Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge has proposed a plan for the future of CBC/Radio-Canada which would include significant increases to the pubcaster’s budget and enshrining its funding on a per capita basis.

Due to Parliament’s prorogation, the plan has not been proposed as a bill, but St-Onge said during the proposal’s presentation that releasing the plan will allow aspiring Liberal party candidates to speak about their commitment to implement the plan whether in the spring or following a federal election.

The plan, made in consultation with an multi-disciplinary advisory committee appointed in May of last year, proposes removing CBC/Radio-Canada’s dependency on the annual budget’s parliamentary appropriations and instead, favouring a statutory appropriation model with a “funding level based on a per capita formula, enshrined in the [Broadcasting] Act [that] would provide greater certainty for funding than parliamentary appropriations, which can vary from one year to the next without sufficient notice.”

Likening it to the system used for transfer payments to the provinces and for universal programs such as Old Age Pensions, the proposal posits that funding could only be altered through a legislative process.

In laying out the proposal on Thursday (Feb. 20), St-Onge said that CBC/Radio-Canada currently receives about $33.66 in per capita funding, which places Canada in sixth place for G7 countries in terms of funding support for their national public broadcasters. Arguing that “the higher the level of funding for a broadcaster, the higher its market share and audience, and the higher the level of citizens’ trust in its services,” the proposed changes would look to bring the budget in line with the average funding of public broadcasters of G7 nations, at $62.20 per capita.

Further on the funding issue, already a divisive one in the Canadian political landscape, the proposal also calls for significant shifts in the advertising model for the pubcaster. With an aim to “reduce… commercial influence while adding value for Canadians,” the proposal advocates prohibiting advertising from all CBC/Radio-Canada news and public affairs programming on television, radio or online platforms, as well as eliminating subscription fees for its digital services.

The proposal also tackles governance for the Corporation, advocating a move away from government appointment of the president and CEO post. Instead, St-Onge is proposing that a board of directors selects the president and CEO for a five-year term. The board would also have the opportunity to extend that term up to 10 years and be responsible for determining the president and CEO’s compensation. Along with that, the board of directors for the pubcaster, which is currently made up of 12 members, would have two additional seats created. This would total 13 voting seats, one for each province and territory, plus the president and CEO, who would be a non-voting, ex-officio member.

In terms of Indigenous strategy, the proposal states: “it could be required in an amended Act that CBC/Radio-Canada develop a strategy in collaboration with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities to consider their needs in the context of its activities. In the three years following Royal Assent of the proposed legislative amendments, CBC/Radio-Canada would be required to be publicly accountable for the joint development process of the strategy, its results and the way in which it plans to integrate the results into its activities.”

As for maintaining the distinction between French and English services, “the amending legislation could emphasize the importance of the separation of editorial and programming decisions between CBC and Radio-Canada,” the proposal reads. “This would contribute to the objective of reflecting the varied needs and circumstances of each of the official language communities, including the specific needs and interests of official language minority communities.”

Beyond funding and governance, St-Onge also recommends amendments to the Act that would clarify the pubcaster’s mandate in the current environment, with an emphasis on “trustworthy, local and impartial news.”

According to the proposal, emphasizing the importance of such programming within the Act “would highlight the essential role of CBC/Radio-Canada in the trustworthy and reliable broadcasting of news and information in the fight against prejudices, real or imagined, in today’s media.”

In addition, St-Onge is calling for an objective to be added within the Act that would support the distribution of reliable public communications in the event of emergencies, which would aid in “mitigating risks caused by the circulation of false or misleading information,” and a further addition to the Act that would ensure that the Corporation would “invest in innovative ways to produce and present content that considers cutting edge media technologies.”

“CBC does not belong to the Liberals, it does not belong to the Conservatives and it does not belong to any other political parties,” said the Minister during a press conference to announce the proposal. “It belongs to the Canadian people.”

Regarding that election, citing her status as a new mother, St-Onge also announced during the press conference that she will not be running for re-election, so that she can be “fully present” in the first few years of her child’s life. Earlier in February, she took on additional cabinet roles as Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada in Quebec.

With files from Barry Walsh

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