CBC President and Chief Executive Officer Catherine Tait waits to appear at the Heritage Committee in Ottawa on May 7.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
MPs voted Tuesday to recall CBC chief Catherine Tait to a Commons committee for questioning, only a week after her last appearance, as Conservatives called for a re-examination of the award of $18-million in bonuses at the publicly funded broadcaster.
The Bloc Québécois and NDP voted with the Conservatives to summon Ms. Tait to appear again before the Commons Heritage Committee, along with her successor Marie-Philippe Bouchard, and Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge.
Ms. Tait, who will leave her post as CEO and president of CBC/Radio Canada in January, appeared before the committee last week. She now faces at least two hours of additional questioning, including about bonuses, after the House of Commons passed a motion recalling her before her term ends.
After a debate in the House of Commons chamber, MPs also voted for Quebec broadcasting executive Marie-Philippe Bouchard, who was appointed as the new chief of CBC/Radio-Canada last week, to be summoned to appear before she starts her new job.
At last week’s committee hearing, Ms. Tait resisted calls from Conservatives to reject an exit package, including bonuses, when she leaves the position in January. She also defended the award of $18.4-million in bonuses to 1,194 staff for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ended in March, after the broadcaster met performance indicators.
Conservative Kevin Waugh, a member of the committee who brought the motion, said his party wanted to make Ms. Tait “accountable to taxpayers before she leaves in January.”
He told The Globe and Mail that “Canadians are upset with the bonuses” and that Ms. Tait’s exit package, which will not be disclosed, is a matter of concern.
“I am concerned she hasn’t had her bonuses for over two years and when she has her exit in January, the Minister of Heritage or Privy Council will load her up with bonuses galore,” he said.
Part of the motion, which the Liberals opposed, says “the Liberal threat to cut funding” had led to hundreds of job cuts at CBC/Radio-Canada.
The Heritage Minister told The Globe the claim was “hypocritical” as the Conservatives wanted to defund CBC entirely.
“This is pure hypocrisy from the Conservatives today. Under the Harper Conservatives, we saw massive cuts at CBC/Radio-Canada, while performance bonuses jumped 65 per cent,” Ms. St-Onge said in a statement. “As a government, we don’t need any lessons from a party whose campaign promise is to cut CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding and the 8,000 jobs that go with it.”
During the debate on Tuesday, NDP MP Niki Ashton said her party supports the “banning of executive bonuses” at CBC/Radio Canada but not “the Conservatives’ full frontal attack” on the broadcaster.
“We need a strong public broadcaster but not one that dolls out executive bonuses and cuts jobs,” she said.
The Conservatives say they intend to strip CBC of public funding, while preserving French services, if they form the next government.
During the committee hearing last week, Ms. Tait defended CBC, and hit back at attacks by MPs. “There is a clear effort on the part of members of this committee to vilify and discredit me and to discredit the organization,” she said.