Mr. Chair, yesterday I had the honour of meeting Mr. Rabinovich, who spoke before the heritage committee. It was an interesting discussion because he described his taking over the CBC after the Liberals cut $450 million to the CBC's budget. He made a decision at that time to cut regional news programming which had a devastating impact. CBC lost 200,000 viewers across Canada. Everyone probably realizes that in the private sector a broadcast CEO who lost 200,000 viewers would be fired.
I asked Mr. Rabinovich why he allowed a move to be made that devastated regional CBC programming across Canada. Knowing about these cuts, I asked him why he did not return to the government and say that it would be devastating. He said, “It was sort of silly to say I am going to the government to ask for money when in fact the message was extremely clear. CBC does not have credibility with the government”. That is why the CEO of CBC did not stand up and fight for regional programming.
Now we have $10 million more in cuts coming in a year when CBC is facing between $30 million and $60 million in losses from the loss of Hockey Night in Canada .
I would ask the hon. member to tell me today, does the CBC still not have credibility with the government?