Tories are right to reform the CBC. But Canadians deserve details

Earlier this month, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation approved bonuses for 1,194 employees, but would not tell Canadians how much they totalled. The CBC’s bonus structure has attracted considerable criticism at a time when the media industry at large is struggling. 

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre used the bonus announcement as an opportunity to reiterate his pledge to defund the CBC. 

“I can’t wait to defund the CBC and sell off the headquarters for housing,” Poilievre posted on X, while linking to a Conservative petition calling on the current government to do the same. 

“It warms my heart to think of a beautiful family pulling up in their U-Haul to move into their wonderful new home in the former headquarters of the CBC,” he told supporters at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference this year.

Poilievre has been consistent, but not clear, about his pledge to defund the CBC. While this outlet supports reforming the CBC, some of Poilievre’s statements raise concerns. The party owes it to Canadians to be clear about their plans. 

The CBC received $1.38 billion in federal subsidies this fiscal year, accounting for 70 per cent of the Crown corporation’s revenue. Other sources of revenue include $288 million in advertising and $122 million in subscriber fees.

Poilievre has suggested that the majority of the CBC’s English language services funding could be cut under a Conservative government. 

“Almost everything the CBC does can be done in the marketplace these days because of technology,” he told talk show host Andrew Lawton in an interview last year. 

This contention is not correct. The CBC provides services — especially news reporting and radio — that the market can no longer provide in many small communities and sparsely populated regions across Canada. 

In prior decades, community papers could rely on local ad sales to cover the majority of their costs. This is no longer the case. Digital ad platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads offer advertisers a superior way of getting their advertisements in front of their desired audiences, and have thus drained substantial ad revenue away from newspapers.

At the same time, many of Canada’s thousands of small towns lack the population density to support the other key means of funding a news outlet: paid subscriptions. 

In a community of, say, 10,000 households, a community newspaper would be fortunate to find five per cent — or 500 households — willing to pay for their news coverage. Assuming 500 did pay $10 a month in subscription fees, the paper would generate only $60,000 a year from subscriptions — barely enough to sustain a single reporter, let alone an editorial team or other costs.

Many outlets have been experimenting with additional ways to generate revenue, such as events or merchandise, but it is the rare organization that has managed to make much of these endeavours. 

So it is simply not true that the private market can deliver high-quality reported news — the kind that is essential to civic engagement, public accountability and democracy — in many parts of Canada.

This is precisely why so-called “news deserts” have been popping up across the country. More and more newspapers have been forced to close, merge or run cheap syndicated content that is national or international in nature. 

According to the Local News Research Project, a crowd-sourced resource overseen by Toronto Metropolitan University professor April Lindgren, 521 local news outlets closed in 347 communities across Canada between 2008 and June 1 of this year. More than 75 per cent of these were community newspapers. In this same period, 260 have launched and remain open. 

At the same time, this outlet agrees with Poilievre’s position that the CBC should not operate in marketplaces where there are robust, private sector alternatives. National newspapers such as The Globe and Mail and National Post, big-city papers such as the Toronto Star and Vancouver Sun, and television news broadcasters such as CTV and Global News, already serve news to affluent and educated readers in Canada’s largest cities. 

Here, it makes little sense for the CBC to be providing news services as well. By doing so, it is competing directly with news outlets that the government is also subsidizing — both by offering a free alternative to paid publications, and by competing for scarce advertising dollars.

Rather than undercut competitors in a tough news landscape, the government should prohibit the CBC from operating in such markets or ensure the CBC is focused on publishing news that serves a clear democratic purpose (such as election coverage, public health news or foreign coverage that private outlets cannot economically cover). 

In short, the CBC should be reformed to serve a focused, public service mandate. It should receive government funding to support high-quality journalism in communities and on topics where there isn’t a market-case for private news alternatives, but no more. 

The Conservatives could likely broaden their tent by pitching a sensible plan to reform the CBC. The all-or-nothing rhetoric of defunding the CBC risks alienating those who see some place for this institution. Of course, a message of reform does not have quite the same ring to it, but as a now-serious contender for power, the party owes it to Canadians to offer more than mere slogans.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to clarify that the CBC bonuses were announced in early July.

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