Heritage minister pitches CBC/Radio-Canada overhaul and a major funding hike
CBC
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge announced Thursday the government's plan to overhaul CBC/Radio-Canada to shore up an institution she said is "at a critical crossroads" but one that is necessary as the country faces American threats to its sovereignty.
While pitching a program that is unlikely to be enacted by the current government given the likelihood of a federal election sometime soon, St-Onge said American "billionaire tech oligarchs" are tightening their grip on the flow of information and Canada needs to revive its nearly century-old public broadcaster to "tell our own stories," saying it's a "national security issue" that so much of what Canadians consume is generated elsewhere.
"More than ever it's important to rely on our own sources of information — made by and for Canadians," she said.
"CBC will never be controlled by Musk or Zuckerberg. It will never belong to billionaire tech oligarchs. It will always belong to the people of Canada," she said, referencing Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
"It's not a Liberal or a Conservative issue. It's a commitment to ourselves, our culture and our independence," she added, saying the CBC was first formed in 1936 to give Canadians a homegrown source for news and entertainment when much of that content was American.
To improve the quality of the corporation's programming in both English and French, boost the availability of "trustworthy, local and impartial news" and make the broadcaster a more reliable source of information during emergencies, St-Onge is pitching a funding increase that could nearly double its yearly appropriation.
She said per capita funding for CBC/Radio-Canada is about $33.66, the second lowest in the developed world ahead of only the U.S.
That funding level has been roughly the same for years and has not been meaningfully adjusted for inflation, St-Onge said.
The minister said the public broadcaster's parliamentary appropriation should be closer to the $62.20 per capita funding average of the other G7 countries.
She said the exact level of funding will be determined by a future prime minister or finance minister, but proposed it should rise over time as the broadcaster's mandate evolves.
The minister said, citing government research, there is a direct link between a public broadcaster's level of funding and its performance — suggesting a cash infusion would bring more eyeballs to the broadcaster's content, boosting market share and citizens' trust.
In addition to an appropriation hike, St-Onge is proposing to take the public broadcaster's funding out of the normal budgetary process, which is subject to the political whims of the day, and embed the funding formula in a separate act of Parliament so that the money is preset based on population levels.
St-Onge said that would offer the broadcaster "stable and predictable funding," and reduce the risk of political tinkering.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has long promised to defund CBC but keep its French-language service, Radio-Canada. He has said there's no need for English-language content because other broadcasters can fill the void, pointing to conventional TV ratings that show CBC is a laggard.
The Alberta government is working to co-ordinate an in-person meeting with a northern Alberta First Nation to discuss an ambitious plan from celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary to build a massive artificial intelligence data centre.
In online posts that were collectively viewed hundreds of thousands of times, some social media users have claimed that a photo of a Mark Carney campaign event was AI-generated.
As the future of the Windsor-Detroit tunnel bus sits in limbo, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon is urging Windsor city council to keep it going.
Alberta is reviewing new guidance on H5N1 avian influenza vaccines, and who could be prioritized for getting them, as shipments are readied to fan out across the country and concerns about the virus grow.
Election Day is a week away, but those eager to cast their ballots in the provincial election have a few options to get their votes in early.
Public safety made its way into the Ontario election campaign spotlight this week, with several of the province's largest police unions taking the rare step of publicly endorsing PC Leader Doug Ford.
When the time comes for people to look back and study the political yesterdays of Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King, history will give a favourable review, says UPEI political scientist Don Desserud.
A woman on trial for dangerous driving causing death in a fatal collision in 2022 testified in the N.W.T. Supreme Court on Thursday, saying she didn't put much thought into her driving that night.
Picture this: You're wandering around the grocery store, trying to buy Canadian. That carton of blueberries is a no go — and that loaf of bread doesn't make the cut, either. The juice you wanted to buy was made in Canada … using imported ingredients.
Ken Rekowski has had to make a home of his room at the Renfrew Victoria Hospital for most of the last 16 years.
Doug Ford's plan for a tunnel under Highway 401 has gone from a surprise announcement to a full on re-election pledge.
Even when a one-of-a-kind program is supporting over 100 rural women experiencing intimate partner violence, it's still hard to find the money to keep it running, says the head of Hamilton's Interval House.
The provincial government is defending a land sale to the Crosbie Group — owned by a prominent St. John's business family — as the PCs accuse the governing Liberals of corruption over a deal involving 32 acres of undeveloped and "landlocked" property in the east end of the capital city.