The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced Monday that it will lay off 600 employees and not bother filling a “gap” of 200 employees, citing a lack of funding from advertisers and the fact that Canadians are tuning them out.
That’s 10% of the CBC workforce, meaning the massive state-broadcaster, with its $1.3 billion budget, will shrink from a workforce of approximately 6000 to 5,400.
In a statement, the CBC laid blame for the upcoming layoffs on “rising production costs, declining television advertising revenue and fierce competition from the digital giants.”
The corporation said the CBC will cut about 250 jobs, as will the French-language arm, Radio-Canada. The remaining 100 cuts will come from a combination of corporate divisions, as well as the technology and infrastructure department.
CBC President Catherine Tait, who has sparred with federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in recent months, said, “We understand how concerning this is to the people affected and to the Canadians who depend on our programs and services.”
She added, “We will have more details in the months ahead, but we are doing everything we can to minimize the impact of these measures.”
Layoffs are expected to start immediately but won’t all happen at once, with some not taking place until the end of the current fiscal year, next spring.
Advertisers fleeing the CBC
The Liberals have attempted to rescue the failing broadcaster for several months. Recent records show that with private sponsors fleeing the state broadcaster, most of the Trudeau Liberals’ government departments have significantly increased the amount of ad space they’re purchasing from the CBC.
For example, the Department of National Defence, which remains extremely short-staffed, went from spending nothing at all in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, to spending $25,470 in 2020-2021, and then to an explosive $833,460 in CBC ads the following year.
Canadians think it’s biased
The far-left CBC has been lambasted for its biased reporting, including from multiple former employees.
A recent poll showed 45% of Canadians liked the idea of shutting down the CBC completely in order to save money.
Moreover, a whopping 40% of all respondents agreed that “Journalism provided by the CBC is propaganda on behalf of the federal government.”
