A taxpayers group awarded CBC’s president Catherine Tait for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation – a taxpayer advocacy organization – handed out its annual federal Teddy Waste Award to the CBC’s chief executive for distributing millions of dollars in bonuses as they laid off hundreds of employees.
According to documents obtained by the CTF, at the end of 2023, the CBC conferred $15 million in year-end performance bonuses to its staff.
However, this past December, the CBC announced that they would be laying off 600 employees – 10% of their workforce – to address “financial challenges.”
Annually, the CBC receives $1.4 billion in federal government funding and will receive an additional $42 million for 2024-25 as part of the Trudeau government’s recently tabled budget.
“Tait is winning a Teddy Award because she handed out millions in bonuses despite announcing hundreds of layoffs just before Christmas, only to turn around and beg for more taxpayer cash,” said the CTF’s federal director Franco Terrazzano.
In a response to True North’s request for comment, the CBC’s Emma Iannetta referenced a statement the CBC issued earlier in the year disputing the CTF’s characterization of the payments as “bonuses,” instead referring to the payments as performance pay.
On the question of whether or not the CBC would be issuing “performance pay” at the end of the year, Iannetta said that a decision has yet to be made.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was one of two runner-ups for the federal Teddy Waste award, nominated for hosting three “affordability retreats” for his cabinet aimed at managing Canada’s cost-of-living crisis.
Taxpayers were billed $1.3 million for the three cabinet retreats where his cabinet dined on filet mignon, ceviche, and prawn ravioli.
Among the other nominees for the federal Teddy Waste Award include Liberal MP Hedy Fry, Governor General Mary Simon, the National Research Council of Canada, and Parks Canada.
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts won the provincial Teddy Waste award for flying a Canadian artist out to New York, South Korea, and Estonia to produce amateurish art and flail around on a couch.
“The Alberta Foundation for the Arts spent tens of thousands flying an artist to New York, Estonia and South Korea so she could flop around on a futon for a couple minutes and showcase a painting that can best be described as ants on a pop tart,” said Terrazzano.
The City of Regina won the municipal award for their tourism department’s disastrous PR campaign “Experience Regina” where crude jokes about the city’s name made headlines and sparked outrage.
Regina was forced to backtrack on their rebranding, costing its citizens $30,000.
Finally, the CTF gave the Mission Cultural Fund its Lifetime Achievement award for several instances of egregious squandering of taxpayer dollars since its creation in 2016.
Among the CTF’s examples, the Mission Cultural Fund spent thousands of dollars on a sex show in Germany, a New York birthday party for author Margaret Atwood, and a photo exhibit for rockstar Bryan Adams.
