O’Toole calls for deep CBC cuts

Conservative Party leadership hopeful Erin O’Toole has called for CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding for its digital and english-language television department to be slashed, declaring the national broadcaster is “stuck in the past”. In a video posted to his Twitter page, O’Toole says he wants to completely end funding for CBC Digital and cut funding for CBC English-language television by 50 per cent, CBC Radio and Radio-Canada funding untouched, including French-language television. The goal, O’Toole says in the video, is to “fully privatize” CBC funding by the end of his first mandate as Prime Minister. In the video, which features O’Toole standing outside CBC Ottawa’s Queen Street headquarters, the Conservative MP says the funding boost given to the CBC by the government of Justin Trudeau has “hurt local newspapers and media outlets fighting for declining advertising revenue.” Daniel Bernhard, executive director of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, which advocates for increased funding for the CBC, said that he feels the argument is not politically popular. “I don't think this is a good move for O'Toole,” Bernhard wrote in an email, saying that attacking the broadcaster “may be popular among the tiny slice of die-hard Conservatives who elect the party leader, but research shows that CBC bashing is a vote loser in the general population.” Bernhard pointed to polling commissioned by the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, which shows that a plurality of Canadians support increased funding for the broadcaster. “If not for them, who is going to secure our democracy and do this reporting? Is it Post Media, that’s losing tens of millions of dollars every quarter? Is it TorStar that’s losing tens of millions of dollars every quarter? Is it the Globe and Mail, that just fired ten million dollars’ worth of journalists? Is it the CBC that, even in its current state, just eliminated 35 positions?” Bernhard said in a phone interview. “You’re not going to solve a journalism crisis by killing journalism outlets.” The Broadcast and Telecommunications Legislative Review report, released last month, called for the CBC to phase out advertising revenue over the next five years, and the lost revenue to be replaced by additional public funding. The federal government appropriated $1.21 billion to the CBC in fiscal year 2019. The CRTC will hold a public hearing into whether the CBC’s funding should be renewed on May 25. Its public consultation process has so far received more than 4000 interventions.

O’Toole calls for deep CBC cuts

Brief | February 14, 2020

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O’Toole calls for deep CBC cuts

Brief | February 14, 2020

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