Source : Ottawa Citizen

After a year of study, members of an all-party House of Commons committee have emerged divided on issues key to the future of the taxpayer-funded CBC.

Although there is broad general agreement on the majority of recommendations in a report tabled Thursday by the Heritage Committee, the Harper Conservatives are insisting that the CBC produce an itemized estimate of its  future spending before any new spending would be authorized. The Tories on the committee  did, however, agree to a recommendation that would boost CBC's core operating funding from $33 for each Canadian to $40 over the next seven years. Normally a minority report on a Commons committee does not carry a lot of weight, but in this instance, because the Conservatives are at the head of a minority government, this minority report may indicate the thinking of the government itself.

On the key issue of governance, both the Conservatives and opposition Liberals refused to recommend fundamental changes to the current patronage-based appointments of the CBC's president and board of directors who are appointed by the federal government.

The committee did, however, agree unanimously that it sees "quality information that is free of commercial or political influence as essential to a strong democracy" and recommended expansion of CBC radio service and
boosts to CBC radio programming.

But the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said yesterday that despite the unanimity on many CBC issues, the governing Conservatives refusal to support specific funding to pay for other committee recommendations is setting the CBC up to fail.

"It calls for CBC to do more but denies CBC the required resources," said Friends spokesman Ian Morrison. "It is a road map that would be extremely damaging to the CBC, especially its English television network."

The CBC gets more than $1 billion in public money each year.

© Ottawa Citizen

Related Documents:

February 28, 2008 - News Release - Conservative agenda would damage CBC
FRIENDS says a Conservative minority report on future of the CBC would expand the gap between the national public broadcaster's mandate and the resources available to meet it.