How should CBC/Radio-Canada serve Canadians? At a time when Canada’s cultural sovereignty returns to the forefront under American threat, the media center, technology and democracy draws up the challenges of the public broadcaster in a new report as well as initiatives to take to ensure its relevance. Overflight in three challenges.
Funding up to the mandate
“CBC/Radio-Canada is actually under-financed compared to the public media of most major countries”, summarizes Duty Jessica Johnson, co-author of the report and ex-chief editor of the Canadian magazine The Walrus. In funding, the country spends only $ 33.16 per capita, compared to the average of $ 79 among twenty countries, which places it far behind the United Kingdom or France.
Mme Johnson and his colleague Emma Wilkie believe that this sub-financing limits the national public service mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada, in particular by reducing its capacity to cover regional realities or demographic minorities or, also, to deploy new strategies to achieve young audiences.
This budgetary delay in comparison with the international was started by the government’s government cuts, which amputated the financing of CBC/Radio-Canada by almost 30 %, explains Mme Johnson. This results, according to her, a phenomenon of “reduced”: despite production costs that increase in inflation, the public broadcaster must deal with a limited budget and is forced to reduce its offer, which Canadian consumers “finished[ent] by noting and […] Criticize, ”notes the report.
Researchers underline in return that 57 % of Canadians want CBC/Radio-Canada financing to be maintained or increased, against 11 % who would like to see its abolished funding. They see in this support a desire for Canadians to obtain a better quality offer, to which the public broadcaster and Ottawa should be sensitive.
The researchers recommend that the public company’s budget be in this sense improved and indexed to the height of its mandate. This proposal goes in the direction of that of former heritage minister Pascale St-Onge, who proposed last February to almost double the financing of the broadcaster by Canadian taxpayers. However, the Carney government has just thrown a shadow on this project by asking the management of CBC/Radio-Canada to reduce its budget by 15 % within three years, despite its promise to defend the network made during the last electoral campaign.
Strengthen confidence and transparency
The public broadcaster is no exception to the media confidence crisis which is observed around the world: between 2018 and 2023, the rate of confidence in public society has decreased by 17 %, recall the authors, observation established from data from the Reuters Institute.
This confidence rate is higher among French speakers in the country: it would be 78 %, compared to 67 % for English speakers, according to a survey by the Canadian Center for Alternative Policy. A gap that researchers explain by a greater attachment of Quebecers and Franco-Canadians to local French-language programs.
At the end of a national survey carried out in 2024, the authors nevertheless noted that 78 % of respondents wanted the company CBC/Radio-Canada to continue its mission if it responds to the main criticisms addressed to it: among them, we found the biases perceived in its media treatment, the underfunding of the diffuser or the presence of advertisements.
According to the report, CBC/Radio-Canada could strengthen public confidence by showing greater transparency and opening. The researchers recommend in particular the creation of regional councils which would include citizens and take into account their concerns, like what is done in Germany. In order to demystify certain editorial decisions, the diffuser “should also explain to the public how he develops his reports […]as the BBC already does, ”says Mme Johnson.
The researchers also claim that the CEO and the board of directors should no longer be appointed by Ottawa in order to avoid any perception of political interference. The mandate of the public company should also be assessed every five years to better adapt to the concerns of Canadians. “It has passed more than 30 years between updating the broadcaster’s mandate in 1991 and its revision in 2025,” deplored the ex-journalist.
National culture and security at stake
At a time when cultural sovereignty and national security in Canada are at the heart of the public debate, the report also evokes the importance of a media ecosystem and a strong public diffuser in the country.
In terms of cultural production, the authors recall that CBC/Radio-Canada was originally created to respond to “the perceived threat of cultural domination of the United States”. On this question, they argue that the lack of financing of the public diffuser weakens its ability to produce content that can compete with American or foreign productions. “CBC/Radio-Canada does not have as much tolerance at risk, because it cannot afford to fail [financièrement]notes Jessica Johnson. However, it is precisely the risk that promotes quality content. »»
There is also an often overlooked relationship between a robust public diffuser and the capacity of a country to ensure its national security, argues the researcher. “Many countries abroad, due to the decline of private media, have strengthened the mandates of their public media to better prepare for emergency, climate crisis or national defense situations,” she explains. She quotes the case of Iceland, plagued by Russian disinformation, which has implemented a school education program for media, and that of New Zealand, which has integrated its public media into the management of forest fires and evacuations.
“It is important for a country to have a common set of facts” to guarantee national security and sovereignty, underlines Mr.me Johnson, whether natural disasters, foreign interference, disinformation or public health issues such as vaccination.
For the researcher, the calls of the conservative chief Pierre Hairy to reduce the financing of CBC while sparing that of Radio-Canada reflect a misunderstanding of the public diffuser. “English and French -speaking journalists are a team. […] If you remove CBC, you create a country where English and English Canada are isolated from each other, ”she notes, which at the same time fragments communication and coordination between the different populations that occupy the vast Canadian territory.
