I know that we are all looking for ways that the government can reduce spending to prepare for the pending "demographic time bomb", and since some people aren't satisfied that cancelling 245 patronage appointments is adequate, let's start talking about bold ideas. For example, the CBC's latest annual report declares 1.8 billion dollars in operating expenditures and that 60% of their costs are in the form of employee compensation. That's over 1 billion dollars annually to the salaries of Soloman, O'Malley, Manbridge, Melewski, et all. Tax payers give the CBC a billion dollars every year (why I like to call it our billion dollar baby).
I recall from 3rd year Econometrics that public sector jobs pay roughly 25% more than their private sector equivalents, on average. I am not suggesting that all CBC employees take a 25% wage cut. That's too much too fast. But for each 1% that we reduce the salaries of all CBC employees, we save over 10 million dollars. A 5% reduction would lead to a savings of 54 million dollars. A 10% reduction would be a savings of 108 million dollars. Did you know that the CBC board of directors have to report their expense accounts online? According to their website, directors get paid a $2000 fee for attending a meeting, which I am assuming is on top of their normal compensation (each board member has a non board member job in the Corporation).
The deficit is big and it is allegedly structural. If we cannot sustain the size of the structure in the face of Kevin Page's fast approaching demographic time bomb, then we need to begin discussing ways to trim the fat. I'm just throwing out some ideas. I do occasionally read on Liberal sites that the CBC is a sacred institution in Canadian culture. Yeah, maybe 30 years ago when there were 5 channels. Today we have thousands of channels. I'm willing to bet that each successive generation will have spent fewer total life hours watching CBC programming than each generation before them. The network would have died years ago if not for the Saturday night hockey games.
Time to start cutting at the CBC. I bet Peter Mansbridge gets more perks and has a higher salary than our Prime Minister.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, CBC should be sold. If we need Canadian content, it would be cheaper to contract it out. I do love some of the documentaries and dramas, and CBC Radio One might be a keeper with its reach.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the CBC has any monetary value ?
ReplyDeleteAssuming a CPC majority what would be the best approach?
1) Freeze wages until inflation brought them in line with private sector compensation, gradually reduce subsidy. Eventually sell the CBC.
2) Completely cut off subsidy, send CBC into bankrupcy and rip up all the contracts. Sell off all the bits and pieces to anyone who'll take it.
3) Shut down the CBC.
I'm just wondering what approach would save the most money.
I just had an evil thought. Let's sell the CBC to Fox News.
ReplyDeleteI recommend we look at the TV ratings to be non-political and begin defunding programs that don't meet the TOP 30 weekly.
ReplyDeleteThat would eliminate all news -current affairs.
We than require CBC stop carrying American TV gameshows and use that money to fund Canadian local programming.
Let Hockey night in Canada and Don Cherry $ 700k salary find a private broadcaster CTV,TSN Global off the taxpayer teats etc.
Why are we using taxpayers fund to pay for his suits!
We don't need to contract out Canadian Content and we don't need the CBC for it. Access to frequency spectrum is granted by the government via the CRTC. All we need to do is make a certain amount of Canadian Content a requirement for frequency leases. Then we could sell the CBC off (or perhaps do a stock issue), have three self-sufficent networks, and more Canadian content than we have now.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, the government collects a couple of billion from the sale, and reduces its costs by over a billion a year in perpetuity. That's like reducing the debt by $20 billion.
I can remember as a kid in the 1950's straining to watch a few shadows moving on a snow bound screen, praying that we wouldn't loose the picture altogether, transmitted from New York State, rather than watch CBC, (Canadian Broadcasting Crap). I only hope I live long enough to see the end of this useless institution.
ReplyDeleteCBC seems to think it is for canadians maybe for some shows and hockey otherwise the rest of them are not worthy of the price tag, so selling CBC or cut funding to it-if not- let it survive on its own is the only way.
ReplyDeleteMansbridge and the rest of them have lost their purpose except to act as body guards for the liberals that's all. otherwise they are 'DONE LIKE DINNER' ready to be dispose.
Just to show you my heart is in the right place, I can save Canada a bunch of dollars very easy.
ReplyDeleteIf the CBC requires any help, I would be glad to suggest layoffs/termination letters to the following useless employees.
1. ALL OF THEM - PERIOD!
The CBC corporate website does not list how much money it costs to send Terry Melewski running around the world shadowing the Prime Minister.
ReplyDeleteA lot of good ideas here. I don't believe the CBC is worthless. Its less than worthless since it costs us. That doesn't mean it can't change.
ReplyDeleteI challenge the CBC to turn a profit. No more endless bailouts. The involuntary shareholders demand it. Otherwise we should be able to do what any owner of a loser company's stock can do. Sell it.
To be fair, I love the Dragon's Den.
ReplyDeleteThe mandate of CBC used to be Explaining Canadians to ourselves. If this was ever true, and that is doubtful, it is not true in the last dozen years. Liberal writers and producers now explain Canadians to each other. Consider Little Mosque, or the Evan Solomon program. We spend billions fighting a war in Afghanistan, and another billion on CBC so that Solomon, Milewski and others can denigrate our soldiers and call our leaders war criminals.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I thought NBC did a better job at explaining Canadians to (Americans and) ourselves during the Olympics than CBC has ever done. Sell off the CBC. Heck, trade it for a bag of pucks and 3 rolls of tape.
ReplyDelete-Johann
The next Throne Speech should state that parliament will be asked to review increasing CBC funding ten-fold to "Own The Airwaves".
ReplyDeleteWithin two days, most Canadians will have learned that the CBC costs taxpayers over $1 Billion every year, and they will demand it be shut down, or at least significantly downsized.
Following that, The National will become a weekly new-wrap show on Saturday night competing against Hockey Night in Canada on CTV.
If CTV can cover the Olympics well, they should be able to do a great job covering hockey without costing taxpayers a dime.
The only thing I watch on the CBC anymore is Dragon's Den. They should be funded by ratings, the same as political parties. $2 a vote - $2 per every person hours watched or something like that. Haven't done the math.
ReplyDeleteI watch the Canadian produced shows on CBC like Doyle, Little Mosque, 18 to Life... but the media arm is not worth dogsh**.Mansbridge, O'Malley and the rest of the tax base eating leftie idiots need to go. All they do is lie to the public anyway, telling us what they want us to hear, not what's real.
ReplyDelete