Thank you for the invitation to speak with you all today.
My name is Kris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I'm here with my colleague Ryan Thorpe, the investigative journalist for the CTF.
We are here to speak for thousands of hard-working taxpayers who want to defund the CBC. This needs to happen for three important reasons: the cost of the CBC, the fact that nearly nobody is watching the CBC, and the fact that journalists should not be paid by the government.
First is the cost. The CBC is getting $1.4 billion from taxpayers this year. That money could instead pay the salaries of around 7,000 paramedics and 7,000 police officers. That money could instead pay for groceries for about 85,000 Canadian families, for a year. Instead, taxpayers are paying $1.4 billion so the CBC can hand out huge bonuses, get microscopic ratings and overpay its out-of-touch executives.
CBC CEO Catherine Tait refused to tell this committee if she will take a severance when she leaves the state broadcaster. Tait considers that to be a “personal matter”. It's not personal if it's taxpayers' money. Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation show that Tait is paid between $460,000 and $551,000 this year, with a bonus of up to 28%. That is a bonus of $154,000. That bonus is more than the average Canadian family earns in a year.
Around this time last year, the CBC asked for more money. After that, just before Christmas, the CBC announced layoffs in its newsrooms. I've worked in many newsrooms, and getting let go is not a bowl of cherries, but what about the bonuses at that same time? Documents obtained by the CTF show that the CBC handed out bonuses costing $18 million. As the CBC fan group Friends of Canadian Media put it, “This decision is deeply out of touch and unbefitting of our national public broadcaster.”
Thank you to the members from the Conservatives, the Bloc and the NDP who voted to hold the CBC to account for these bonuses.
Let's take a look at viewership. According to its own latest quarterly report, CBC news network's audience share is 1.7%, meaning that more than 98% of Canadians are choosing to not watch CBC's news channel. We have some breaking news here in committee. Documents obtained by the CTF show that the CBC's supper hour news audience is so small that it's difficult to measure. In Toronto, the CBC's six o'clock news has an audience of 0.7% of that city's population. CBC's entertainment barely rates better than its news. The Murdoch Mysteries, which is not produced by the CBC, pulls in its biggest audience, with about 1.9% of the population.
Last, journalists should not be paid by the government. A free press means journalists free from government. A journalist who is paid by the government is in a direct conflict of interest. You cannot hold the powerful government to account when you're counting on the powerful government for your paycheque. The CBC is government-funded media. This government funding has warped the media landscape for decades, putting private media companies at a disadvantage, and that affliction is catching. Other media companies are also on government payroll now. At the same time, trust in journalism has plummeted. About 55% of Canadians now think journalists are “purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations”.
Canadians need a press that is free from government, so the people can hold their government to account.
The CBC is a huge waste of money. Nearly nobody is watching it, and journalists should not be paid by the government. It is time to defund the CBC.