CBC bonuses and raises cost taxpayers $156 million since 2015
OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers is criticizing the federal government for giving the CBC more money in the Fiscal Update after the CBC handed out $156 million in bonuses and raises since 2015.
“If the CBC has enough money lying around to hand out millions in bonuses and raises during a pandemic, then taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fork over more money,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF. “The CBC should stop handing out bonuses and raises instead of taking more money from taxpayers.”
The CBC gave its employees more than $156 million in bonuses and raises since 2015, according to documents the CTF obtained through access to information requests.
The bonuses work out to an average of more than $14,200 per year for employees that received a bonus. The raises work out to more than $1,800 per year for employees that received a raise.
The CBC handed out more than $51 million in bonuses and pay raises during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Only one CBC employee received a pay cut during the pandemic.
The recent Fiscal Update is giving “$42 million to help CBC/Radio-Canada recover from the pandemic,” according to the National Post.
In Budget 2021, the federal government gave the CBC an extra $21 million to “ensure its stability during the pandemic.”
The CBC received more than $1.2 billion from taxpayers in 2021. Since the beginning of 2015, the CBC’s annual funding from taxpayers has increased by more than $203 million, or 20 per cent, according to its annual reports.
“The CBC shouldn’t be taking more than $1 billion from taxpayers every year,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director of the CTF. “It’s tone deaf for the CBC to hand out pay raises and bonuses while many workers in the private sector took pay cuts and lost their jobs.”
CBC pay raises and bonuses
|
Year |
Raise |
Bonus |
Annual cost (raise + bonus) |
|
2015 |
$7,958,060 |
$8,254,599 |
$16,212,659 |
|
2016 |
$8,187,668 |
$8,097,155 |
$16,284,823 |
|
2017 |
$10,134,964 |
$8,903,882 |
$19,038,846 |
|
2018 |
$14,544,563 |
$13,337,262 |
$27,881,825 |
|
2019 |
$11,048,543 |
$14,257,933 |
$25,306,476 |
|
2020 |
$11,989,307 |
$15,013,838 |
$27,003,145 |
|
2021 |
$9,218,379 |
$15,398,101 |
$24,616,480 |
|
Total cost |
|
|
$156,344,253 |
The bonus data for the years 2020 and 2021 can be found here.
The pay raise data for the years 2020 and 2021 can be found here.
The bonus data for years 2015 through 2019 can be found here.
The pay raise data for years 2015 through 2019 can be found here.
The pay cut data for pandemic years can be found here.