Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Mégantic—L'Érable.
Here we are again debating what the previous member just described as an isolated incident of poor judgment at the CBC. The problem with that argument is that, increasingly, it is not simply an isolated incident of poor judgment at the CBC. It is a continual string of mismanagement, scandal and decisions that run contrary to the best interests of Canadians.
Today we are debating the CBC's decision not to support the strong bilingual nature of our country by using the homegrown talent we have, specifically in Quebec when it comes to the French language, by contracting local talent. A Canadian public broadcaster did not contract local talent because it did not want a Quebec accent on a podcast. How shameful is that? That continues a trend of mismanagement, scandal, waste and corruption that has defined the CBC in our country today.
We debate the amendment Conservatives have made. We do not concur in this report to send it back to be looked at further. What has become of the CBC is that it no longer represents the best interests of Canada. Over the last number of months, I have had the opportunity to be a part of the team leading the discussion on issues of heritage for the official opposition. We have seen it time and time again, as with the current CEO of CBC, Catherine Tait, and her refusals.
Just yesterday, in fact, I gave her an opportunity to make it crystal clear that she could show leadership to that organization by rejecting a bonus. She refused. She could show leadership by not accepting an exit or severance package as she departs the organization. She refused. In fact, it was revealed, I would suggest accidentally, because certainly it is not something to be proud of, that there is a 497K club at the CBC.
For those who might be curious about what a 497K club is, it was revealed there are more than seven executives at the CBC who make more than $497,000 a year. On top of that, there is nothing to suggest it was not all of those executives who received bonuses. The average bonus was $71,000 per executive. That is at a time when Canadians are hurting. Canadians are suffering, yet CBC executives are given bonuses higher than what the average Canadian makes in a year. That is absolutely unbelievable.
It is not just me who thinks this. It is not just Conservatives who think this. Increasingly, we are seeing how the waste, the scandal, the mismanagement and the bloat in organizations like that are simply inconsistent with what Canadians want. There was an editorial published in The Globe and Mail. I will quote the headline because I think it is worth putting on the record: “CBC president Catherine Tait’s reign of error will not be soon forgotten”.
As a new CEO comes in to lead the CBC in January, there will be very simple questions that need to be asked. At the top of the list is the need to ensure that this organization is not awarding big bonuses while cutting jobs, and that it is not seeing declining revenues, declining viewership and declining trust, yet lowering its own KPIs. For those watching, KPI is an acronym for “key performance indicator”. That is what bonuses are paid out on. This is something that happens in government and the private sector. An organization will set targets known as KPIs. If those targets are met, there is a consideration of bonuses.
A number of years ago, CBC met, I believe it was, only three of 14 KPIs. That does not sound like a very good record. That does not sound like an organization that is being successful in its objectives. What happened the next year? All of a sudden, it met the majority of the KPIs. I believe it said that it met 11 of the 14.
If we were to take a quick glance at that, many would say that this is great, that it is doing fantastically. It went from three to 11 in a year. How did it do that? There must be some incredible things happening. That is until we start peeling back the layers, so to speak. One might ask what those layers are. Those layers are that the CBC, instead of improving its performance, simply lowered its targets. As a result, it was not simply that these were bar graphs in a chart, which were then published, that suggested that maybe it was doing better than it was. That is a very small part of what these KPIs are. Rather, what that means is that the organization then recommended big taxpayer-funded bonuses for its managers and executives.
We see this trend under the Liberals. They reward themselves for failure, yet refuse to take responsibility for what has become a series of incidences of mistakes, of mismanagement, of bloat, of paying out big dollars to those who support them and their agenda. This is all while Canadians suffer.
When it comes to defunding the CBC, I think, increasingly, Canadians are the ones who are singing this proverbial tune. They look at the bonuses and say that this is simply not worth the cost. They look at the programming, and they are not watching the programming. It is not like this is something that is being led by Conservatives. This is Canadians choosing to not watch CBC programming. It is clear and simple. The numbers prove it.
At committee yesterday, the CEO explained what connected TVs were and how they just recently discovered that Canadians were able to access content in diverse and different ways. What is very interesting about that is that Canadians are not surprised about the way that they can access content. Canadians have been accessing a diversity of content, which certainly does not line up with what the CBC offers, and increasing numbers of Canadians are looking for new and creative ways to see that content, yet here we have the CBC awarding itself big bonuses, and manipulating the information and the performance indicators. If we were to look at it at first glance, we would say that it is doing great. However, it is manipulating it to look good at a time when, by any objective measure, it can only be described as failing.
Here we are. We have an example of that. Despite the proud bilingual history of our country, what did CBC decide to do? It decided to outsource the dubbing of the French language of an English podcast to a company from Paris. It might have even been a similar to the CEO taking a taxpayer-funded, supposed break from her holiday in Paris to go to the Olympics because she had to be there. It could also be similar to the fact that the Liberals said yesterday at committee that being paid half a million dollars to be proud of Canada is certainly worth it when it comes to those at the CBC.
We see how this record of failure and decline is what defines the Liberals. The message is simple: Is it worth the cost? To those French-language artists in Quebec, who could have gotten that contract, it seems like the CBC certainly did not prioritize them. We have now heard that the CBC is now, because of that mistake, reversing that decision and going back, at a cost to taxpayers.
The problem with failure is that it hurts everybody. When it comes to the future of the CBC, I think Canadians are making it clearer and clearer every day that it is not worth the cost. It is time to reject the bonuses. It is time to fire the Prime Minister. It is time to defund the CBC.
