(Ottawa) The Minister of Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, wants the role of CBC/Radio-Canada to be redefined before the next federal election.
In an end-of-year interview with La Presse Canadienne, Mme St-Onge maintains that the time has come to update the mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada, in order to protect the public broadcaster against a possible change of government in Ottawa.
The minister says the Liberal government believes that a strong public broadcaster strengthens democracy and promises to continue supporting it, while a Conservative government, according to her, would destroy CBC/Radio-Canada.
The Conservative opposition, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has promised to defund the CBC and turn its Toronto headquarters into housing. The Conservatives also promise to maintain French programming on Radio-Canada.
The federal Liberals have promised for years to update CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate to meet the modern needs of Canadians, as the news sector faces job cuts and falling advertising revenues because of the “web giants”.
The public broadcaster also announced at the beginning of December the upcoming elimination of 600 jobs and the elimination of 200 vacant positions, or nearly 10% of its workforce in the country.
Minister St-Onge wants the public broadcaster’s new mandate to fill regional information gaps, include a strong online presence, invest in international coverage and support minority linguistic communities.