I don't think it's fulfilling its mandate--in any regard, frankly. Full disclosure here: I am an immigrant, coming many years ago from Ireland. I have lived in this country for 30 years, in literally every part of it. For a period of about 15 years I worked for the CBC in various parts of the country as an on-air person. I worked as a manager also, particularly in the north, in both the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. So I've experienced the CBC in a variety of ways.
I have to tell you that I am no longer as strong a consumer of the CBC as I used to be. I don't find it serves my needs. I find the programming has less and less excellence as we go along. I still have many contacts within the CBC, and I find that the morale within the CBC is not strong. Fewer and fewer people are being asked to do more and more, and with fewer and fewer resources. They do not have the time to do proper research all the time. They're constantly running around trying to find stories from newspapers, and not generating original research. These are vast generalizations, of course, but some at the CBC are saying it.
The fact is that the programming I hear is increasingly banal, particularly on CBC Radio One at popular times. I'm so tired of hearing people phone in and tell me about their first kiss, for heaven's sake. This is Canadian programming? This is not programming that is in any way curated. This is cheap programming. It fills time cheaply for the CBC. It buys a little more time for producers and journalists to do the work they're doing. I do understand why it happens, but I don't like it. I don't think anybody at the CBC likes it either, but it's a product of diminishing resources.
In that regard, I don't believe the CBC is able to carry out its mandate to the fullest. It certainly isn't doing it for the regions.