likes traveling anyway!” joked former Minister of Heritage Pablo Rodriguez, now in Transport.
The current Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, refused to give her opinion.
“I invite you to ask questions to Radio-Canada. Radio-Canada is a state-owned company that is independent: they manage their own budget,” she declared Wednesday morning.
The big boss of CBC/Radio-Canada doesn’t mind spending either. For 2022 alone, Catherine Tait has developed spending allowances totaling $68,129, which includes travel to Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, Geneva or Brussels.