Political parties outline their vision of what to do with Canada’s public broadcaster

Remedies proposed for the ailing CBC by political parties range from the Canadian Alliance Party’s desire to privatize the broadcaster’s TV division to the New Democrats’ pledge to pump $1 billion annually into its overall operation. The Liberals Party’s only promise is that it won’t privatize the CBC. A CBC Radio report said Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps indicated there would likely be an increase in the next budget for the public broadcaster. But it appears that report was wrong. According to the minister’s senior communications advisor, Jacques Lefebvre, Copps "indicated that the CBC needs to have the tools to face the challenges of the new millennium — that’s pretty much as far as she went." He added that it is difficult to commit to anything until CBC president Robert Rabinovitch concludes his report on the future of the public broadcaster. Despite heavy government subsidies for the Canadian Television Fund and a recently announced feature film fund, the Liberals haven’t been as generous when it comes to the CBC. It has trimmed more than $400 million from the corporation’s budget since 1993, which has led to extensive programming cuts and layoffs. On the other hand, the Alliance proposes divesting the government totally of CBC Television. "If people aren’t watching (the shows), what’s the point? What I hear from the people at the ground level … (is that) ‘health care is more important and I’d rather have another MRI machine (than unwatched CBC shows)’," Alliance Heritage critic Deborah Grey told CCR. The Alliance wants to sell off CBC TV, or at least the elements of it that have a business case. That would include shows, such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and Air Farce, and CBC’s specialty news channel, Newsworld, according to Grey. She adds, however, that an Alliance government would spare CBC radio because it is "fairly cost efficient" and "can be transmitted cheaply over new technologies like the Internet." In its policy document, the NDP earmarks additional funds to the CBC to "create a distinctive national broadcaster firmly rooted in all regions." Like the NDP, the Progressive Conservative Party is worried that the CBC has lost its raison d’etre and is becoming Toronto-centric. The PC, in its policy document, calls for a review of the CBC’s mission and role in light of technological developments that are rapidly changing Canada’s broadcast scene. Paul Comeau, assistant to PC Heritage critic Mark Muise, says the PC is a "strong proponent of the CBC," but that it requires more than just additional money. "I think we have to look at what the CBC requires. It needs to refocus… I worry that everything is going to be done in Ontario on behalf of Nova Scotia or whatever." He adds that Muise wants to use the CBC as a "tool to educate our population on Canadian history." In contrast, the Bloc Québécois’ platform contains extensive denouncements of systematic government subsidizing of culture for the purposes of promoting Canadian unity. The Bloc takes issue with Radio-Canada for allegedly kowtowing to the federalist agenda. It notes that Radio-Canada is described in its strategic plan as an instrument for promoting "Canadian" heritage. It also points out that $1.2 million of public money financed programming by nationalist Robert Guy Scully, which aired on Newsworld’s French-language equivalent, Reseau de l’information. The Bloc is calling for autonomous decision making powers for Radio-Canada with regard to programming. Pro-CBC lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting takes issue with the Liberals, who have not followed through on promises to stabilize CBC funding. Following the 1993 election, the Liberals actually cut the public broadcaster’s budget by more than the $365 million that was proposed at the time by the Reform Party. Friends says it wants to hold individual candidates accountable for their party’s position on CBC funding while its "non-partisan aim is to build a groundswell of political support for restoring CBC funding to a sustainable level."

Political parties outline their vision of what to do with Canada’s public broadcaster

Broadcast | November 9, 2000

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