The big boss of CBC/Radio-Canada, Catherine Tait, argued before federal elected officials that she is not able to say whether the “incentive remuneration” of her executives will be less than the approximately 15 million in bonuses paid there. last year, despite the significant cuts announced.
“We need to keep our talented managers! It’s not a charity, we need to compensate their work,” she argued during a Canadian Heritage parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
Conservative elected officials Rachel Thomas and Luc Berthold, as well as New Democrat Peter Julian, pressed the president and CEO with questions on this subject. Even Liberal MP Michael Coteau jumped into the fray, suggesting that Ms. Tait recommend suspending these bonuses. She didn’t commit to anything like that.
According to Catherine Tait, this issue is entirely in the hands of an independent board of directors, which must evaluate the performance of managers based on specific performance criteria. Bonuses are thus part of the “total remuneration” of managers, as provided for in their employment contract, which would prevent their sudden elimination.
In December, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, directly invited Catherine Tait “to answer the questions that people are currently asking” during an oratory contest in the House of Commons. The minister did not want to say whether she still had confidence in the one her government renewed at the head of the public broadcaster for a shortened mandate until January 2025.
Only 15 million
“We have a payroll that is $950 million, and performance-based compensation is only $15 million [l’an dernier] », Catherine Tait justified herself. She also argued that the public broadcaster deserves the $7 million that is due to it as part of an agreement for media financing by Google.
The next round of bonuses will have to be specified in about two months, at the end of the fiscal year. However, the senior vice-president of people and culture at Radio-Canada, Marco Dubé, indicated that the management of which he is a part “believes well in being able to achieve them [les objectifs fixés] », suggesting that this level of “incentive remuneration” is not threatened.
Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux criticized that the cutback plan provides for the abolition of an equal number of positions in the English and French branches of CBC/Radio-Canada. It is planned to lay off a total of 600 employees in 2024, and not fill 200 vacant positions.
Catherine Tait replied that the budgets of CBC (56% of the total) and Radio-Canada (44%) are similar, and that the cuts in programming will affect the English network ($25 million) more than the French network ($15 million). ).
“Radio-Canada keeps 100% of the revenues earned in their market. There is this perception that we share, [mais] no way. Commercial revenue remains with both services. »
Radio-Canada impossible without CBC
Furthermore, the President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada considers the Conservative Party of Canada’s proposal to shut down CBC, but to keep its French-language part of Radio-Canada, completely unrealistic. “If we cut CBC, there will be much bigger cuts at Radio-Canada as well,” she said.
“It’s impossible to imagine Radio-Canada without the presence of CBC, because we share our infrastructure, our buildings, technology, equipment, and even for everything that involves administration and finances. All of this is shared. We are one company, except for programming [et] the news. »
Catherine Tait presented the unenviable financial situation in which her organization finds itself as being the victim of a disaffection of the public and advertisers towards large Web platforms, causing a shortfall of approximately $125 million per year. “We operate with the same budget that we had 30 years ago,” she said on Tuesday.
A committee of experts must reflect on the future of CBC/Radio-Canada, particularly regarding its financing. The project was presented by Minister Pascale St-Onge as a way to protect the institution against a possible change of government in Ottawa. The broadcaster receives around 1.3 billion in public funding per year.