CBC President and CEO Catherine Tait appears as a witness at a House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC) in Ottawa on Oct. 21. The Committee is looking into senior management compensation at CBC/Radio-Canada.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
CBC chief Catherine Tait resisted calls from Conservatives to reject a financial exit package, including bonuses, when she leaves the role in January, as she defended spending more than $18-million on performance pay to staff this year in an appearance before MPs.
At a hearing of the Commons heritage committee on Monday, Ms. Tait came under fire from Conservative MPs for wasting taxpayers’ dollars to pay for executive bonuses at the publicly funded broadcaster.
MPs were questioning her about the decision by the CBC to pay $18.4-million in bonuses to 1,194 employees for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, after the broadcaster met performance indicators.
NDP MP Niki Ashton asked Ms. Tait to acknowledge that the corporation’s decision to pay millions in performance pay, while making job cuts, had “hurt CBC’s reputation.”
Conservative MP Damien Kurek said it was “unbelievable” that taxpayers’ dollars were being spent on bonuses.
Mr. Kurek said Ms. Tait earns more than the Prime Minister, and bonuses paid to some CBC executives were more than some Canadians earn.
He asked if, when her term ends, she will commit to refuse to accept previous fiscal years’ bonuses or a severance package.
Ms. Tait declined to do so, replying: “I believe that Canadians would expect that the corporation honour its commitments to its non-unionized employees as it would to its unionized employees.”
She added that any exit package would be “a personal matter” and she accused MPs of trying to discredit her and the CBC.
In sometimes fractious exchanges during her third appearance before the committee, Ms. Tait said, “There is a clear effort on the part of members of this committee to vilify and discredit me and to discredit the organization.”
Asked whether a campaign to strip the CBC of public funding, which is supported by the Conservatives, is having an impact on recruitment and morale, she said it is “highly demoralizing to be the target of constant criticism.”
“It is hard to attract people when … the future of the organization is so uncertain,” she added. “The sooner that this narrative is shut down the better, because it is really, really damaging the reputation of the organization, certainly more than performance pay.”
Ms. Tait was asked about an e-mail she had sent saying the “defund narrative” has picked up momentum especially at CBC Television. She denied the controversy over bonuses was fuelling it.
The CEO and president of CBC/Radio Canada hit back at MPs who implied the CBC was squandering public funds, saying she would not be accused of abusing taxpayers’ money.
She said under Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper bonuses had been “marginally” higher a person at the CBC after inflation is factored in. She said that over the past six years, 90 jobs had been lost at the public broadcaster, far fewer than over the previous 10 years.
Ms. Tait’s bonuses, unlike most CBC employees, must be rubber stamped by Ottawa, including by Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge.
CBC board chairman Michael Goldbloom told the heritage committee that the board had sent a report to government in support of Ms. Tait’s performance. But he said a potential bonus had not been discussed with Ottawa.
Ms. Tait told the committee she had not heard back from the federal government on whether it had approved either her 2022-2023 or her 2023-2024 performance payments.
Conservative MP Kevin Waugh raised the prospect of her receiving the two years of bonuses when she leaves the post, as part of an exit package, and said he was troubled that the committee may be unable to question her about it.
“My worry is we are not going to be able to scrutinize this,” he said. “Because you are going to leave.”
Quebec television executive Marie-Philippe Bouchard is reported to be poised to take over from Ms. Tait as the new head of CBC/Radio-Canada in January, according to an article in Le Devoir.
Ms. Tait defended her decision to charge the CBC almost $6,000 in expenses, including just under $4,000 in hotel costs, during this summer’s Paris Olympics, which the CBC broadcast.
She told MPs she had herself paid for the flights to and from France as she had been on holiday there beforehand. She said she only claimed expenses for the days she spent working and added that she was staying at the official Olympic hotel, and no room was available in Paris at a lower price.
In this year’s budget, the government earmarked a $42-million funding injection for the CBC. The broadcaster had warned last December that it may have to cut 800 jobs to address a $125-million projected shortfall for the fiscal year.
Ms. Tait told the committee that the $42-million allowed the CBC to balance its budget for this year. The looming 800 job cuts did not happen, but she warned that job losses could still be on the horizon.
“Without further funding in the next fiscal year, we would have to be looking at additional job reductions as well as other operational cuts in order to balance our budget,” she said.