After announcing mass layoffs, executives at CBC are swimming in luxurious bonuses paid for by Canadian taxpayers despite performance woes at the top public broadcaster.
The CBC dished out $18.4 million in bonuses in June for the 2023-24 fiscal year for “performance pay,” after laying off hundreds of employees and eliminating vacant positions.
The bonuses were given to 1,194 CBC/Radio-Canada employees and $3.3 million of that was paid out to 45 executives, who received an average bonus of $73,000.
According to Statistics Canada, $73,000 is more than the median income for a family after taxes in 2022.
Over $10.4 million was given to 631 managers and the remaining $4.6 million was paid out to 518 non-union employees.
“Enough is enough, the taxpayer-funded bonuses at the CBC must end,” said Alberta director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in a press release. “If the CBC isn’t willing to do the right thing, then the heritage minister, finance minister or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must step in and end these taxpayer-funded bonuses.”
The Crown corporation quietly approved the bonuses only days after the House of Commons closed for summer recess.
A total of $114 million in bonuses has been given out by the CBC since 2015 and the state broadcaster is slated to receive $1.4 billion in taxpayer money this year, breaking all previous funding records.
That figure does not include the additional $42 million it received from the Trudeau government in top-up funding, following CBC President Catherine Tait’s complaints that it suffered from “chronic underfunding.”
“In a shocking display of incompetence and greed, the CBC has given itself $18.4 million in bonuses,” said Conservative MP and Opposition heritage critic Rachael Thomas in a post to X. “The CBC must answer. The CBC must be defunded.”
True North contacted the CBC to inquire how such bonuses were justified given the broadcaster’s recent layoffs.
“Government departments, Crown corporations, and most private companies use performance pay (also called “at-risk pay”) as a portion of compensation for non-union employees to help ensure delivery on specific targets,” media relations director Leon Mar told True North.
“While the term “bonuses” has been used to describe performance pay, it is in fact a contractual obligation owing to eligible employees.”
While discussing exceeding its digital engagement targets in its annual review, the CBC said that “on average, each unique visitor to our sites spends 37.6 minutes every month with CBC/Radio-Canada digital services.”
That averages to about less than 90 seconds per day by those who visit the CBC’s website.
Whether referred to as bonuses or performance pay, several politicians had been putting pressure on the state broadcaster for the exact figures this spring after it refused to disclose the details.
A House of Commons heritage committee meeting in May was abruptly halted by Liberal MPs after Tait refused to disclose her taxpayer-funded performance bonus.
However, Hubert Lacroix, Tait’s predecessor, told a Senate committee in 2014 that his annual bonus was “around 20%.”
The exact numbers came as a result of financial records obtained through an access-to-information request.
“CBC fat cats should be taking pay cuts, not rubber stamping millions in taxpayer-funded bonuses for its executives and managers,” said Sims. “It’s time to end the taxpayer-funded bonuses and defund the CBC.”