Just How Much Do High Profile CBC Folks Make?

General Radio News and Comments, Satellite & Internet Radio and LPFM

Just How Much Do High Profile CBC Folks Make?

Postby jon » Wed May 14, 2014 12:24 pm

CBC report on salaries ‘looks like fiction,’ skeptical senators say
Jordan Press, Postmedia News
May 13, 2014 7:40 PM ET

OTTAWA — Canada’s public broadcaster faces a showdown with skeptical senators who believe the CBC whitewashed a submission on the spending and salaries of some of its most notable journalists.

The Senate’s transport and communications committee now wants to call CBC president Hubert Lacroix to testify again — he has been before the committee before — and is considering other measures to get the information it says it needs for its study of the challenges facing the broadcaster.

One option being floated behind closed doors is to subpoena the information from the corporation, a power Senate committees have but rarely use.

Documents provided to the committee last month, but only made public Tuesday, include 184 pages of salary ranges for staff at the CBC, including for chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge. According to the documents CBC submitted, Mr. Mansbridge’s maximum salary scale is about $80,500. The salary scale for high-profile radio host Jian Ghomeshi and TV host Amanda Lang was given as $60,844.32 to $77,390.42.

“Those of us who have had a quick look at it would really question … its accuracy. Some of this stuff looks like fiction,” said Senator Terry Mercer, a Senate Liberal.

“I don’t think we’re getting the full picture. I don’t think this is actually the answer to the question. I think there’s a whole bunch more being paid to certain people in the CBC that may be outside of their salary.”

Conservative Senator Don Plett agreed. “I believe that people are making bonuses that are larger than what their salaries are indicating,” he said.

“If they try to manipulate things enough … they can maybe come to those numbers, but I find them strange as well.”

Contacted Tuesday, Mr. Mansbridge declined to comment on his income from the publicly funded CBC, saying “it’s personal information.”

France Belisle, a CBC spokeswoman, said individual salaries are protected under the Privacy Act.

“This is not the first time a politician has wanted to know the precise amount CBC/Radio-Canada journalists earn. In the competitive environment in which we operate, that information is not public,” Ms. Belisle said.

The salaries of the country’s top TV anchors is a closely guarded industry secret. It’s estimated that Mr. Mansbridge, CTV’s Lisa Laflamme and Global’s Dawna Friesen command salaries of around $300,000.

In his recent book on suspended Senator Mike Duffy, journalist Dan Leger noted that by the end of Mr. Duffy’s career as a broadcaster at CTV, he was earning $250,000 a year plus an allowance for clothing and a vehicle. (CBC’s documents to the committee didn’t outline any allowances for any of the employees it listed.)

The Senate committee had asked to speak to Mr. Mansbridge. In late March, the CBC declined the invitation, saying in a letter from Mr. Lacroix that it wouldn’t be appropriate for one of the broadcaster’s journalists whose job includes reporting on senators’ activities to be questioned by those same senators.

“Some senators have already been using the current study to pursue Mr. Mansbridge’s presentation of Senate expense stories; the salary he earns from the corporation; and the terms of his public speeches,” Mr. Lacroix wrote in the March 28, 2014 letter posted to the CBC’s website.

“Journalists, any journalists, must be allowed to do their job, free of political interference.”

Mr. Lacroix’s letter said the CBC had “the utmost respect for the work of Parliament” and was working with the committee on its review of the challenges facing the CBC, including arranging site visits for committee members.

“We would urge senators to focus on understanding these challenges, as reflected in the terms of reference authorized by the Senate of Canada,” Mr. Lacroix wrote. “CBC/Radio-Canada stands ready, as always, to assist the committee in this work.”

Earlier this year, the committee began its study of the future of the CBC given the loss of revenue the corporation faces after losing broadcast rights to National Hockey League games, which will be broadcast by Rogers starting next season. The broadcaster has also seen a reduction of $115-million in federal funding over the past three years.

The CBC announced last month it was cutting 657 jobs after its federal funding for 2014-15 dropped to $913-million from $1.1-billion in 2012-13. In 2012, the broadcaster cut almost the same number of positions in response to reduced federal funding.

Mr. Lacroix made a sometimes testy appearance before the Senate committee in late February when he faced a grilling about $30,000 of his expense claims. Among the leading questioners in February was Senator Plett, a Conservative from Manitoba who has repeatedly defended his own travel spending.

The committee has time to decide its next step: the CBC study is on hold until the fall as studies of the government’s budget implementation bill and another on digital privacy legislation will take precedence on the committee’s agenda up to the summer break next month.


Sidebar to the story:

CBC by the numbers:

$1.1B: Federal funding in 2012-13 fiscal year

$913M: Federal funding in 2014-15 fiscal year

$63,797.54 to $80,485.22: Salary scale for senior host Peter Mansbridge and retiring senior host Linden MacIntyre

$60,844.32 to $77,390.42: Salary scale for radio host Jian Ghomeshi and host Amanda Lang

$8.5M: Total bonuses paid to managers and executives in 2012-13 fiscal year

50%: Portion of their base salary executive vice-presidents can receive in bonuses annually

10%: Portion of base salary CBC managers are eligible to receive annually

Source: CBC
User avatar
jon
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 9256
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 10:15 am
Location: Edmonton

Return to General Radio News

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 147 guests