The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. paid out $18.4 million in bonuses this year after hundreds of jobs at the public broadcaster were eliminated.
Documents obtained through access to information laws show CBC/Radio-Canada paid bonuses to 1,194 employees for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
More than $3.3 million of that sum was paid to 45 executives.
That means those executives got an average bonus of over $73,000, which is more than the median family income after taxes in 2022, according to Statistics Canada.
More than $10.4 million was paid out to 631 managers and over $4.6 million was paid to 518 other employees.
The Conservatives said the bonuses are “beyond insulting and frankly sickening,” adding they come at a time when many Canadians are starving and facing homelessness.
This year’s amount is an increase over the $14.9 million paid out to 1,143 employees in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
The board approved this year’s bonuses in June, but it had been refusing to disclose how much was paid out.
Members of Parliament have been asking for the figure since last December, when CBC announced it would be laying off employees to help balance its budget.
Members of Parliament at the House Heritage Committee grilled CBC/Radio-Canada president Catherine Tait about looming layoffs and executive bonuses. In December 2023, the Crown corporation announced it would cut approximately 600 jobs and leave 200 vacancies unfilled.
Ultimately, 141 employees were laid off and 205 vacant positions were eliminated at CBC/Radio-Canada.
CBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The public broadcaster has said the money is performance pay and counts toward some employees’ total compensation, as stipulated by contracts that promise payouts when certain company goals are met.
Government departments, Crown corporations and most private companies use performance pay, also called ‘at-risk pay,’ as a portion of compensation for non-union employees to help ensure delivery on specific targets, a spokesperson for CBC said in a statement Monday.
“While the term ‘bonuses’ has been used to describe performance pay, it is in fact a contractual obligation owing to eligible employees,” said spokesperson Leon Mar.
In May, CEO Catherine Tait said it brings her “great frustration” to hear MPs refer to the payouts as a “bonus.”
Still, the broadcaster’s board publicly acknowledged the negative optics of giving out bonuses during the same fiscal year that it made cuts, and has since launched a review of its compensation regime for future years.
Tait was called twice to the House of Commons heritage committee in the last year to answer for cuts at CBC/Radio-Canada, and was interrogated by MPs over whether she would accept a bonus for the fiscal year that ended March 31.
It remains unclear if Tait is among those who received a bonus.
It’s up to the Liberal government, not the board of directors, to approve any bonus for the CEO, unlike other CBC employees. Canadian Heritage did not immediately respond to questions about that on Monday.
“It is the height of smugness to see the CBC has awarded itself $18 million in bonuses with the $1.4 billion a year they receive from taxpayers to act as the mouthpiece for the Liberal party,” Conservative MP and opposition heritage critic Rachael Thomas said in a media statement on Monday.
Thomas said CBC is “not worth the cost” while repeating the Conservative promise to defund the public broadcaster, and pledging to “turn the CBC headquarters into beautiful homes for Canadian families.”
The CBC’s editorial independence from government is enshrined in law.
MPs on the heritage committee unanimously concluded in a report to the House of Commons earlier this year that, given the job cuts, it would be inappropriate for CBC to grant bonuses to executive members.
The public broadcaster has said its financial situation is looking better because of the recent layoffs, cuts to operational costs and an extra $42 million from this year’s federal budget.
Tait told the heritage committee in May that the estimated $125-million shortfall for 2024-25 had shrunk to $20 million.