Evidence of meeting #118 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cbcradio-canada.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
—and when the board meets after the end of the fiscal year. We're talking semantics here.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Ms. Tait, have you made recommendations, with your management team, as to whether or not the eight top executives will get bonuses for the 2023-24 fiscal year?
Conservative
Conservative
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
At the June board meeting—
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
By the board...? The management team will have nothing to do with the recommendation?
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
We will present the results of the financial year and of the KPIs, and we will have an opportunity to discuss them. The HRGC, which is the human resources and governance committee, will review them—
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
—and they will make their recommendation to the board.
Conservative
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Wow. Okay.
Your information, then, provided on January 30 was not correct. You told us that the decision would be made by your management team by the end of March 2024. Now you're telling us, on May 7, that you have not yet had that conversation—
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm afraid the time is up.
I would like to remind members of this committee that we are a parliamentary committee, and we need to behave with a certain amount of respect towards each other and the witnesses. It is my job, as chair, to ensure that this happens. I would just mention that again so that everyone can be warned about choosing the language they use when they speak to witnesses, ask witnesses questions or speak to each other. Thank you.
Now we go to the next person up, Michael Coteau for the Liberals.
Mr. Coteau, you have five minutes, please.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. I do appreciate your being here.
I want to pick up from where I started last time when you were here, just to say that I did disagree with the current system that was in place to provide bonuses just because of the place the country is in. I did make reference to the fact that I didn't think it was aligned with where Canadians were. Having said that, though, I'm glad that the budget is providing more resources—if the budget is passed in Parliament—to mitigate some of the job losses that are there.
I said this before: I'm a big supporter of the CBC. I support the work that you do as an organization. I think it's an important thing for Canadians. It projects our values as Canadians. As a country.... It doesn't allow big corporate dollars to influence public news, which I think is a good thing. I also think that having a public broadcaster is good for democracy. So, I do appreciate the work that you do.
I think it's obvious from what we're seeing from the Conservatives.... Again, despite my objections to the bonus piece, I want to talk about the CBC as a whole. It's obvious that the Conservatives want to defund the CBC. There's more to these questions than just the bonuses. It's about defunding the CBC. The leader of the Conservatives and the members on the opposite side have said time after time that they would defund the organization. It's very clear. Their previous leader said the same thing. Canadians have to realize what's at play here when it comes to the constant attacks towards CBC, bonuses aside.
I wanted to say that because I think it's important for people to know that, despite the rhetoric that's coming from the table, there are many Canadians who support the CBC, so thank you for the work you do.
Now I think you have an opportunity in front of you to revisit, perhaps, bonus structures in the future. Do you think that there may be an opportunity in this June meeting, once the actual bonuses have been issued, to actually start a conversation about what that structure will look like the following fiscal year—so in 2024-25?
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
We work with Mercer, a compensation experts company. Every year, we review the tools and the industry standards and norms to make sure that we are aligned with other members of either the media industry or other Crown corporations so that we're not out of step. We try to peg our compensation at about the 50th percentile. So, we're not paying more; we're actually at the 50th percentile.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
I apologize for interrupting you. I have a minute and a half left.
Are you saying that the structure you have in place today is aligned with the other big broadcasters in Canada and maybe the United States, or just Canada?
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
We only look at Canada.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
You only look at Canada, and you're about halfway, at the 50th percentile.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
That's correct.
If I may answer the rest of your question.... With respect to looking at other models, we have asked Mercer to look at other models because, obviously, we've been paying attention to the concerns not just of this committee but also of external critics or commentators. We're not tone-deaf; we're paying attention.