As Canadians face their income tax deadline, a taxpayers’ advocacy group put Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s recent pledge to lavish the CBC with even more public funds on blast.
Carney pledged last Friday to increase annual funding to the CBC and Radio-Canada by $150 million. At the end of the last fiscal year, taxpayers funded the CBC with nearly $1.4 billion.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano told True North, “Carney shouldn’t be dumping more tax dollars into the state broadcaster”.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund a bloated, government media corporation, private and independent Canadian media shouldn’t have their tax dollars funding their competitor,” said Terrazano.
“Taxpayers need politicians to end all taxpayer-funded media bailouts.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to defund the public broadcaster and convert the Crown corporation’s real estate into housing for Canadians.
Poilievre, however, committed to maintaining Radio-Canada’s Francophone programming.
He argues that the CBC has become too expensive on taxpayers and its journalism has become too partisan.
Campaigning in Trois-Rivières, Que., Poilievre addressed Carney’s CBC funding plan, focused primarily on Liberal fiscal mismanagement.
“And what is Mr. Carney proposing today? With a fourth Liberal term, he will spend even more for CBC and other things,” Poilievre said.
During Carney’s announcement, he said; “When we compare ourselves to the U.K., France or Germany, we see that our public broadcaster is underfunded,” Carney said in French during a campaign stop in Montreal on Friday. “That has to change.”
Carney vowed to make CBC funding statutory, requiring parliamentary approval to make changes to funding rather than being determined by the prime minister’s cabinet.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also joined in to support the CBC with additional taxpayer funding.
“CBC as a public broadcaster has been a fundamental part of celebrating Canadian culture,” said Singh.