While she finds herself at the heart of an unprecedented storm marked by major cutbacks and decisions considered hasty by some, the CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, Catherine Tait, flew to Australia to attend a conference on public broadcasting.
This was confirmed to me by Leon Mar, Director of Media Relations and Issues Management. This trip, planned since last September, is an invitation from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). As chair of the Global Working Group for Public Media, Catherine Tait is scheduled to meet with industry leaders and take part in a discussion titled The Vital Role of Public Broadcasting in a Modern Democracy with David Anderson, Managing Director of the ABC.
Leon Mar made it clear that the ABC covered the transport and accommodation costs of this trip and that Catherine Tait, who is taking time off, “takes care of all her other expenses […]because she will take time for personal activities during her stay.”
A reliable source reports that the CEO’s communications advisors tried to make her understand that this trip, in the current context, was a bad idea. “I have nothing more to add,” Leon Mar simply replied to me on Monday evening.
I don’t know about you, but if I had just announced to my thousands of employees that I was preparing to make budget cuts of $125 million which would involve the elimination of 800 positions, as government sources claimed that the decisions I made were “premature” and that the minister responsible for the company I manage brought me back to order by inviting me to answer “the questions people are currently asking” about compensation of the leaders of Radio-Canada, it seems to me that the first thing I would do would be to cancel this not really essential trip and to steel my back.
We probably all would do that, but not Catherine Tait.
How can she make such a long journey to the other side of the world when hundreds of employees are wondering, a few days before the holiday season, if they are going to lose their jobs?
How can she leave Ottawa while crucial discussions are taking place in anticipation of the entry into force of Bills C-11 and C-18, particularly with regard to the sharing of the 100 million fund constituted by Google?
Shouldn’t she be discussing with her inner circle whether or not to offer a bonus to her executives? Remember that the host of the National, Adrienne Arsenault, followed the big boss of the public broadcaster on this subject shortly after the announcement of the elimination of 600 jobs and the abolition of 200 vacant positions. Catherine Tait left some doubt as to her intentions.
This woman is a mystery to me. She is elusive. And astonishing.
A few days ago, we learned that Catherine Tait had been invited to appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to explain the $125 million cuts she wants to make. The committee wants to hear from the CEO at its first meeting of 2024. I very much look forward to following that.
But instead of preparing for this important meeting, Catherine Tait is going to visit the land of kangaroos. Amazing woman, I told you!
This untimely trip is reminiscent of that of the president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, who barely after setting foot in Dubai turned back. We can also think of the trip that Guy Grenier, secretary general of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), made to Brazil when the organization was at the heart of a major scandal.
Upon her return from Dubai, Magali Picard explained to journalists that her absence from Montreal would not have contributed anything to the progress of the negotiations, but she understood that in the public’s “perception”, it sent the wrong message.
It’s exactly the same for Catherine Tait. No doubt she can resolve several things remotely and that competent people around her can move matters forward. But nonetheless, out of respect for the employees that it plunges into a climate of uncertainty, the CEO should have transformed herself into a base.
This decision by Catherine Tait risks tainting her relationship with the new Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge. Questioned in the House of Commons, the minister refused to say whether she still had confidence in the CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. It looks bad!
In the meantime, Pascale St-Onge is taking the lead and setting up a committee of experts who will look into the future of CBC/Radio-Canada. Will we move towards increasing funding for the public broadcaster so that it depends less on advertising? This question should be at the heart of the reflection, in my opinion.
This wish was found in the mandate letter given to his predecessor, Pablo Rodriguez, in December 2021.
In 2016, this avenue was proposed in a memorandum on the future of the state corporation submitted by Hubert T. Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada.
At some point, it would be nice if things finally moved in Ottawa.