Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage unhappy with planned bonuses
The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has called out the planned bonuses to CBC's executives after the public broadcaster announced early this month that it plans to cut jobs.
"Given the job cuts announced at CBC/Radio-Canada for the year 2024, it would be inappropriate for the CBC to grant bonuses to executive members," the committee said in Parliament on Tuesday.
The statement comes amid questions on whether executives of the public broadcaster would be getting bonuses after it announced that around 10% of its workforce would be laid off due to budget pressures.
Global News, citing CBC documents, reported that the CBC CEO Catherine Tait would likely make more than $120,000 in bonuses on top of her six-figure salary this year.
The broadcaster's executive team, on the other hand, can also get up to hundreds of thousands of bonuses depending on their salaries, according to the report.
Tait said last week in a CBC interview that it was "too early to say" if there would be bonuses this year, adding that they haven't discussed the matter at that time.
"We'll be looking at that, like we do all our line items in the coming months," Tait said during the interview.
Leon Mar, spokesperson from CBC, also told Global News that all "possible measures are being considered in the context of managing our financial pressures in the months ahead, including senior executive compensation."
Tait has already been summoned by the Heritage Committee to appear in its first meeting in the new year so she can be questioned about the cuts and potential bonuses.
CBC revealed early this month that it would be implementing "program and job cuts" over the next year to manage approximately $125 million in budget pressures.
In a statement, the public broadcaster said it is expecting to cut about 600 union and non-union positions across the entire organisation, while also eliminating 200 vacancies.
CBC and Radio-Canada will each be cutting in the range of 250 jobs, according to the statement, with the layoffs happening in the Technology and Infrastructure as well as other corporate divisions.
The public broadcaster said some of the divisions will begin cutting immediately, while some will take effect over the next 12 months, depending on business plans and operational requirements.
Tait attributed the cuts to the challenges facing the Canadian media industry.
"We're not immune," the CEO told a CBC interview. "We also have the same pressure with respect to inflation, cost of production, cost of operations, declines in revenue related to our traditional television services - all of that has created a perfect storm."
