Catherine Tait, President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) waits to appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa, on Nov. 2.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
CBC president Catherine Tait should reveal and justify the public broadcaster’s decision on whether it is giving out executive bonuses, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge says.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Ms. St-Onge said Ms. Tait “needs to be transparent” about whether she is going to give out the bonuses or not.
The chief executive officer and president of CBC-Radio-Canada prompted an outcry earlier this month when, on the day that the broadcaster announced 800 job cuts to address a $125-million shortfall, she told its newscast that it was too early to say if executive bonuses would be cut.
Ms. St-Onge said the CBC was independent and in charge of its own remuneration but added that bonuses have been frozen before.
“Catherine, Madame Tait, needs to be transparent about this. It was brought up. She said that the decision wasn’t made. So we’ll see what happens with that,” she said. “They need to answer those questions and justify if they’re not going to do it. "
Ms. Tait and seven CBC vice-presidents released a statement saying they were looking at senior executive compensation after MPs from different parties reacted to Ms. Tait’s revelation that the decision on bonuses would come after the announcement of job cuts.
In the new year, Ms. St-Onge will begin looking for a replacement for Ms. Tait, who has been at the helm of CBC since 2018. Former heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez extended Ms. Tait’s contract earlier this year for an extra 18 months until January, 2025.
Ms. Tait, who is Canadian, was appointed after more than 30 years in the independent film and television business. She moved from New York to Ottawa for the job.
Ms. St-Onge said she is planning to assemble a committee to help search for suitable candidates. She said it was important that Ms. Tait’s successor understand the notion of public service and the role that the public broadcaster plays in Canadian society.
“I think that what is really important for CBC-Radio-Canada is to have someone that really understands the connection that our public broadcaster needs to have with Canadians,” she said. “So they have to be well aware of the particular and very specific role that our public broadcaster should play in Canada and have this knowledge and understanding of what public service is.”
She said the important role of Radio-Canada in Quebec also needs to be recognized and protected by a future CEO, noting that “the attachment of Quebeckers to Radio-Canada is different than in the rest of Canada.”
“When we’re going to be talking about the future of CBC-Radio-Canada, it needs to be anchored in a strong understanding of serving the Canadian public, not only for commercial reasons, but for what should be a public broadcaster in 2025,” she said.
CBC-Radio-Canada needs to reflect Canada as it is today, she said, praising the work Ms. Tait has done “bringing diversity to CBC-Radio-Canada in the way that they hire people and the type of programming – and reaching out to Indigenous communities.”
Ms. St-Onge said one of her priorities is to review the mandate of CBC-Radio-Canada to ensure its sustainability and viability, and she is planning to establish an expert committee to consider what CBC-Radio-Canada should look like in future, including addressing questions such as “should it still be so commercial, or should it still be doing a lot of the same things that private broadcasters do?”
CBC-Radio-Canada received $1.2-billion in government funding in the 2021-22 fiscal year, but also carries advertising.
“It’s not the role of the government to manage the everyday life at CBC-Radio-Canada, so I’m not going to interfere with their independence,” Ms. St-Onge said. “I think if we want to discuss the viability, and is CBC-Radio-Canada on the right track or not – what needs to change – we need to do it in a broader perspective. It’s not about the management. We’re doing it because there’s a media crisis. And I’m not focusing only on one individual, I’m looking at the entire portrait.”
Last week Ms. St-Onge capped at $7-million CBC-Radio-Canada’s share of the $100-million that Google will inject each year into the Canadian news industry under the Online News Act.
As Canada’s biggest employer of journalists, CBC-Radio-Canada was predicted to gain the largest share of Google cash.
The minister said Canada’s media sector is facing a crisis, but CBC-Radio-Canada, with its public funding, at least has predictability. “They know that they can rely on this – anyways as long as we’re in power,” she said.
The Conservatives have pledged to defund the CBC if elected, but Ms. St-Onge defended its role.
“We need a strong public broadcaster that has a unique role in serving Canadians in both official languages and eight Indigenous languages and so we want to protect that,” she said.