The federal Liberal government denies any directive to cut the budget of CBC/Radio-Canada by 3.3 percent, as claimed by executives of the public broadcaster. The Treasury Board, which oversees federal budget spending, insists that no such instruction was given to CBC/Radio-Canada. Despite this denial, the public broadcaster has not responded to a request for comment.
In December, CBC/Radio-Canada announced it would be reducing its production budget by $40 million and cutting 800 jobs due to a projected shortfall of $125 million for the coming fiscal year. Head of the public broadcaster, Catherine Tait, along with another executive Shaun Poulter, have both stated that part of this shortfall is due to being “told” to budget a 3.3 percent cut.
However, both the Treasury Board and the Canadian Heritage Department have stated that it is too soon to discuss cuts to the public broadcaster, as the federal budget is yet to be finalized and plans on finding savings across the public service are still in development.