Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St. Onge announced the federal government’s new mandate for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Canada on February 20. The CBC/RC has been operating with largely the same priorities since its last update in 1991. Broadcasting and media has changed significantly in the last 34 years, and this update was long overdue. However, the changes in the CBC/RC mandate do not go far enough to modernize the public broadcaster, its funding, and how it competes with private enterprise.
Despite the blustering of certain mainstream political parties, there is absolutely a place for a public broadcaster in Canada. A privately-owned media company’s first responsibility is to its shareholders. Public broadcasters have a responsibility to their shareholders – the citizens who fund it through taxation. A public broadcaster’s responsibility is to represent and present the stories of the culture and communities reflecting our diverse country. Without a viable public broadcaster, and with private media networks inundated with mostly American programming but injecting Canadian commercials, who will tell Canadian stories?
St. Onge’s announcement does not clarify what will happen to its programming, or how it will represent all Canadian stories. Spending Canadian government money – our money – on U.S.-based programming or licencing U.S. concepts to create a Canadian version is a poor use of funds that would be better spent fostering Canadian content.
Among the largest changes to the public broadcaster is funding. Currently, the CBC/RC funding is decided through the government’s annual budget process. Under the proposed changes, a per-capita funding amount will be appropriated yearly, similar to how Old Age Pensions and provincial health care transfers are decided. This provides a long-term funding model, rather than the broadcaster being subjected to the whims of the government of the day. This is appropriate as it allows for long term planning and independence from government interference.
Where the CBC/RC’s funding changes are not enough is advertising. St. Onge said that in order to maintain the independence of its news divisions, ads will be prohibited from its news, public affairs, and information programming – and the services will no longer charge subscription fees. Those changes are not enough. It is unclear if that will affect its online properties either. If a public broadcaster is receiving a per-capita funding allowance from the government, it should not be competing with privately owned media companies. While it may be argued that many Canadian media outlets receive a form of government subsidy, most of those outlets and chains cannot compete with the large entity that is a national public broadcaster. As such, there should be zero ads on the CBC/RC, no matter what type of content is viewed.
None of the changes to this mandate are official as there are amendments needed to federal legislation – therefore there is time to put in these extra provisions to improve public broadcasting. There should only be Canadian content on the Canadian platform, and since we are all paying for it already, there should be no ads anywhere!