(Ottawa) “It’s not my decision whether I get a bonus or not,” said the big boss of CBC/Radio-Canada in a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. Catherine Tait had been summoned to explain the upcoming cuts within the public broadcaster which is “the least well funded in the world”.
“It’s actually the decision of the board of directors and that decision is made at the end of the financial year,” she said.
The president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada did not want to say whether she would give up her bonus during a period of cutbacks, but indicated that “everything is on the table.”
The public broadcaster announced in December that it would cut 10% of its staff across the country in a context where many news media are experiencing financial difficulties. Mme Tait then planned to eliminate 600 jobs and 200 vacant positions.
“These are projections,” she stressed. If we ever come up with government funding or an improvement in advertising revenue results, we will adjust the number and, above all, the impact on programming. »
In a short press scrum after her testimony, she said she was hopeful the situation would improve.
The CEO attracted criticism in December because she refused to rule out the payment of bonuses during a period of cutbacks, before indicating a few days later that she was ready to review the remuneration of senior executives. Mme Tait had also been criticized for taking a trip to Australia the week after the cuts were announced.
Worried elected officials
Questions from Conservative MP Rachel Thomas on bonuses gave rise to some spats in committee. Mme Tait defended the “rigorous process” by which they are determined. She stressed that these bonuses only constitute 15 million out of the 950 million remuneration paid to all CBC/Radio-Canada employees.
The head of transformation and senior vice-president of the People and Culture section of CBC/Radio-Canada, Marco Dubé, indicated that the payment of bonuses was based on seven performance criteria, including digital performance and radio performance.
“We cannot continue to give bonuses at the same time as we make cuts,” lamented New Democratic MP Peter Julian in the press scrum. The government should instead stop buying a billion dollars in advertising on Meta each year to invest in local journalism, he says.
Mme Tait and his team said the public broadcaster was facing a structural deficit caused by inflation and declining advertising revenue. The gap to be filled annually increased from 21 million in 2018 to 36 million.
“That means, in practice, that we start each year with cuts in our budget,” she argued.
The CEO had been summoned by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to explain the upcoming cuts and the bonuses paid to its executives.
Bloc MP Martin Champoux tried to find out if Radio-Canada would pay the price for the cuts. In his response, Mme Tait differentiated between positions and amounts allocated for independent production. These amounts will be reduced by 25 million at CBC and 15 million at Radio-Canada, “a difference of 20%”. His response did not reassure the elected official, who fears the negative impact of these cuts on Quebec culture.
The public broadcaster, which is independent, received around 1.3 billion from the federal government in 2022-2023. The share of its other sources of income was 516 million.