CBC Facing Five-Per-Cent Cut

The public broadcaster will have to undergo the same 'strategic operating review' that all federal departments must perform.

Heritage Minister James Moore said today that the CBC and the arts-funding apparatus will face the same funding review that all other departments are performing to find ways to trim their budgets by five per cent. Moore said it would be “silly” to think that the CBC can't cut away a twentieth of their expenditures if every other department can, too, which, yeah, fair enough (perhaps a review of Don Cherry's contract is due). Gotta pay for those prisons somehow, right? The minister also reiterated the Tory talking point that arts groups shouldn't “expect” to be given grants year after year, defending the decision to deny a $45,000 grant to the SummerWorks theatre festival as a means to give other festivals a shot at government funding.