Radio-Canada, like all federal crown corporations, will have to do its war effort to help the government reduce its spending. It will be forced to make cuts from 2024-2025.
The 2023-2024 federal budget provides for a freeze on the budget allocated to Radio-Canada, i.e. $1.28 billion, roughly the same amount as last year. But Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is considering a number of measures to cut Liberal spending.
Among them, the government intends to work with federal Crown corporations “to ensure that they achieve spending reductions of $1.3 billion over four years starting in 2024-2025, and $450 million per year by the following “.
There are approximately 46 federal Crown corporations, 10 of which report to Canadian Heritage, including Radio-Canada, but also Telefilm, the National Arts Centre, the Canada Council for the Arts and six Canadian museums.
If we do a quick calculation by dividing the sum into equal parts, we are talking about 28 million per Crown corporation over four years (7 million per year), then 10 million per year thereafter. But the government has yet to detail how the bill will be split or if it will be split equally. Nor for how long after 2028.
Radio-Canada declined to comment on the news. “We have taken note of the federal budget and the reductions in spending in federal Crown corporations from 2024-2025, simply let know Leon Mar, director of media relations and issues management. For now, we don’t have more details and we can’t comment on it. »