CBC head calls for a ‘national conversation’ on Tories’ plan to defund

OTTAWA — With Donald Trump making “territorial claims,” the new head of CBC says defunding the public broadcaster could erode a pillar of Canada’s cultural identity.

Marie-Philippe Bouchard, CEO of CBC-Radio-Canada, is calling for a “national conversation” on the Conservative promise to defund, and is launching a tour to get it started.

She said in an interview it’s important for Canadians to be equipped with the facts about the likely impacts of stripping away CBC’s funding for English-language services.

She said they should consider how it would affect “not only the service that we provide but also the existence, sometimes the viability, of a lot of other pieces of our economy from a cultural and journalistic perspective, and how would that help Canadians as they face the world today.”

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That includes “discussions about tariffs, discussions about maybe territorial claims by the new American president.”

She questioned whether it would help Canada to take away “that component of our identity.”

Bouchard said she’s also “not sure we’re having that conversation at the level that we should be having at this point, as we progress towards an election in 2025.”

Asked whether she plans to initiate that conversation, Bouchard said she’s appearing at a production industry conference later this week. “That’s the first piece of the plan to initiate these conversations,” she said.

After that, Bouchard will tour Western Canada to engage with business and civic leaders, industry representatives, CBC audiences and employees.

She said the Conservative pledge to cut a billion dollars from CBC’s government funding, and maintain only francophone news, wouldn’t work because there wouldn’t be enough money left to run a viable French-language service.

“Cutting a billion dollars out of the CBC appropriation would cripple both English and French services,” she said. “It’s not possible mathematically to come to the conclusion that you can siphon out a billion dollars … and think that we can remain intact.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2025.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press