The Future of CBC/Radio-Canada

On this page

• Message from the Minister
• Foreword
• The current situation of national public broadcasters around the world
  • Financial challenges
  • Political environment
  • The trust of citizens
  • Influence and use
  • Opportunities to seize
• Current challenges for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Government of Canada initiatives and priorities
  • Two new laws
  • Recent investments
  • 2021 mandate letter
  • Advisory Committee on CBC/Radio-Canada’s future
• Three main categories
  • Mandate
  • Governance
  • Funding
• Conclusion

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The Future of CBC/Radio-Canada [PDF version - 444 KB]

Message from the Minister

The great institutions of our societies are not built in a few days. Rather, they are the fruit of the hard work of several generations who, despite their differences, have recognized the fundamental values that shape the identity and future of our people.

Here at home, CBC/Radio-Canada is one of these great institutions, almost a century old, representing a very concrete and real foundation of our culture. Its long history and its positive impact are still felt today.

Across the country, people remain very close to their public broadcaster, with support for CBC/Radio-Canada at 78% according to a recent study^{Footnote 1}. These figures have been consistent for many years and should give us the impetus to keep up the good work.

Of course, times change, technologies evolve, needs and consumer habits change over time, and our institutions need to know how to adapt.

That's why I'm presenting a set of proposals that will enable us to look to the future in a positive way, while honouring all those who have made CBC/Radio-Canada grow since its creation.

I hope that these proposals will be implemented swiftly, because these are particularly difficult times, and inaction is not an option.

As a nation, we must be bold and determined in recognizing that we must protect the institutions that have made us what we are today: a proud, dignified people able to dialogue together, sharing our realities, our debates, our differences and, above all, our commitment to our nation.

CBC/Radio-Canada has played this role throughout its long existence. It must continue to do so for generations to come.

However, as I write these lines, our sovereignty is being challenged, our cultural integrity is under pressure from foreign digital platforms, even though we have passed laws that demand only one simple thing: that our voices be respected and to give our identity its rightful place in the great technological changes we are undergoing.

CBC/Radio-Canada is a pillar on which to build our future, and given the current political situation, it's also one of our collective tools for articulating our resistance to anything that tries to weaken us.

This is not the time to lack vision and ambition - on the contrary. We must be wary of simplistic rhetoric that seeks to undermine the credibility of an institution that is part of our long and proud history.

Supporting our public broadcaster is not a question of left or right, it's not a Liberal or Conservative issue, it's above all a commitment to ourselves, our culture and our independence.

Together, let's be ambitious enough to meet the challenges we face, and let's make sure we get the job done so that CBC/Radio-Canada continues to exist for us and by us.

Foreword

In the early 1930s, when Canada was considering the relevance of a national public broadcaster similar to the BBC in the United Kingdom, the prospect of continuing domination of the airwaves by the United States—and the presumed threat it represented for Canada’s right to national and cultural self-determination—was a central concern. Setting up a national public broadcaster, that would eventually become the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,^{Footnote 2} was considered an essential tool of public service, an instrument of education that could play an important role in promoting a national spirit, interpreting Canadian citizenship and informing the public on issues of national interest.

As Canada's national public service broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada occupies a unique place in Canadian broadcasting – and in Canada's social, cultural and democratic life. It is both an important source of news, information, and analysis that feeds public discourse in communities across the country; a driving force in the production and presentation of a wide range of uniquely Canadian stories; and a pillar of the media economy that allows Canadian creators to cultivate and express their talent. The Corporation makes an important contribution to the objectives of the Broadcasting Act, which declares that the Canadian broadcasting system provides a public service that is essential to the maintenance and enhancement of national identity and cultural sovereignty.

90 years later, CBC/Radio-Canada is a cornerstone of Canadian culture and society. It is essential to the preservation and promotion of official languages and a reflection of Canada’s diversity. Over the years, the Corporation has become an essential element in Canadian homes, particularly in rural communities and linguistic minority communities, which have a harder time accessing other sources of information. In 2023–24, 65% of Canadians used at least one of its services in a typical month.^{Footnote 3} The national public broadcaster generates a large portion of Canadian content and news programs and employs more than 3,500 people in its information services, whom Canadians consider a trustworthy source of information. CBC/Radio-Canada presents typically Canadian stories in English, French and eight Indigenous languages on its television and radio stations and its various digital services. It also offers traditionally underrepresented groups an opportunity to produce and share their stories with Canadians, including official language minority communities.

CBC/Radio-Canada is facing unprecedented challenges. Digital advertising has shattered the economic model of information, placing the Corporation and its public service functions in a difficult position. Global digital platforms and the changing market have had a serious impact on the Corporation itself as well as on local news offerings in Canada. For example, newspapers’ advertising revenues dropped 73% between 2012 and 2022.^{Footnote 4} Between 2008 and 2024, 526 local news outlets (newspapers, television stations and radio stations) closed in 347 communities across Canada.^{Footnote 5} Meanwhile, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is facing a long-term structural deficit that negatively impacts its service offerings and consequently, the delivery of its wide mandate.

Faced with these challenges, and as required in her mandate letter, the Honourable Pascale St-Onge announced in May 2024 the formation of an advisory committee of experts to provide her with policy advice on how to strengthen and renew the national public broadcaster so it can continue to fulfill its important social, cultural and democratic functions.

This document sets out the minister of Canadian Heritage’s proposals to modernize CBC/Radio-Canada through changes to the Broadcasting Act.

The current situation of national public broadcasters around the world

National public broadcasters play a crucial role in building and consolidating modern democracies. These institutions fulfill essential public service functions that would be considered unprofitable by private broadcasters, such as the promotion of cultural expression, social cohesion and national identity, and the dissemination of reliable and independent information.

However, in a number of countries around the world, these broadcasters are facing multiple financial and political challenges that are jeopardizing their existence and effectiveness. Added to this are issues of public trust, decreasing influence and declining use of their services.

Financial challenges

One of the major challenges faced by public broadcasters is funding. For several years, these institutions have often been faced with a gradual decrease in their budgets, which directly impacts their ability to produce quality content and renew their equipment. Public funding is increasingly inadequate and irregular. This situation is partly the result of economic pressures that are pushing governments to reduce public spending, but also stems from the context of increased competition from digital platforms, such as streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.), which are capturing an ever-larger share of the media consumption market and negatively impact the public broadcasters’ commercial revenues, notably advertising.

Political environment

Public broadcasters are also facing political pressures, which can affect their editorial independence. In a number of Western countries, the relationship between government and public media is becoming increasingly fraught. Some governments are using their financial authority to put pressure on newsrooms or adopt laws that limit freedom of the press. These attacks are often motivated by ideological considerations and are aimed at limiting the influence of public media, which are either perceived as overly critical of governments or as loudspeakers for government messages.

Publicly funded broadcasters are in a delicate position. Because of their role in broadcasting neutral, high-quality information, they are often the target of those who want to influence public opinion. Their ability to maintain their independence in the face of these pressures is essential to preserve their credibility and legitimacy.

The trust of citizens

Citizens’ trust in public media has also declined in recent years in many countries. In an increasingly fragmented and polarized media environment, they tend to turn to information sources that correspond to their personal opinions and values. This phenomenon, combined with the proliferation of false information and conspiracy theories, weakens the position of public broadcasters, which are perceived by some as institutional actors, often biased or ineffective.

Restoring the public’s trust requires strengthening transparency, improving the quality of journalism and ensuring that public broadcasters’ content reflects the diversity of viewpoints and social realities.

Influence and use

One of the main indicators of the public media crisis in the West is the ongoing decline in their influence and their use by the public. The rising power of social media and digital platforms has transformed how people consume entertainment or educational content as well as information. Younger generations often prefer to access audio or audiovisual content, including information, through mobile apps, online videos or social media rather than watching television or listening to traditional radio. This change has led to declining audiences for public broadcasters, which must adapt their service offering to attract these new generations of citizens.

Opportunities to seize

As a key source of news, information and analysis that is independent of political and commercial interests, public service broadcasting can also be a pillar of the public sphere, that network of places and forums where citizens meet on an equal footing to inform and deliberate, debate and seek consensus on issues of common interest. At a time when many private media outlets are cutting spending, withholding new investment, or withdrawing from the communities they once served, the role of public service broadcasting in civil society and public discourse has never been more essential to active and informed participation in civic life.

Current challenges for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

As the national public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada plays a crucial role in Canada’s media ecosystem. As set out in the Broadcasting Act, the Corporation’s mandate is to “inform, enlighten and entertain.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is not exempt from the global issues that we have just discussed. Below are the specific challenges that are affecting its ability to fulfill its mandate.

According to a report published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the public’s trust in news overall continues to decrease in Canada: in 2023, 37% of English-speaking Canadians and 49% of French-speaking Canadians indicated that they agreed that most news was reliable most of the time, with an overall “trust score” of 40% (down from 55% in 2016).^{Footnote 6} The report also revealed that while public service media still often rank at or near the top as the most trustworthy information brands in many countries, the percentage of Canadians who considered the Corporation’s services trustworthy declined from 71% to 63% for CBC and from 80% to 74% for Radio-Canada between 2020 and 2024.^{Footnote 7} The erosion of public trust in CBC/Radio-Canada could compromise its ability to respond to the critical information needs of a vast audience of Canadians, counteract the spread of disinformation and help overcome inequalities in information between the different regions and communities.

Most of CBC/Radio-Canada’s revenue sources have stagnated or declined over the last few years. Digital platform earnings have not been sufficient to offset the losses from its traditional services: between 2017–18 and 2023–24, commercial revenue fell 14%, going from $573 million to $493 million.^{Footnote 8} Despite a major reinvestment from the government of $150 million annually from 2016–17 onwards, the Corporation’s public funding fell by more than $98 million in constant dollars, that is, by taking inflation into account, between 2014–15 and 2023–24. CBC/Radio-Canada is also forecasting an ongoing structural deficit that is expected to increase over the next years because of annual inflation costs and lost revenue.

Combined, these issues make CBC/Radio-Canada’s financial situation unstable and financial planning challenging in the medium and long term. Over time, while the major global media giants continue to increase costs by aggressively bidding for rights and investing massively in their own content, CBC/Radio-Canada’s financial issues could create a vicious circle of job losses, reduced programming resulting in smaller audiences, a smaller impact and less relevance.

To the extent that public service broadcasters supplement their public funding with certain forms of commercial revenue, some critics maintain that commercial considerations such as ratings and market share could increasingly encroach on their programming incentives. More specifically, greater pressure on public broadcasters to “monetize” their activities could create perverse incentives to reflect popular programming strategies and avoid taking risks on more ambitious, stimulating or unconventional projects. For example, programs funded through advertising may be tempted to avoid alienating advertisers, who may be wary of associating their brands with controversial subjects. These considerations become even more sensitive if advertising is shown during news and current events programs. Similarly, the presence of advertising tends to reinforce certain generic standards and narrative conventions because programs have to be built around regular advertising interruptions. In addition to imposing nuisance costs on audiences, the presence of advertising can also favour an atmosphere of commercialization, which can trivialize or diminish the value of the surrounding programming.

In the Canadian context, an increased tendency toward commercialization could worsen competitive pressures, negatively impact CBC/Radio-Canada’s credibility and dilute its distinctive character.

There is no international consensus on the most effective way to fund public broadcasting. However, it is widely recognized that multi-year funding agreements allow broadcasters to plan and manage their resources more effectively by ensuring greater financial predictability, especially since production costs are often spread over several years. Furthermore, given that multi-year funding is designed to cross over electoral cycles, it can also further protect public service broadcasters from any real or perceived political influence by ensuring that they depend less on the ongoing goodwill of the government in power. This concept of multi-year funding was recommended on numerous occasions in reports or reviews focused on the Corporation itself or the Broadcasting policy as a whole, for example the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review^{Footnote 9} of 2020.

CBC/Radio-Canada operates at arm’s length from government, but it is ultimately accountable to Parliament—through the Minister of Canadian Heritage—for how it operates. One of the key government responsibilities is to ensure that appropriate candidates for leadership positions are recommended to the government (more specifically, to the Governor in Council) for appointment.

The government is solely responsible for all leadership appointments for the Corporation, whether for the 12 members of the Board of Directors or the President and CEO. These appointments are essential to the overall management of the Corporation. As Chief Executive Officer, the President and CEO supervises all daily activities, while the Board of Directors monitors and approves the organization’s strategic priorities and plans.

This close association between the government and the leadership of the national public broadcaster is the exception rather than the rule compared with the process in most countries in Europe, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, to name but a few.

Since 2017, candidates for these positions have been recommended to the Minister by an Independent Advisory Board that was set up in the context of a broader government commitment to ensure open, transparent and merit-based selection processes for all individuals appointed by the Governor in Council. While this process contributes to strengthening the Corporation’s independence and ensuring its integrity, it is not enshrined in law.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has become more than a broadcasting service provider: in addition to its audio and audiovisual production, it also produces a broad range of text content—including news, information and analysis—that is now essential to how it fulfills its mandate and the public value that it creates. It also offers its services on digital platforms such as CBC GEM or ICI TOU.TV. Even though the Broadcasting Act states that the Corporation’s programming should be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means, it would be advisable that the Corporation have a more explicit mandate to innovate and adopt new means and methods of communication so it can make its content accessible to the widest possible audience on the platforms and systems it uses.

Given their broad and ambitious nature, CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate and programming objectives have proven to be highly resilient in the face of major social, cultural and technological change. However, the global context offers opportunities to better define the role of Canada's public broadcaster, strengthen its governance and ensure a solid foundation for its future.

Government of Canada initiatives and priorities

The Government of Canada, through various legislative and budgetary initiatives, has recognized the necessity of supporting public broadcasting in this period of transformation. Many measures have been implemented to support the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the public media ecosystem more broadly, in an increasingly competitive and polarized environment.

Two new laws

The purpose of the Online Streaming Act, effective as of April 2023, is to regulate online streaming in Canada. This legislation aims to guarantee that streaming services and other digital actors contributes to the Canadian broadcasting system through obligations, notably in terms of Canadian production in English, French and Indigenous languages. This Act updated CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate to recognize that its services are farther reaching than conventional radio and television.

The Online News Act, effective as of June 2023, is another important tool for supporting quality journalism and traditional news. It aims to enshrine the practices of digital platforms, particularly those that share news, to guarantee that they are fairly contributing journalistic content and that they respect the ethical professional standards. This Act includes CBC/Radio-Canada among the organizations that can benefit from this greater equality.

Recent investments

Since 2015, the government has regularly intervened to reinforce the national public broadcaster and permit it to continue serving the Canadian population. However, most of these interventions were temporary.

The 2016 budget provided 675 million dollars over five years^{Footnote 10} for CBC/Radio-Canada to produce world-class Canadian content and offer Canadians easier access to its programs and services in the digital era.

Over the last four years, CBC/Radio-Canada has received supplementary funds to respond to its financial needs. The 2021 budget gave 21 million dollars for one year, an amount that the 2022 budget stretched for two additional years. More recently, the 2024 budget provided 42 million dollars for 2024-25.

A long-term solution would better ensure the viability and independence of CBC/Radio-Canada.

2021 mandate letter

The 2021 mandate letter from the Minister of Heritage Canada defines the strategic priorities of the government relating to CBC/Radio-Canada: it includes a commitment to modernize CBC/Radio-Canada.

Advisory Committee on CBC/Radio-Canada’s future

In May 2024, Minister St-Onge set up an advisory committee charged with providing strategic advice on how to reinforce and renew CBC/Radio-Canada so that it can continue to fulfil its important social, cultural and democratic functions.

The advisory committee members were chosen to ensure a range of complementary experience and expertise in various areas related to the social, cultural, educational and democratic functions of the public services media, as well as new media and communication technologies. The seven experts and specialists appointed to the advisory committee were:

• Marie-Philippe Bouchard, CEO, TV5 Québec Canada
• Jesse Wente, Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, founding Executive Director of the Indigenous Screen Office
• Jennifer McGuire, Managing Director, Pink Triangle Press
• David Skok, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, The Logic (independent media startup)
• Mike Ananny, Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California Annenberg
• Loc Dao, Executive Director of DigiBC
• Catalina Briceno, Professor, Université du Québec à Montréal

From May to July 2024, the advisory committee met regularly with the Minister to discuss many questions on the financing, governance and mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada. The discussions between the Minister and this committee took into account recommendations that were formulated in previous consultations such as the 2020 Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review.

Advisory Committee member’s contributions helped the Minister to determine the best way to ensure that CBC/Radio-Canada will be able to meet challenges and seize opportunities of the current media landscape. The Minister’s proposed changes can be organized into three main categories, which are outlined below.

Three main categories

The Minister of Canadian Heritage is proposing modifications to the Broadcasting Act to modernize the objectives, governance and funding of CBC/Radio-Canada. The goals of the different amendments are to reinforce the accountability and reactivity of the Corporation toward Canadians, to ensure its journalistic, creative and programming independence, to strengthen its role as public broadcaster, and to provide it with predictable and stable funding so that it can face future challenges.

Mandate

Trustworthy, local and impartial news

According to the Broadcasting Act, CBC/Radio-Canada “should provide broadcasting services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains”. In the Act, no other provision concerning the objectives of CBC/Radio-Canada states the important role that the broadcaster plays in the presentation of news, information and public affairs. The Minister would like to add a specific objective to the Act and emphasize the importance of these types of programmes. It would be specified that the information must be created and shared in an impartial way. These modifications 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.

Emergencies

CBC/Radio-Canada’s objectives currently do not contain any provisions on providing its services in emergency situations. Given the growing global instability and the increasing threat of climate change, the Minister proposes that an objective be added to the Act which would support the distribution of reliable public communications during emergencies. This addition would contribute to mitigating risks caused by the circulation of false or misleading information.

Innovation

According to the Broadcasting Act, the Canadian broadcasting system in general must “promote innovation and be readily adaptable to scientific and technological change”. The Minister would like to reinforce this objective for CBC/Radio-Canada specifically by stating, with an addition in the Act, that the Corporation must invest in innovative ways to produce and present content that considers cutting edge media technologies. The change would also require that CBC/Radio-Canada shares the gains of these investments with the larger media ecosystem, more specifically other public service media and researchers in the field, in order to support Canada’s broadcasting objectives.

Governance

Appointments

Currently, the President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada is appointed by the government (more specifically, the Governor in Council) who also appoints the members and Chair of the Board of Directors. The appointment of the President and CEO by the government can negatively influence citizens’ perceptions about CBC/Radio-Canada’s independence from the government.

In most democracies, whether in Europe, Japan, Australia or New Zealand, there is more distance between the government and the national public broadcaster. Often, members of the Board of Directors are appointed by an independent public body, as in France, or by Parliament or its equivalent, as in Japan. As for the President and CEO, they are almost always appointed by the Board of Directors, as in the Scandinavian countries. This distance is considered essential to ensure the independence of the national public broadcaster, notably because one of its primordial roles is to inform the public, including on matters and news related to politics and governments. The Minister would like to align more closely with this practice.

The Minister would propose an amendment to the Act so that the President and CEO is appointed for five years by the CBC/Radio-Canada Board of Directors. The President and CEO would perform their duties at the pleasure of the Board of Directors, and the latter could have the authority to extend the President and CEO’s term and with a limit of 10 years for all mandates. The Board of Directors would also establish their President and CEO’s compensation, taking into consideration comparable positions in the federal public sector. To clarify the relationship between the two, it would be advisable that the President and CEO be a non-voting ex-officio member of the Board of Directors.

Since 2017, the Minister of Canadian Heritage has asked the opinion of an Independent Advisory Board before making recommendations to the Governor in Council on appointments to the Board of Directors and President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. She would propose to enshrine this practice in the Broadcasting Act to ensure that independent advice supports decisions relative to appointments to the Board. To further strengthen this process, the Act would also require that members of the Board of Directors reflect the diversity of Canada and its official languages and that at least two of them they have financial skills, which would be ensured through a professional financial designation requirement.

The Broadcasting Act currently states that the CBC/Radio-Canada Board of Directors is made up of 12 members. The Minister would like to add two additional seats for a total of 14: 13 voting members plus the President and CEO. This change would allow aiming towards an ideal of representing each Canadian province and territory, thereby reflecting a recommendation by the Aird Commission in 1929, which led to the creation of CBC/Radio-Canada, under which the Corporation’s management should try to match Canada’s regional diversity.

In the event of the absence or incapacity of the Chair of the Board of Directors, their responsibilities are currently assumed by the President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. This provision would no longer be consistent with the objective of increasing internal accountability between the President and CEO and the Board of Directors. To avoid this scenario, the Minister would propose amending the Act to allow the Board of Directors to appoint one of its members to the position of Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of CBC/Radio-Canada, who would act as Chair as required.

Citizen participation

As a public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada should reflect the lived experiences, languages and needs of Canadian citizens. To facilitate this responsiveness, the Minister would propose to amend the Broadcasting Act to require that the Corporation include public consultation on issues related to its priorities and strategies in the context of its corporate plans. The amended Act could require CBC/Radio-Canada to indicate in its corporate plans how it satisfies the public consultation requirement, including the results and ways in which these results influence its decision-making and operations.

Indigenous strategy

Furthermore, to improve responsiveness and accountability to Indigenous Peoples, 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. The Indigenous strategy that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation put in place in 2024 reflects its current mandate and circumstances; this new strategy would ensure that the needs of Indigenous people are taken into consideration as the Corporation adjusts to the changes included in the amended Act with respect to its mandate, its governance and its level of funding.

Separation of French and English services

The Broadcasting Act specifies that a single entity, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, operates the functions of national public broadcaster, but that English and French programming must be distinct and correspond to the different circumstances and needs of English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians. It is clear that a single organization provides a nationwide vision and a national approach while ensuring administrative and operational efficiencies. The amending legislation could emphasize the importance of the separation of editorial and programming decisions between CBC and Radio-Canada. 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.

Parliamentary review

To ensure the success and relevance of these long-term changes, the Minister would add a provision to the Broadcasting Act that would subject the provisions that apply to CBC/Radio-Canada to parliamentary review five years after Royal Assent.

Funding

Funding model

Given the funding challenges experienced by national public broadcasters, four major principles were developed by the European Broadcast Union to guide actions toward appropriate funding: funding should be stable and adequate, independent from political interference. It should also be fair and justifiable, transparent and accountable to the public.^{Footnote 11}

There is no particular funding model that predominates at the international level. Each funding model has its advantages and disadvantages and makes trade-offs between the four principles listed above. Many countries use a system like the one in Canada: a hybrid model combining government funding and commercial revenues.

In some countries, public funding is provided by a licence fee paid by anyone using a television or radio, such as in the United Kingdom. In Germany or Finland, a personal tax is levied directly on each citizen or household. In France, government funding is allocated via a portion of a general tax. Each of the various public broadcasting funding model derives from the legal and governmental traditions of a given country in connection with a certain social acceptability. After reviewing various funding models and weighing their merits, the Minister has identified that a model based on statutory appropriations would strike the best balance between the four major principles listed above, the needs of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Canada’s legal and parliamentary reality.

Statutory appropriations

In Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada’s public funding comes from parliamentary appropriations. These are voted on every year by Parliament as part of the budget process. Through a specific provision added in the Broadcasting Act, the Minister would aim to provide sufficient resources to CBC/Radio-Canada in the long term by establishing a statutory appropriation based on an annual per capita amount. This funding level based on a per capita formula, enshrined in the Act would provide greater certainty for funding than parliamentary appropriations, which can vary from one year to the next without sufficient notice.

The difference between a parliamentary appropriation and a statutory appropriation is that the latter is enshrined in an Act of Parliament that is not voted on annually by Parliament as part of the budget process. The funding is calculated based on a formula and paid to an organization from the Consolidated Revenue Fund according to the terms and conditions set out in the Act adopted by Parliament. This system is used for transfer payment to the provinces and universal programs such as Old Age Pensions. Parliament retains its right of oversight and its usual accountability prerogatives, but any change to the mechanism or level of funding would have to be made through a legislative and not solely budgetary process.

Per capita funding reflects the idea that access to public service media is a public good. It becomes intrinsically linked to the concept that all citizens have an equal interest in maintaining a robust and independent media sector. Citizens, as taxpayers, are essentially the stakeholders and owners of the national public broadcaster. A per capita formula would also allow CBC/Radio-Canada funding to grow based on the growth of Canada’s population, thereby guaranteeing that its resources would be proportional to the size of the population it serves.

The Minister would propose a gradual transition in which the per capita amount would be increased from one year to the next over a period of a few years up to a determined per capita amount. This would mean that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation would have the time required to plan its activities and initiatives knowing in advance the amount it would receive in the medium term.

In the Canadian context, statutory appropriations could provide CBC/Radio-Canada with a stable and predictable source of funding.

Advertising

CBC/Radio-Canada’s dependence on advertising and subscription revenues risks compromising its objectives of public service, by favouring revenue-generating content to the detriment of the social, cultural and democratic benefits intended in its mandate. To reduce this commercial influence while adding value for Canadians, the Minister would propose prohibiting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from showing advertising during its news, information and public affairs broadcasts on all its services, and to prevent it from charging subscription fees for its digital services.

Level of funding

CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding by the federal government is well below the average funding of G7 countries, which is $62.20 per capita. Currently, the government grants approximately $1.38 billion to CBC/Radio-Canada, which represents approximately $33.66 per capita, thereby placing Canada in sixth place in the Group of Seven (G7) in terms of public funding per capita for its national public broadcaster. The per capita funding that CBC/Radio-Canada receives is therefore equal to approximately half of the G7 average. The Minister intends to bring Canada more into line with its G7 counterparts.

There is a direct link between a public broadcaster’s level of funding and its performance, which can be assessed in terms of audience, market share or percentage of citizens who think that the news and information presented are trustworthy.^{Footnote 12} In other words, in general, 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.

With an increase in funding, it is reasonable to expect a general increase in performance indicators. Furthermore, increased and predictable funding would allow CBC/Radio-Canada to address its structural deficit, meet its new and existing objectives, develop long-term strategies and implement new and innovative initiatives.

Conclusion

Most national public broadcasters around the world share a number of distinctive characteristics, including the mandate to offer a wide range and variety of programming; independence from political and commercial influence; concern for national identity and culture; an emphasis on regional representation; special attention to minority populations; general geographic availability; and a universal funding mechanism through which all citizens contribute. All of these characteristics apply here in Canada and remain relevant today.

Many things have changed since 1936, the year the national public broadcaster was created, but many ideals considered at the time remain relevant today. In this document, the Minister of Canadian Heritage proposes a series of legislative changes that would modernize the objectives, governance model and level of funding of CBC/Radio-Canada. Taken as a whole, the goal is to improve the distinctive character of the Corporation compared with private media; strengthen the national public broadcaster’s independence from government in order to create winning conditions to increase citizens’ trust in its services, especially in terms of news and current events; strengthen transparency and accountability, primarily toward citizens; and finally, clarify CBC/Radio-Canada’s role in the Canadian media ecosystem.