The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) dished out $14.9 million in bonuses to employees in 2023, government records show.
The Crown corporation is facing criticism for its growth in bonuses in recent years despite widespread layoffs.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released a
document on March 12 obtained by an access-to-information request, indicating that 1,143 CBC staff members received a bonus in 2023, for a total of $14,902,755.
The taxpayer advocacy group noted an upward trend in CBC’s bonus payouts since 2015, totalling nearly $185 million in bonuses and pay raises during this period, including a record high of
$16 million in 2022.
The news follows the public broadcaster’s
announcement in December 2023 of plans to eliminate 600 jobs and leave 200 vacancies unfilled as the CBC grappled with a $125 million budget shortfall.
CBC President and CEO Catherine Tait had previously
declined to give a definite answer when asked by reporters whether bonuses would be paid out last year, given the corporation’s massive layoffs. Instead, she said, the decision on bonus payments was up to the board of directors.
“I’m not going to comment on something that hasn’t been discussed at this point,” Ms. Tait told CBC journalist Adrienne Arsenault on Dec. 4, 2023.
Ms. Tait also addressed the issue of bonus payments during a recent Commons committee meeting, where she said the CBC has faced “chronic underfunding.”
“CBC/Radio-Canada does not award so-called bonuses. What we have, like every other Crown corporation, is at-risk or performance pay, which is a key part of the total compensation for our non-union staff of about 1,040 employees,” Ms. Tait told MPs at the House Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on Jan. 30.
Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF, urged CBC’s responsible federal ministry to intervene.
“CBC President Catherine Tait is wrong to hand out bonuses while announcing hundreds of job losses and begging the government for more taxpayer cash,” Mr. Terrazzano said in a March 12
press release. “Tait won’t do the right thing, so Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge needs to step in and shut down these bonuses.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the Heritage Department for comment, but didn’t hear back immediately.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also released a statement critiquing CBC’s bonus payments following CTF’s disclosure.
“After crying broke when it laid off 600 staff last year, CBC gleefully handed out $15 million in bonuses to over 1,000 managers & executives in 2023,” he wrote on the
social media platform X. “All while fewer Canadians are watching the CBC than ever before!”
Documents released by Canadian Heritage last month
showed that CBC would receive $1.4 billion in funding for the fiscal year 2024-25, marking a $96.1 million increase from the $1.3 billion allocated in the previous fiscal year.
