EDITORIAL: Pay hikes reward CBC mediocrity

Article content

The CBC’s board of directors has shown shameless audacity and disregard for taxpayers’ dollars in its response to outrage over bloated bonuses.

The disclosure that CBC/Radio Canada handed out $18.4 million in “performance pay” to 1,194 non-union employees in the 2023-24 fiscal year triggered a firestorm of criticism. In May, CBC’s board announced it would discontinue the bonuses.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) revealed this week that the CBC replaced those bonuses with record-high pay raises amounting to $37.7 million in 2024-25. While a recent collective agreement giving unionized employees a 6.1% pay hike may account for some of that increase, clearly this wasn’t what taxpayers had in mind when they called for restraint.

“The CBC isn’t saving people money if it’s replacing taxpayer-funded bonuses with higher taxpayer-funded pay raises,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano.

“Taxpayers don’t care what the extra pay is called; taxpayers want CBC to stop wasting so much money.”

This comes on the heels of damning accusations by former CBC journalist Travis Dhanraj, who quit the state broadcaster recently, citing bias and a lack of diversity in opinion. As host of Canada Tonight with Travis Dhanraj, the former host told Postmedia journalist Brian Lilley that he was prevented from booking guests with a diversity of opinion.

Behind the scenes, he said he found “performative diversity, tokenism, a system designed to elevate certain voices and diminish others.”

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

The state broadcaster should work to unite this country, not further alienate vast segments of it. Regular CBC viewers are tired of the constant biases shown by smug hosts, some of whom appear to have difficulty hiding their contempt for Conservative politicians and Western Canada, especially Alberta.

Yet the CBC rewards mediocrity with record pay raises.

In the last federal election, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged an additional $150 million for the CBC. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to defund it. The CBC gets about $1.4 billion in tax dollars.

Since the election, Carney has told Crown corporations, government departments and other entities to find $25 billion in savings over the next five years. With this record salary hike, the CBC has demonstrated that it’s thumbing its nose at restraint. It’s lurching out of control and is out of touch with Canadians.