OTTAWA, ON (March 20, 2025):
The CBC’s taxpayer-fuelled dominance is distorting Canada’s media landscape. It’s time for a change. With a federal election looming and public trust in media at an all-time low, a new Macdonald-Laurier Institute paper lays out a bold vision for the CBC’s future – one that moves away from government dependence and puts the power back in the hands of Canadians.
In Changing the Channel: A Bold New Vision for a Subscription-Based CBC, author and MLI Senior Fellow Peter Menzies argues that the current model is broken. The CBC receives $1.4 billion annually in taxpayer funding, employs one-third of Canadian journalists, and dominates the news industry while private outlets struggle. This public funding distorts the media landscape, creates unfair competition, and forces the government to subsidize private media as well – eroding trust in journalism and compromising editorial independence.
“The increasing dependence of public and private media on government largesse is eroding the public’s trust in media in general,” Menzies writes. “Our conclusion is that all forms of direct subsidy must end.” The paper proposes a three-part strategy to transform CBC into a truly independent news organization:
● Keep CBC North and Radio-Canada public: These services provide essential coverage for francophone Canada and the North and should remain publicly funded until market forces can sustain them.
● Defund English CBC and transition to subscriptions: Government funding should be phased out over 24 months. A subscriber-supported CBC would be accountable to its audience, not politicians.
● End all media subsidies: A free press should not rely on government handouts. Instead, tax credits should encourage individual Canadians to support the news sources they trust.
The paper highlights the financial viability of a subscription model, noting that if just 10 per cent of Canadian households subscribed at $30 per month, CBC would generate $540 million annually, allowing it to thrive without taxpayer dollars.
“This proposal presents a bold opportunity to free the CBC from government reliance and create a media model driven by the people it serves,” Menzies concludes.
To learn more, read the full paper here:
For further information, media are invited to contact:
Dagny Pawlak-Loerchner
Senior Communications Officer
613-482-8327 x113
dagny.pawlak-loerchner@macdonaldlaurier.ca
